Account takeover fraud remains a serious concern for retirement plan participants, and new research finds attacks are becoming more common.
According to a new LIMRA study, 35% of recordkeepers and insurance carriers reported increases in account takeover incidents for retirement plans, life insurance and annuity accounts in 2021.
The research found account takeover attempts increased 20%; the average disbursement request was up 38%; and the average account value targeted grew 30%.
Consumers need to understand the growing risks of account takeover and identity theft fraud and the efforts financial companies are making to protect their financial savings.
LIMRA announced today it is partnering with Verisk to bolster its fraud protection tools and capabilities to help companies better protect their customers’ assets.
Building on the unique strengths of the two organizations, the partnership will deliver greater capabilities to recordkeepers and insurers to help them combat fraud and financial criminal attacks on their customers.
FraudShare, LIMRA’s latest industry solution developed in conjunction with its members to address common industry challenges, helps financial services firms combat the growing prevalence of account takeover (ATO) fraud in retirement plan, life insurance and annuity accounts. Launched in October 2019, FraudShare now serves 53 companies, representing 70% of the U.S. life insurance market, 60% of the U.S. annuity market, and 25% of the retirement services market.
“For more than two years, the industry has relied on FraudShare to detect and combat account takeover fraud. Now, as fraudulent attacks are becoming more sophisticated, we want to leverage greater technology and data insights to strengthen our product and better serve our members,” said David Levenson, president and CEO, LIMRA and LOMA. “By combining Verisk’s unique data assets, advanced technology and deep domain expertise with LIMRA’s anti-fraud services, we are able to provide insurers with market-leading fraud solutions at competitive price points.”
To date, LIMRA says FraudShare has helped detect over 192 third-party account takeover incidents targeting $31 million in account values.
“LIMRA offers a valuable early warning fraud detection system for the financial services industry for life insurance, annuities and retirement markets,” said Maroun Mourad, president of life and growth markets at Verisk. “Working together, we can provide a well-rounded suite of anti-fraud and financial crime solutions for a broader scope of financial products with real-time access capabilities.”
Initially, LIMRA and Verisk will focus on building more robust solutions while improving overall automation. This will include integration with Verisk’s FAST life insurance platform, providing joint clients real-time access to FraudShare and additional threat intelligence data. The partnership will offer all FraudShare users enhanced threat intelligence data, and expanded data analytics and automation capabilities. Through this partnership, LIMRA and Verisk will enable FraudShare clients to mitigate a wider range of fraud threats facing the insurance, retirement and recordkeeping industries.
LIMRA’s latest Fraudshare report found that attacks involving advisor impersonations—while still very low—are trending up. The percent of incidents involving advisor impersonations and accessing accessing advisor portals increased substantially in 2021. Since attacks impersonating an advisor/using the advisor portal can provide fraudsters greater access to participant accounts, it’s important for companies to focus on ensuring the requisite controls are in place.
The new partnership expands Verisk’s extensive anti-fraud portfolio, which includes ClaimSearch, the world’s largest database of property/casualty claims, used by more than 90% of the property/casualty industry, as well as for life insurance, long-term care and disability claims.
To support life insurers across the policy life cycle, Verisk has developed a suite of solutions that apply advanced analytics, automation and machine learning to existing and emerging data sources. The solutions are designed to help transform current workflows in life insurance underwriting, life and pension analytics, claim insights, unclaimed property/equity, compliance and fraud detection, and actuarial and portfolio modeling.
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Veteran financial services industry journalist Brian Anderson joined 401(k) Specialist as Managing Editor in January 2019. He has led editorial content for a variety of well-known properties including Insurance Forums, Life Insurance Selling, National Underwriter Life & Health, and Senior Market Advisor. He has always maintained a focus on providing readers with timely, useful information intended to help them build their business.
