New agent code
All of Midland National's life division agents and agencies will be assigned new agent codes to conduct life insurance business. These new codes will replace your current code and will follow you through the entirety of your relationship with Midland National's life division.
Flexible compensation payment frequency
Midland National's life division will now offer options on the frequency of your compensation payments. While initially you will be defaulted to weekly, agents and agencies will now have the option to receive compensation on either a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Consolidated statements and payments
To provide a single view for all of your compensation activity, commission payments from Midland National's life division will now be reported through a single consolidated commission statement. All of your compensation will pay to a single bank or credit union account of your choice.
Vesting
Midland National's life division will now offer simplified rules for vested commissions. Renewal commissions will now be vested for 10 years from the agent's termination date.
Asset-based trails ("Trails")
Midland National's life division will now pay asset based trails on a monthly basis. Trails will be payable beginning in the 13th month of each eligible policy and will continue annually in the same month for all future anniversaries. The Trails will also be included once a month in your regularly scheduled commission cycle and include policy level detail.
Agent inforce correspondence on the web
Midland National's life division will move agent inforce correspondence content exclusively to our website, where you can access it 24/7. To ensure you receive future copies of this important correspondence, please update your notification settings on our agent website.
Agent validation
Our upgraded system will ensure all parties are compliant on every sale. All agents must maintain the appropriate licenses and appointments in order to receive commissions on any life insurance sales.
Statement change for downline agents
Compensation arrangements between an upline and their Licensed Only Agents (LOA's) are complex and routinely change as the business partnership matures. We've found that many times the expected commissionable rate shown on our statements does not meet the needs of your business.
LOA's will continue to receive their compensation directly from their upline agency as they do today. Midland National's life division will no longer provide a commissionable percentage on the upline's statement to facilitate the payment of their licensed only agents.
All of Midland National's life division agents and agencies will be assigned new agent codes to conduct life insurance business. These new codes will replace your current code and will follow you through the entirety of your relationship with Midland National's life division.
Agent codes will now be permanent, regardless of changes that may occur to your agent contract including reporting relationships and compensation. As long as your contract status remains active with the company, your new Life Division agent code will remain unchanged. Your unique agent code will be emailed to you in early April. This new agent code is only for your life insurance business and will not affect any annuity codes or business. Please use this new code on any documents, including New Business and Policy Change policy applications, starting May 1, 2020.
Some additional points of reference:
Midland National's life division will now offer options on the frequency of your compensation payments. While initially you will be defaulted to weekly, agents and agencies will now have the option to receive compensation on either a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Additional points for consideration:
To provide a single view for all of your compensation activity, commission payments from Midland National's life division will now be reported through a single consolidated commission statement. All of your compensation will pay to a single bank or credit union account of your choice.
Additional points for consideration:
Midland National's life division will now offer simplified rules for vested commissions. It is important to note that if there is a discrepancy in vesting that occurs due to the system changes, Midland National's life division will offer the greater of the two vesting rules.
New Vesting Rule:
“Renewal Commissions will be vested for 10 years from the date of termination…”
Current/Previous Vesting Rule:
In contrast, Midland National's life division Vesting Rules for the commissions of terminated agents currently are:
At the time of termination of contract, the life insurance and annuities produced hereunder and in force on a premium paying basis exceeds the sum of $1,000,000.00 life insurance and face amount of $20,000.00** in annual life premium, and annuity production credit, commissions provided for above shall be payable to the Agent after termination…….payable for as many full years as this contract has been in force, and only so long as total earnings being credited to the account of the Agent equals or exceeds $600 during the preceding twelve month period.
**These are the General Agent contract requirements. Writing Agent contract requirements are: $250,000 life insurance and face amount of $5,000 in annual life premium and annuity production credit.
In our current process, Midland National's life division pays Trails to its agents on an annual basis, each January, based on the cash value of eligible policies as of December 31st the prior year. Eligibility for this form of trail compensation is only available after a policy has met its first anniversary and is active on that following calendar year end.
Because of this, eligible policies written in 2019 would pay Trails in January of 2021 (23 months later), even if the policy written in 2019 was written in January of that year.
Midland National's life division will now pay Trails on a monthly basis. Trails will be payable beginning in the 13th month of each eligible policy and will continue annually in the same month for all future anniversaries. The Trails will also be included once a month in your regularly scheduled commission cycle and include policy level detail. Please see the example below.
Former Process | New Process | |
---|---|---|
Policy issued | 8/1/2019 | 8/1/2019 |
Policy anniversary | 8/1/2020 | 8/1/2020 |
First payment | 1/1/2021 | 9/1/2020 |
In order to support the transition to this enhanced payment timing, policies paying in the first twelve months after implementation of this change will pay on a prorated basis prior to resuming standard yearly payment on the policy's second anniversary in 2021. On December 31st, 2019, all policies that have already met their first anniversary will generate a full annual payment. This will close out our last calendar year end process. Upon implementation of our system upgrade in May 2020, all policies that have reached their first anniversary between January 2020 and April 2020, will receive a prorated trail. Going forward, any policies that reach their anniversary after April 2020 will be subject to a proration and is demonstrated on the chart below.
Policy Anniversary Date | Pay Date | Proration Amount |
---|---|---|
December 2019 | January 2020 | 12/12 (No Proration) |
February 2019 | May 2020 | 2/12 (Prorated) |
July 2019 | August 2020 | 7/12 (Prorated) |
June 2020 | July 2021 | 12/12 (No Proration) |
Please note that as of June 1, 2020, Trails will only be paid to General Agents. Writing Agents will no longer receive Trails if previously assigned by their General Agent.
In May, all agent copies of inforce policy correspondence (statements, grace notices, lapse notices, letters, etc.) will be kept on the website and made available to you whenever you need them. We have integrated notification technology on our website that can alert you via email when a piece of client correspondence is being mailed, thus giving you a preview of the letter the customer will receive. To ensure you continue to receive notifications of inforce correspondence, please review your website access and sign up for notifications.
After May 1st, copies of correspondence can only be obtained online at www.midlandnational.com.
The following are some other notable benefits of electronic copies of correspondence:
Several processes will be enhanced to ensure agent and client information continues to be properly validated in accordance with all state regulations.
Important notes about agent validation rules with Midland National:
Sammons FinancialSM is the marketing name for Sammons® Financial Group, Inc.’s member companies, including Midland National® Life Insurance Company. Annuities and life insurance are issued by, and product guarantees are solely the responsibility of, Midland National Life Insurance Company.
FOR AGENT USE ONLY. NOT TO BE USED FOR CONSUMER SOLICITATION PURPOSES.
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FOR AGENT USE ONLY. NOT TO BE USED FOR CONSUMER SOLICITATION PURPOSES.
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