Want to Learn More about Riskalyze? Join us on January 31^st!

January 17, 2023

Riskalyze is now available!

Join us for a live webinar introduction to Riskalyze on January 31, 2023 at 4:00pm EST.
Click here to register!

Riskalyze helps you illustrate your expertise through the lens of risk. Approved for all ESI Investment Advisor Reps, Riskalyze allows you to quantify your clients’ risk tolerance in a simple to understand score and show them if it matches how they are actually invested and how you could align them to that risk score.
Click here to learn how it works.
For details regarding how Riskalyze can be used as well as branding and disclosure requirements, click here to view the Field Notice.

How can Riskalyze help me build my business?

Riskalyze can help with a range of opportunities, including:

Monitoring Client Psychology
Wouldn’t it be great if you could get an early warning signal when a client relationship needs care?
Generating & Converting Prospects
Embed a prospect generation questionnaire on your website and incite curiosity with the powerful phrase, “What’s Your Risk Number?”
Uncovering Held-Away Assets
Leverage Riskalyze to get a holistic view into a client’s assets and empower them to invest those assets fearlessly.
Hosting Virtual Client Meetings
Whether your clients are across the room or across the country, you can effortlessly launch a virtual meeting with just two clicks.
Reframing Client Expectations
You know better than anybody that clients want to know what’s “normal” for their portfolio. You have the answers, and we can help you illustrate them.
Kick Starting Financial Planning
Not every client wants a comprehensive financial plan right off the bat. That’s where Riskalyze comes in.
Quantifying Risk Tolerance
The old way of assessing risk simply doesn’t cut it anymore. See how the world’s #1 risk tolerance questionnaire has redefined quantification of risk.
Managing Retirement Plans
Retirement Plans is your one-stop solution to empower every plan participant to be invested consistently with their risk tolerance and do so at scale.
Generating Compelling Reports
What if you could create a personalized, engaging client report that your clients will actually want to read and understand?
Discussing A Concentrated Holding
Walk your clients through the decision-making process about a concentrated or sentimental stock position and encourage them to invest objectively.
Discovering Great Investments
Meet Discovery — the intelligent way to search the universe of securities and find the perfect fit for your clients and their portfolios.

Does Riskalyze integrate with any of our existing technology platform?
Yes, Riskalyze will integrate with Redtail, SmartOffice, MoneyGuide Pro, eMoney and NFS.

Which plans are available, and what is the cost?
Two plans are approved and available at a discounted price:
Riskalyze Select $225/month
Riskalyze Elite $297.50/month

How do I learn more?
Join us for a live webinar introduction to Riskalyze on January 31, 2023 at 4:00pm EST.
Click here to register!

How do I subscribe?
You can sign up with Riskalyze directly by calling 866-477-2940 or send an email to hello@riskalyze.com. You can also schedule a demo of Riskalyze by going to https://calendly.com/rsk-sdrs/personalized-demo/.

Help/Questions
If you have any questions about this notice, please contact Richard Whalen at 800-344-7437.

Your personalization of Riskalyze must receive approval from the Advertising Guidance Team prior to first use. Inclusion of a security in the Riskalyze tool does not guarantee that it has been approved for use by ESI.

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Fixed Income Commentary from Maple Capital Now Available

January 17, 2023

December brought the last rate hike by the Fed for the year, but almost certainly not the last for this cycle. This latest move of 50 bp (0.50%) brings the Fed’s official policy rate — the federal funds rate — to 4.25%-4.50%. These policy changes continue to be well-telegraphed, but the Bank of Japan (BoJ) still believes there is value in surprising markets and did just that by increasing the target band for its 0.0% 10-year JGB policy (their yield curve control policy) from -25/+25 to -50/+50bp. Most observers expected such a move to come in April when the head of the BoJ, Haruhiko Kuroda, will retire.

This change in policy by the world’s last major central bank hold-out from dovish to hawkish helped push Treasury yields higher for the month. Key benchmarks were mixed in December: the Bloomberg U.S. Intermediate Aggregate Index return was -0.26% while the Bloomberg Municipal Index return was 0.29% as heavy buying and low supply led to slightly positive performance. Read more…

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Shout Out to Our December Leaders!

January 17, 2023

From Annuity sales to Advisory sales to Recruiting, ESI’s Leaders deserve a SHOUT OUT! Click here for our individual and agency leaders for the month of December – and a welcome to our new Reps:

Kyle Jablonski – Northern New England

Brian Jun – Baltimore

Matthew McCormick – Chicago

Kevin Pent – New Jersey

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Straight from the Field – Ideas to Generate More Referrals

January 10, 2023

A warm referral is the best introduction to a potential new client. Below are referral generating ideas submitted by your peers!

Join a Networking group, such as BNI or a local business owner group
Estate Planning Clients – When you have a client that has developed a trust, it requires signatures with a notary, and it also requires in some cases a witness. Ask your clients to have a friend or a neighbor come and sign documents as a witness and “celebrate their estate plan development”. In most cases this will generate additional discussions and other estate prospects.
Client Appreciation Night – Treat your “A” clients to an open house evening that includes a speaker (no more than 20 minutes) on a timely topic and ask them to bring a friend who they think might benefit from your services.
CPA Referrals –Develop a referral relationship with a couple of CPAs. The referrals won’t happen overnight, but if you maintain a business partnership, it will be a great long-term investment of your time. And you can use the National Life CPA Advantage Program to help you get started.
CPA Symposium – Invite a CPA to the National Life CPA Symposium to introduce them to what you can do for their clients.
Attorney Referrals – Sharing referrals with an attorney is a great way to gain new introductions. Estate attorneys in particular are a good fit for our business.
In a volatile market, communicate more often existing clients – I end the conversation by making the following suggestion: “If you have friends and relatives that are anxious about their portfolios, are not getting the communication they need, and are looking for someone to speak with, please give them my number and let them know that I’d be happy to answer their questions as best I can with no strings attached. These are tough times for investors, and if I can help them get through this, I’m happy to.” The response has been positive, and I am getting calls from clients’ friends – and a handful have hired me!

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Alternative Mutual Fund Lists – New Updates

January 10, 2023

The Q4 2022 alternative mutual fund lists have been updated. Please see below for additional information.

Approved and Prohibited Alternative Mutual Funds
The purchase of Alternative Mutual Funds that include inverse and leveraged strategies is not permitted. To assist with what funds may be purchased, there is an Alternative Mutual Fund Available List and a Watch List which is updated quarterly and may be found on the Agent Portal under Products – Investments – Mutual Funds.

The Approved List is a list of approved alternative mutual funds that may be purchased (once training has been completed).
The Watch List is a the list of alternative mutual funds that the Firm is watching to determine if they may become prohibited in the future due to failing consecutive screens, (two consecutive quarters). If you recommend purchases on the list, please be aware that they may no longer be approved to purchase in the future.
The Restricted List is the list of prohibited alternative mutual funds.
- BROKERAGE: If an attempt to purchase is ma de in a brokerage account, the purchase will be blocked.
- DIRECT: If purchased in a direct, mutual fund, you will be contacted by Compliance after to work with your client to have any new investments directed to a non-alternative mutual fund or to one of the approved alternative mutual funds.
- REMOVED FROM APPROVED LIST:If a fund is removed from the Available list (brokerage or direct), Compliance will contact you to let you know that the fund is no longer available for purchase and to work with your client to have any new investments directed to a non-alternative mutual fund or to one of the approved alternative mutual funds.

Training
Prior to purchasing approved alternative mutual funds, you must first complete required training in FIRE Solutions. The training may be accessed through FIRE Solutions: https://blaze.firesolutions.com/portal/login. The cost is $12.50. Once you have completed the course, please email your completion certificate to ESITrading@NationalLife.com and this training will be added to your profile.

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Updates to White Glove

January 10, 2023

White Glove provides comprehensive seminar services to agents and Registered Representatives (RRs) and Investment Adviser Representatives (IARs) of Equity Services, Inc. (ESI).

How it Works
White Glove’s seminar services include the following:

Pre-Event services including market research to identify the target market in your area and logistical support including promotion, confirmation calls, emails, and texts to registrants.
In-Event services offer live venue logistics and concierge support for webinars.
Post-Event services offer appointment setting follow up.

Benefits to You

All promotion and registration is handled by White Glove.
Appointment setting.
Post-event support.
You only pay for attendees that actually attend your seminar or webinar.
White Glove is approved to email your workshop confirmation and follow up reminder notifications to registrants. If White Glove identifies any technical issues, you may still have to send out the emails yourself; however, White Glove remains in constant communication with you. This process includes granting White Glove access to your Office365 authentication to send emails on your behalf. Please note, granting authorization only allows White Glove to send emails related to your event. They do not have access to your emails to make changes or have access to any other Office applications.

The process to allow White Glove to do all the work for you is simple, and you will only have to go through it once (not per event).

Benefits to Your Prospect

Prospects participate in seminars/webinars based on their needs.
White Glove makes registering easy and provides a communication contact.

Important Requirements

White Glove offers services beyond just seminars. At this time, only the seminar services are approved.
If you choose a seminar topic that doesn’t reference securities or financial planning, this service can also be used by agents who aren’t registered with ESI. The same process would apply.

Getting Started

Contact White Glove at https://whiteglove.com/ and they will work directly with you. Below are the materials that should be submitted to the Advertising Guidance Team (AGT) at AdReview@Nationallife.com along with the Compliance Review Request form. Each Agent/RR/IAR should work with White Glove to customize these materials with the name and date of the seminar, along with necessary disclosures, which the AGT will let you know during the review process. All other materials used by White Glove are administrative communications and have already been reviewed by the AGT, and do not need to be resubmitted.

Material Submission Requirement for Agents (non-ESI) only required if National Life Group, it’s companies or products are mentioned in the advertising, communications or presentation

Seminar PowerPoint and notes/script.
White Glove’s seminar invitation/sign-up landing page reflecting the name of the seminar and dates, plus necessary disclosures, if mentioning National Life.
White Glove’s static Facebook ad that will be used to promote the seminar. (These are not templates. Content varies from seminar to seminar, e.g., pictures/content).
White Glove’s EventBrite and Facebook event page (These are not templates. Content varies from seminar to seminar).
Recording of seminars is allowed of the financial representative only (CANNOT RECORD AUDIENCE DUE TO STATES’ RECORDING LAWS). Submit the recording in mp3/mp4 format for review/approval to the AGT prior to use for review. Recording may only be used for posts to Compliance-approved websites and/or social media sites. White Glove’s rebroadcasting feature may not be used.

Material Submission Requirement for Registered Representatives and/or Investment Adviser Representatives
(ESI’s video-conferencing requirements should be followed)

Same as Agent requirements above (note exception below) PLUS:

White Glove’s seminar invitation should include the RR’s/IAR’s disclosures. (Same disclosures that appear on business card, FINRA/SIPC hyperlinks, AND licensing disclosure for virtual seminars).
For virtual seminars, a copy of the settings page reflecting the chat feature has been disabled.

This is current as of January 2023. White Glove’s offerings are subject to change.

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Notice from Fidelity: Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Changes Effective in 2023

January 10, 2023

From Fidelity:

This week, SECURE Act 2.0 is expected to be signed into law as part of a larger government spending package. SECURE Act 2.0 includes many provisions designed to help Americans save for retirement. Most provisions included in SECURE 2.0 go into effect in 2024 or later. SECURE Act 2.0, however, did include changes to RMD rules that become effective on January 1, 2023. Most immediately impactful is the required beginning age for RMDs being increased from age 72 to 73.

Fidelity will update RMD systems to exclude IRA and Retirement Plan account owners turning age 72 in 2023 from RMD calculations and services. Fidelity will also ensure these account owners do not receive RMD notification as part of the annual Form 5498 tax process. Fidelity is currently conducting analysis of the SECURE Act 2.0 provisions and determining plans to address additional areas of impacts for the RMD age change, including forms, agreements, marketing materials, P&Ps, Online Reference, and reporting.

Fidelity will not make any updates to RMD Systematic Withdrawal Plans already established for any clients turning age 72 in 2023.

Note from ESI: Registered Reps should review these distribution plans and confirm that clients still want to receive distributions in 2023. If any changes need to be made to existing periodic withdrawal plans, please contact ESI Operations at 800-344-7437.

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Let’s Take Your Business to the Next Level!

January 3, 2023

In 2023 ESI will hold our first ESI National Sales Conference, a live event that will immerse attendees in training, education, sales ideas and networking sessions. After attending you will have ideas that will help you efficiently and effectively grow your business!

Dates and Location
While we are still firming up final details and contracts, the 2023 event will most likely be towards the end of October in the Washington DC area. The conference timeline is currently structured as follows:
Day 1 – intro and welcome
Day 2 – full day
Day 3 – half day

Costs and Attendees
There are no qualifications to attend this event, but attendees will be responsible for their own travel and hotel costs. The event will be open to all Reps, Office Managers, and Administrative Staff, and for the first year, we’ll be capping the number of attendees at 100.

Strategic Partners, Technology Partners and Strategists will be offered the opportunity to participate – so far, Partners that we have spoken with are providing positive feedback to the opportunity and are excited to meet our Reps.

Content and Format
While we are still firming up the structure and agenda, at this time we’re planning on offering 3 consecutive “tracks”:

Operations and Technology Track
Sales and Marketing Track
Practice Management Track

Best Practice Roundtables will also be integrated into the content.
For an example of the type of content we anticipate offering, scroll down, but ultimately, we’ll create an agenda based on what YOU want. Note that attendees do not have to adhere to just one track.

Before we can move on with our planning, though, we need to hear from you! Please take a few minutes to C OMPLETE THIS SURVEY and help us create a National Sales Conference that helps you build your business. Thank you!

Agenda Example – Not Final

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Reminder! Updates to the ESI Commission Grid

January 3, 2023

In 2019, ESI restructured our commission grid, creating a total of eight target production bands. This update helped provide achievable goals for our Registered Representatives, maintain best in class payouts, and ensure the revenue necessary to sustain the company’s, product, technology and service offerings.

In alignment with these goals, the Firm will be raising the bar on target production, beginning January 1, 2023.

Please consult with your Branch Office Supervisor for your current payouts associated with each tier or view your payouts on the NL Agent Portal. The updated tiers are listed below as well as a screenshot of the the ESI Commission Portal (ACE) location. There are no changes to the EFA Managed Money grids.

2021 Versus 2023 Base Grid Comparison

ESI Commission Portal (ACE) on the NL Agent Portal

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Year-End Reminders

January 3, 2023

Looking for NL application processing deadlines? Click here.

For important reporting updates for RMDs and annual retirement account fees, click here.

ESI BROKERAGE OPERATIONS – IMPORTANT DATES

Jan. 5-31, 2023
Securities Liquidations to cover Unpaid Fee Postings – ESI home office will begin the process of liquidating securities to cover unpaid fee postings related to the NFS IRA Custody Fee and non-qualified “Inactivity Fee”. Accounts with eligible securities will have trades placed to cover “debit” balances related to fee postings, as well as applicable transaction charges. Customer confirmations will be marked “To Cover Debit”. Representative’s will be charged the $25.00 service fee if ESI home office has to place trades.

Please contact ESI Operations at (800) 344-7437 with questions.

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