The markets and ESI will closed on Monday January 17th in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.
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Month: January 2022
Reminder: Customer Agreement Amendment Effective January 31st
ESI amended its Customer Agreement and Disclosure (“Agreement”) form to comply with elements of Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 2020-02, which will go into effect on January 31, 2022. ESI will mail all existing customers notification of the amended agreement no later than January 31st.
All new business paperwork signed after January 14, 2022 must include the version of the Agreement dated “1221”. After January 14th, ESI will not process paperwork that includes any previous version of the Agreement. Work items created in Docupace StartingPoint before 12/22/2021, but signed after 01/14/2022 will be required to submit the latest version of the form.
Questions? Please reach out to Tom Longfellow 800-344-7437 or tlongfellow@nationallife.com.
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In Case You Missed It: Measuring and Monitoring Performance Resources
What’s your process?
catalog #104714
This flyer focuses on the performance monitoring process and resources to help you develop your monitoring process.
Monitoring Performance
catalog #106143
Providing screenshots for reference, this flyer shows you the process of accessing and customizing performance reports in Illuminations.
Measures of Performance
catalog #106144
There are several means of calculating performance, each from a particular perspective, so it’s important to understand the method of calculation used and what it reflects. For example, the ESI Illuminations platform allows you to easily track your accounts’ performance. But, in doing so, it’s important to know the ESI Illuminations platform reports performance using time-weighted rate of return as a measure of performance. This flyer helps you better understand measures of performance.
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Sign Up Today! ESI Leadership Call and Pacific Life Product Launch!
Introduction to Pacific Life
As announced earlier, Pacific Life has joined ESI’s Strategic Partner Program, making their variable annuities now eligible for qualified and non-qualified registrations. Pacific Life has strong brand recognition, particularly in the high net worth marketplace and their suite of variable annuities and competitive riders complements ESI’s variable annuity platform. To learn more about Pacific Life and their products, join us ESI and Pacific Life for an introductory webinar on January 11th.
When: Tuesday, January 11th at 2:00pm ET
Where: Click Here to Register!
ESI Q1 2022 Leadership Field Update & Kickoff
Please join ESI’s Leadership Team for our Quarterly Field Update series. In this session, we’ll be reviewing the activities and results of Q4 and reflecting on 2021 as a whole. We’ll also be sharing some insight into what you can expect from ESI in the new year.
When: Thursday, January 27th at 1:00pm ET
Where: Click Here to Register!
As always, we want to take this opportunity to hear from you and answer any questions you may have for ESI’s Leadership Team. Please help us plan the meeting by submitting your questions to ESIBusinessDevelopment@nationallife.com. The deadline for submitting questions is Monday, January 24th.
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Introducing the ESI Partner Experience Group!
In recognition of our recent sales growth, the new products and programs launched, the new technologies implemented and the recruiting results that we have started to realize, we believe it is time for us to revisit our organizational structure in an effort to continue to provide the kind of service and support that our partners need. Currently everyone at ESI provides the utmost in service, especially with training and education and do so in addition to the responsibilities for processing new business, taking trades, and completing service requests.
Beginning January 2022, ESI will establish a team focused on helping all our ESI partners improve their capability, capacity and knowledge in an easy, efficient manner that is accessible. The Partner Experience Group. This group will have an outside-in mindset for creating better experiences for everyone doing business with ESI.
The Partner Experience Group will focus in 4 key areas:
- Joining ESI – seamlessly transitioning new representatives and their clients to ESI
- Doing Business with ESI – helping representatives leverage our products, services, tools, and technology for doing business
- Management and Growth – training and education on reporting, as well as new product offerings or regulatory requirements for all ESI representatives, whether they are new to ESI or if they have been with the firm for years and would like additional support.
- Retention – getting feedback from our field partners, and continuously improving the experience of working with ESI
Under the leadership of Sandy Colvin, the group will be Tamara Kushwaha, Danijela Poturcaj and Whitney Commo. Everyone in this group has the knowledge and skill set for delivering training and education, in addition to a passion for building relationships with our partners. Each will be transitioning over to the Partner Experience Group in January but may continue to dedicate some of their time to their current roles if needed as back up support. Sandy will report to Greg Teese, SVP and Chief Operating Officer.
Sandy and the group are already developing new processes for delivering service, our training and education materials as well as making ESI specific training materials available on the National Life Agent Portal. The ESI Partner Experience Group will focus in the areas where we can have a positive impact which in turn will create better experiences for us all.
You can expect to hear more from our ESI Partner Experience Group throughout the year as we ramp up our efforts to continue to grow. Please feel free to reach out to Sandy or any member of the team if you have questions. We hope you are as excited as we are about the impact The ESI Partner Experience Group can have on our future success.
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Maple Capital: Fixed Income Commentary – December 2021
Our format this month takes a slightly different approach. First, we provide some brief color on what transpired in the bond market last month. Next, we offer some comments on economic reports and what they portend for the future. Lastly, we present some brief commentary on each of the broad sectors of the investment grade bond market with the goal of providing you a comprehensive overview of the market as we see it from our seats.
Bond Market Review
- Yields on short maturities (under 5 years) moved 7-10 basis points higher, while yields on longer maturities fell by 8-14 basis points. The resulting total return for the broad market as represented by the Bloomberg U.S. Intermediate Aggregate Bond Index was 0.04%
- Corporate bonds lagged a bit during the month. Yield spreads rose in response to the yield curve flattening as well as other technical factors.
- MBS performance did not keep pace with Treasuries and valuations remain in transition as the Fed begins to taper its monthly purchases.
- Municipal bonds were the star performers in November after three months of negative returns. Investor demand was strong since the threat of higher tax rates is real, while supply remains rather tepid.
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Annual IRA Custody Fee Reporting and Deadline
On January 1, 2022, a Wealthscape report (Retirement Account Annual Fees with Core Cash Balance) was delivered to users via the automated alerts system. The report contained 2022 data in error and can be disregarded. The 2021 data was delivered via automated report on January 5, 2022 (Retirement Account Annual Fees Prior Year).
Please note, the last day to place a trade in a client account to cover the fee will be Friday, January 7th. The following week, ESI Operations will begin trading client accounts to cover any uncollected fees. Debit balances of less than $25.00 will be written-off against rep compensation. Any debit balances greater than $25.00 will be covered via trade and the $25.00 “Rep-assisted fee” will be assessed for that service. Client trade confirmations will be marked “To Cover Debit”.
With any questions, please contact our service desk at 1-800-344-7437, option 1 and option 2.
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