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With life insurance sales flat and interest rates low, carriers are doing anything they can to find new pockets of growth. Analysts and market experts say that carriers that are serious about growth need to reach deeper into the middle market instead of chasing finer and finer slivers of the high-net-worth segment.
Carriers that offer products beyond basic term and whole life — products like accident, supplemental health, auto and home, disability, dental, vision, identity theft coverage, and even prepaid legal services — are more likely to record higher sales.
One of the reasons the middle market has remained fallow is that commission-based agents gravitate toward wealthier, more profitable clients who require complex solutions in the areas of retirement and estate planning.
But for young families with annual household incomes around $50,000, the direct channel makes more sense through which to sell products anchored in a simple design, issued with limited underwriting and geared toward protection.
Marketing efforts to the middle market include direct mail, direct response TV, digital advertising, call centers, retail stores and sponsors, MetLife said.
MetLife’s direct-to-consumer sales in the Americas are forecast to reach $130 million in 2014, even if the segment expects an after-tax loss of $40 million this year due to building the technology necessary for a direct-sales infrastructure and new product launches, Wheeler said.
The Americas segment is expected to turn in a growth rate “comfortably in the mid-single digit” growth range, Wheeler said.
MetLife said its other major initiative to reach the middle market lies with ramping up sales of group voluntary benefits, which are paid for 100 percent by the employee.
Employees like the coverage because it supplements their basic employer-sponsored medical coverage, a cost shared between employee and employer. Employers like offering voluntary benefits because they don’t have to pay for it and it helps as an employee-retention tool.
The “ongoing shift from employer-paid to employee-paid voluntary benefits,” means the voluntary benefits market is particularly fertile market through which to reach middle market consumers, said Todd Katz, MetLife’s executive vice president of group, voluntary benefits.
MetLife estimates the size of the voluntary benefits market at nearly $120 billion.
MetLife has a robust presence with a 15 percent market share in the voluntary life, dental and disability market, which is a $100 billion market opportunity. However, the carrier lags – with only 1.4 percent market share – in offering other benefits available on a voluntary basis, which the company said is a $14.7 billion opportunity.
Last year, 57 percent of group voluntary workplace benefits sales came from nonmedical health benefits, 25 percent from life products and 18 percent from property-casualty, the company said.
The bulk of fees and premiums, however, come from large companies with over 5,000 employees.
Nonmedical health benefits include dental, disability, long-term care, accidental death and disability, critical illness, cancer, personal accident, and hospital indemnity.
Private health care exchanges will offer “incremental growth” opportunities for voluntary benefits in the coming years. MetLife has signed with 11 private exchanges and expects to add another five this year, Katz said.
“The thinking here is as employers focus on their medical plans, either on an exchange or off an exchange, they are going to want to surround that opportunity with a wide array of voluntary products to go with that medical program,” he added.
Its home prices are among Washington’s highest. Its restaurants are the buzziest. Its shops are the trendiest. Saying 14th Street is gentrifying is incorrect. The transformation is done. Now it’s time for the next phase: Georgetownification, wherein it transitions from expensive-but-still-cool to just plain expensive.
There’s more change ahead as chain retailers re-orient their thinking about where to open brick-and-mortar outposts. Shopping-mall locations are out. “Urban, unique environments are that much more in demand,” says DC retail consultant Dave Dochter. Fourteenth Street fits that bill better than Georgetown because it’s close to downtown, on Metro, and surrounded by distinct, dense residential areas. So if you got a lump in your throat when the La-Z-Boy showroom moved in, prepare yourself: More chains are on the way.
A major expansion will be un-veiled in September. Consisting of three airy pavilions standing along the Potomac, it’s designed to make the arts institution more welcoming and versatile—a place to actually hang out rather than just show up for a performance.
Following the national success of local musicians like Goldlink and Kali Uchis, more DMV artists are starting to break out. Largo rapper Q Da Fool has signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label, DC native Ari Lennox recently released two new songs via J. Cole’s Dreamville, and Goldlink collaborator Ciscero will follow up November’s “Who I Am” with a February EP, Devil’s Pie.
The National Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Fossils will finally reopen after a major five-year overhaul. The toothy new star: a 66-million-year-old T. rex that will be displayed with an about-to-be-lunch triceratops in its mouth.
CBD (or cannabidiol), an ingredient in marijuana, has been touted as a cure-all for everything from depression to migraines, without any sort of head trip. It’s also getting a lot more mainstream. In Adams Morgan, there’s Grass & Co., an entire store devoted to the stuff. A hit off a vape pen or a few drops of CBD oil in a latte is quickly becoming a stress-easing, anxiety-reducing part of many type-A morning routines. When it comes to actual weed, scoring it is simpler than ever. DC’s legalization of marijuana led to a crop of delivery services that have made it easier to get edibles such as Chex Mix glazed in cannabis-infused butter. But with the change of power in Congress, the city might actually try to allow that in retail stores, too.
You’re not imagining it—coworking companies really are taking over. There are now 56 of them operating in 199 locations across the Washington area, according to the commercial real-estate firm JLL. WeWork, the biggest, is on pace to become the largest private office tenant in the District, says Cushman & Wakefield. But while the coworking model isn’t going anywhere, it’s a good bet the market will soon come down to earth as the weaker players die off or get acquired and the generous lease terms currently enjoyed by some coworking providers begin to expire.
Since the Supreme Court overturned a ban on sports betting outside Nevada, states have started allowing casinos and other venues to open sports books for betting on horses, basketball, and anything else you can lay odds on.
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia have already done it, and it looks like DC is about to: Pending legislation would allow sports-betting parlors to open in the city. Similar changes are in the offing in Virginia, otherwise one of the most anti-gambling states in the US.
But any state can legalize something. Washington, on the other hand, has a sports leader who’s positioned to become a champion of the industry. On Twitter, Ted Leonsis has lamented that the UK has more betting parlors than Domino’s Pizza locations. He’s argued that legalized wagering is the “only thing” that can save the NFL. One day, Leonsis has said, he’d like to incorporate betting parlors into sports arenas.
Ironically, there’s one local place where you may have to wait a while before wagering on a team: MGM National Harbor. Maryland requires that changes to gambling rules be approved by voters.
The photo studio/workshop/event space will help cement Hyattsville’s creative-class rep.
Himitsu chef Kevin Tien’s second venture will be on Capitol Hill.
Pity the multipurpose gym. In the age of SoulCycle and Orangetheory, it seems like every with-it fitness devotee needs to have a favored name-brand workout—and a pricey hyper-niche studio to do it in. But there are signs that we’ve reached peak boutique. For a glimpse at the new new gym, visit the St. James, a 450,000-square-foot Springfield sports megaplex that debuted in September. There’s a three-story health club, a climbing wall, an Olympic pool, and two NHL-size hockey rinks, among other things, under one roof. A month’s membership costs slightly more than a four-pack of classes at Solidcore.
Gentrification and its discontents have come to dominate local politics in recent years. The animating question: how to correct for the disparities that have surfaced as the District has become younger, whiter, and richer. While some of the specifics have involved major legislation such as DC’s generous family-leave measure, others have focused on how to regulate and tax techy things like Airbnb or electric scooters. The debate you’ll be hearing a lot about in the near future will be over cashless retail.
That’s the practice of banning cash and forcing customers to pay only with a credit or debit card. Sweetgreen is already doing it, as are the barbecue restaurant Hill Country and a beer store near Union Market. Streamlining forms of payment, the argument goes, can lessen customer wait times, cut expenses such as armored cars, and prevent theft. But it’s not hard to see the downside: thousands of potential patrons shut out.
The organization Bank on DC estimates that 36 percent of District households either have no bank accounts or are “under-banked,” meaning they have money in a bank but traditionally use check-cashing and other alternative financial services. Seeking to protect those constituents, six DC Council members have cosponsored a bill that would make it illegal to go cash-free or to set pricing according to the form of payment. If the full council takes up the legislation, here’s what you can bank on: another knock-down, drag-out scrum with local businesses.
Politics—especially the furious kind—dominated Washington’s reading list in 2018. That won’t change in 2019, but look for new permutations of the genre.
In 2018, Michael Wolff and Bob Woodward made headlines with scoopy tomes about POTUS. Now look for book-length reporting on the folks around him, with forthcoming titles on Trump’s cabinet and the Kushner family’s finances. Unhappily for the administration, they aren’t likely to be any kinder than the books about Trump himself.
The 2020 Democratic field will likely be enormous, meaning the 2019 library of candidate memoirs should be pretty big, too. First up: California senator Kamala Harris, whose The Truths We Hold is out this month.
The 44th President’s book will get even more attention than the average Oval Office memoir. It’s not that it isn’t his literary bent. It’s that, un-like his predecessors, he’s still in the arena, battling a successor out to undo his legacy. Expect reviewers to parse Obama’s comments on the past two years as closely as whatever he says about the previous eight.
With little meaningful Republican presence in local government, liberals versus lefties is the great divide in the District and the burbs alike. In 2018, they fought to a draw: Marc Elrich trounced a centrist to become Montgomery County executive, and DC Council member Elissa Silverman defeated a pro-business rival who opposed her family-leave measure. But DC pols also undid a union-backed initiative hiking restaurant salaries, and Ben Jealous was blown away in Maryland’s gubernatorial race—just as his primary rivals had warned. Look for the Civil War to get even more acrimonious this year.
In an age when the path from elected office to K Street employment seems more robust than ever, it sometimes seems as if boldface names never actually leave town. This year, though, some very different public figures will be deciding whether or not to head elsewhere.
Sasha is set to graduate from Sidwell this spring, removing the family’s stated reason for sticking around post–White House. Chicago, New York, and California might seem more fun for an ex-POTUS.
They famously hated DC during their first year. Reports of their displeasure have slowed—and internal White House foes have left—but midterms mark a natural time to move back to New York.
Even after an off-year, he could demand a payday bigger than the Nats want to pay. Meaning the supposed savior of Washington baseball would leave town without a championship.
One of the notable retail developments over the last few years has been providing experiences you can’t point-and-click for—particularly food. Bethesda’s former Barnes & Noble is now a megaversion of the chain boutique Anthropologie, including Terrain Cafe, a full-service restaurant. At the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street, one of Georgetown’s most visible restaurant spaces is set to become Capital One Cafe, where you can not only set up a checking account but also hang out at communal tables over coffee and snacks.
Now restaurants are starting to embrace the same idea, albeit from the opposite direction. At Adams Morgan’s Line hotel, the restaurant/bar Brothers and Sisters is spread across a bustling lobby that’s home to all sorts of other things—meaning you don’t just dine but also mingle with creative types eating pastries over laptops by day and slurping duck consommé by night. The newer Moxy and Eaton hotels offer a similar vibe, cultivating a community rather than a mere customer base.
As restaurants put vegetables center stage, they’ll charge ever higher, entrée-like prices.
Cava Grill got a major cash infusion last year, but fast-casual DC upstart Little Sesame—which serves bowls of the chickpea dip with myriad toppings—is the one to watch.
The Italian chef recently opened one of the Wharf’s highest-profile projects, the sprawling market/cafe/trattoria called Officina. Up next: a Greek dining room and another branch of his Officina cafe, both in downtown DC.
Faster than scooters, less sweaty than regular bikes.
These stores and brands promise stricter ingredient standards.
Womenswear designed in her Manassas house/showroom.
There’s a lot that’s oversaturated about the Hawaiian-style raw-fish bowls. The fast-casual market, for one. And the divisive—not to mention expensive—raw fish, which tends to be doused in gloppy, bad-for-you sauces.
Once upon a time, a party invitation from the owner of the Washington Post was a sign you’d arrived. That may be true again soon. When the ballroom and all 25 bathrooms (that’s no typo!) of their $23-million, built-to-entertain Kalorama mansion are completed, it shouldn’t be long before Jeff Bezos throws his first big fete—and mint a new local status symbol in the process. Katharine Graham’s successor may not be a full-time Washingtonian, but who isn’t going to want to be spotted at the home of the world’s richest man?
Despite some forward motion under general manager Paul Wiedefeld, our transit system had another no-good, very bad year in 2018. Daily ridership is down by 124,000 since 2009, a troubling trend, especially considering the biggest group of deserters: (scooter- and Uber-loving) millennials. So what’s WMATA to do? Import some corporate-sponsored, Insta-worthy, arty installations, maybe? Or open stations to juice bars, flash yoga sessions, and pop-up shops? Sure, it might sound ridiculous, but Wiedefeld said in October that he believes millennials’ preference for experiential consumption extends to their commute. Let’s just hope Metro doesn’t lose sight of the experience every commuter covets: a train that comes on time.
Four of the first five US Presidents represented Virginia. But there’s been just one since—and only because John Tyler was Veep when the POTUS died. Could that change? Three Old Dominion pols will be in this year’s pre-election conversation.
In 2016, he was part of a ticket that got 3 million votes more than Donald Trump. That alone lands the Virginia senator among the mentioned.
Virginia’s other senator made headlines as the top Democrat on the committee probing Russian interference. He has won plaudits for a sober, bipartisan style—something that impresses the permanent punditocracy, if not angry Democratic primary voters.
Could a moneyman of Clinton-era centrism win over today’s Democratic electorate? Stranger things have happened—like, for instance, a slick Syracuse native becoming governor of Virginia.
Rob Brunner, Rosa Cartagena, Hayley Garrison Phillips, Jessica Sidman, and Elliot Williams contributed to this article.
TOKYO, Jan 18, 2019 - (JCN Newswire) - Fujitsu Limited today announced that it has received the Energy Conservation Grand Prize for 2018 in the Product and Business Model category of the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy Director-General's Awards for the first time. The prize was awarded for the Fujitsu Server PRIMERGY Immersion Cooling System, which provides revolutionary energy savings, and recognizes the Immersion Cooling System as not just an ICT device, but an advanced energy saving system that reduces power consumption for entire datacenters.
Through its innovative products and energy-saving services, Fujitsu demonstrates its continued commitment to contributing to the digital transformation and reduced energy consumption of its customers, as well as to the mitigation of the impacts of climate change.
The Energy Conservation Grand Prize is part of an awards system intended to contribute to the achievement of an energy-saving society through measures including the expansion of energy-saving awareness and promoting the popularization of energy saving products throughout Japan. The awards scheme accomplishes this mission through its recognition of outstanding examples of energy-saving programs in addition to advanced, high efficiency energy-saving products.
In recent years the growing prevalence of technologies such as IoT and artificial intelligence (AI) has contributed to concerns about the rise in energy consumption accompanying the continued dramatic increase in data volumes and processing loads handled by datacenters.
Fujitsu developed the Immersion Cooling System by working to commercialize new cooling systems, aiming to provide a comprehensive energy-saving solution that takes into account both ICT devices and datacenter facilities as a unified whole. Through such developments as supercomputers, the company has cultivated the i liquid cooling technology over many years. This award recognizes that this product contributes to energy savings while providing the high usability demanded in datacenter operations.
This product is a cooling system designed to efficiently and evenly cool servers by immersing them entirely in a cooling liquid. The system provides significant energy savings because it doesn't disperse the heat generated by the servers into the room, which not only renders air conditioning unnecessary, but also eliminates the need for cooling fans installed on the servers themselves. Due to these factors, the system reduces the overall power consumption of a server system, including cooling equipment, by about 40%(1) compared to air cooled systems, contributing to a reduction in CO2 emissions. Moreover, the system can more or less double server installation density in terms of installation space(2), also contributing to reduced TCO(3).
Evaluated with a server system consisting of 96 PRIMERGY CX2560 M4 multi-node servers, comparing the power consumption of an air conditioning system and internal server fans against an immersion cooling version with the same configuration. Because the reduction effect depends on the installation environment, Fujitsu does not guarantee a power consumption reduction value in customer environments.
Evaluated with a server system consisting of 80 PRIMERGY CX2560 M4 multi-node servers, with 4 rack units required with air cooling that can be reduced to 2 immersion baths with the liquid immersion cooling method. Because the improvement depends on the installation environment, Fujitsu does not guarantee a degree of server density in customer environments.
Total cost of ownership. Includes the costs to deploy, operate and maintain the system.
For anyone with dreams of being a Vogue cover girl, here's a tip: Drop the catwalk dreams, take singing lessons. "American Idol" can get you there. "America's Next Top Model" will not. There is no better proof of that than Jennifer Hudson, whose open-mouthed smile leaps off the magazine's March issue. There she was in all her glorious curviness right on the front, in a photo by Annie Leibovitz. (And somewhere in the Conde Nast building a skeletal editor who hasn't eaten since bell-bottoms were chic is quietly blowing a vessel in her brain.) Days after that spring fashion bible appeared in mailboxes, Hudson won a best-supporting-actress Oscar.
The icing on that cake is that Hudson didn't win "Idol" in 2004. She placed seventh. But the right people noticed the 25-year-old, and a year later she beat "Idol" winner Fantasia Barrino in the "Dreamgirls" auditions. The rest you can read about in the grocery checkout aisle.
"America's Next Top Model" contenders, meanwhile, get cameos on CW shows and can look forward to exposure in magazines such as Psychology Today and Arthritis Today. This is not a joke -- second-season winner Yoanna House made the cover of the former, and Mercedes Scelba-Shorte, season two's runner-up, was on the latter.
House also hosts a show on the Style network, so there's that. Fellow winner Eva Pigford fronted a reality series for BET as well. Adrianne Curry wrung two seasons of a VH1 series out of pursuing Christopher Knight, aka Peter Brady. The only thing this proves is that these girls have more of a shot at being a recognizable has-been than joining the fashion elite, where "Top Model" host Tyra Banks rose to fame.
Dreams of a career in high fashion grow ever dimmer with every cycle of the show, hitting a fresh nadir this time around. The two-hour premiere begins with a stint in model boot camp, a necessary endurance trial before the girls can meet The Tyra. They display a general ignorance about the fashion industry and march in combat boots with high-stacked heels, which gives the scene the air of a MADtv skit or a Montel Williams special on out-of-control teens.
Not that this will do a number on the ratings. "America's Next Top Model" continues to be the top-rated series on The CW because for young girls everywhere, it is the equivalent of Sunday service in the Church of Tyra.
Gushing contestants, particularly the 13 finalists, play her acolytes, eager to learn the ways of fire-filled gazes and luminescent makeup. Guys tune in to see them run around in bikinis, and the first hour provides a regular parade of G-strings and skin. Of all the reality shows on TV, this one is the best at pandering to the shallowest instincts of both sexes.
At the same time, what is true for every other reality series applies: Eight cycles may be enough for some viewers. If Banks' overt self-promotion hasn't yet overwhelmed, the way she unevenly penalizes African American contestants might. If the vacuous nature of the entire concept doesn't wear a person down, the sheer stupidity conflicts might.
Concurrently, the challenges have steadily degenerated from vaguely cool (poses with live creatures) to daffy (romance novel covers, co-starring Fabio).
It's nothing to fret over, because as some tune out, others rotate in to see what all the fuss is about. What those latecomers are seeing is the adverse result of "Top Model" proliferation. Any natural innocence previous contestants had is largely dead. Cycle eight contenders appear to know what to expect and think they have everything figured out, making them difficult and resulting in lackluster shots.
Stomping in to meet Banks and fellow judges Miss J Alexander, Jay Manuel, Twiggy and Nigel Barker, some of them poorly imitate the high-stepping racehorse fashion walk, hipbones jutting forward, lips lacquered to a blinding sheen.
Others should just let their pictures speak for them. "OH MY GAHD!" shrieks Kathleen, a 20-year-old hairstylist with a massive cotton candy 'fro on top of her head. Her speech marinating in Brooklynese, she can't stop blurting out, "Tyra, yooah so priddy!" several times.
And this is merely the beginning. This week's task is to embody opposing political viewpoints, which sounds either boring or mildly controversial, but ends up resembling a Mel Brooks satire. One girl has to make supporting the death penalty look fierce. Her opposite has to bling up the concept of life in prison. Two more are asked to give the pro-choice vs. pro-life lobbies a dose of haute couture fabulousness. "Springtime for Hitler," anyone?
Still, watching "Top Model" transform into a parody of itself is more of a kick than a shame. Think of it as the natural progression of a pretty dumb show. Smartening up now would be the death of it, and besides, there are other good reasons to keep up with this season.
The ever-unreliable Wikipedia said this season's Seattle contender, 24-year-old Cassandra Watson, is a former beauty consultant. But the Seattle Central Community College student's first outfit is enough to cast doubts on the veracity of that trivia morsel. Then she reveals that her flowing mane is a wig sewn onto her head. The makeover episode cannot come quickly enough.
This season features two plus-size models, 21-year-olds Diana and Whitney. Their progression will be particularly interesting to watch in light of the tabloid attacks on Tyra Banks' weight gain.
Another first comes in the form of Natasha, 21, a student from Dallas -- and a Russian mail-order bride. Sweet.
Wednesday night's best moment comes courtesy of Kathleen, whose opinion on fur puts the idiot in the idiot box. It's priceless, and she's precious (in the Southern sense of the term).
An early contender for the villain role is Renee, a stay-at-home mom from Maui who frequently turns on the waterworks and always talks about her infant son, when she isn't shooting death glares at raspy voiced rocker girl Jael Strauss, a 22-year-old band manager from Detroit. Strauss might not win, but as everyone in the music business knows, there are other ways to the top.
Last year during Oscars week, an eight-foot Oscars statue with a heroin needle in its arm popped up in Hollywood. A year later, the local street artist behind that is at it again.
Plastic Jesus erected a new life-sized Oscars statue on Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea Avenue Thursday morning—that's just at the edge of where the street will be closed in anticipation of the Oscars on Sunday. This time the golden statue is bent over on the floor snorting two fat lines of cocaine with a credit card nearby on the ground. The signage for the award says, "Hollywood's Best Party."
"The piece is intended to draw attention to Hollywood’s hidden problem of drug addiction that effects [sic] hundreds of people in the showbiz industry and is largely ignored until the death of a high profile A list celebrity," photographer Nick Stern, who works with Plastic Jesus, offered up in a statement on behalf of Plastic Jesus.
Plastic Jesus' heroin needle statue last year was a direct commentary on actor Philip Seymour Hoffman's untimely death from a heroin overdose last February. Plastic Jesus is also known for complaining about Asian drivers and pranking Best Buy customers.
Should homework be graded? Should a zero really be a 50?
Linda Hurka, a mother of five, always has taken an interest in her children's school work, but she was never one of those mothers that had time to lead the PTA or advocate for an educational cause.
Baltimore County's new grading policy changed everything.
Furious that homework, effort, attendance and behavior will no longer be factored into students' grades, Hurka was stirred to action. She spoke passionately at the school board meeting last week and passed out 75 leaflets to parents at Dulaney High School on back-to-school night. She has contacted the County Council. She wants the policy revised.
"This grading system actually discourages effort since it basically has no value reflected in the grade," Hurka told the school board.
Many parents and teachers are perplexed by the new grading policy, which took effect at the beginning of this school year on a trial basis. It reflects a philosophic shift to focus on what a student knows as the basis for the grade.
Under the policy, explained in a 60-page document available on the county schools' website, homework is not graded, teachers cannot give a student a failing grade lower than 50, and students who don't perform well on a test or assignment can redo it to get a higher grade.
Baltimore County's chief academic officer, Verletta White, said the new policy is supported by research.
"We will have high standards for our students," White said, including grades that "aren't muddied by other factors" than achievement.

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