Allianz Life Named a 2013 Top Workplace

Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life) today announced that it has been named one of America’s Top Workplaces based on employee feedback about career development opportunities offered to Allianz Life employees by the company. Allianz Life was ranked #53 nationwide among 872 companies making it part of the inaugural “National Top 150” list. The list was organized by WorkplaceDynamics, an employee survey company, and compared companies’ survey results from companies with more than 1,000 employees that participated in regional top workplaces programs throughout the country.

“We are honored by this recognition and thank our employees for making Allianz Life one of the top places to work in not only the Twin Cities, but also the entire United States,” said Allianz Life President and CEO Walter White. “As we strive to help Americans achieve their financial and retirement goals, it’s gratifying to know that we’re also helping our employees fulfill their professional aspirations.”

The National Top Workplaces list recognizes the most progressive companies based on employee opinions about company leadership, communication, career opportunities, workplace environment, managerial skills, pay and benefits. The winning companies were determined solely by feedback gathered through a confidential employee survey. The survey was conducted by WorkplaceDynamics, LLP, the leading on-demand employee survey provider, in conjunction with 30 leading regional newspapers. Allianz Life participated in the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Top Workplaces 2012 program.

The survey uses a proprietary set of 22 questions to rank companies. The survey data showed that employees most want to work at companies with high levels of organizational health. Companies that set a clear direction for their future; execute well; and bring real meaning to work are the healthiest.

In addition to joining the WorkplaceDynamics “National Top 150” list, Allianz Life was recently named to FORTUNE Magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list for the second straight year, making it the only Twin Cities-based company on the 2013 list. Details about the National Top Workplaces, a full list of the Top 150 companies, the survey methodology, and factors that drive organizational health are available at www.topworkplaces.com.

Exclusive: Thermo Fisher weighs Life Tech takeover-sources

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc is considering making an offer for Life Technologies Corp , the biomedical laboratory equipment maker that is exploring a potential sale, three people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Thermo Fisher, the world's largest maker of laboratory equipment and scientific instruments, is one of the parties that have held discussions with Life Technologies about a potential deal, said the sources, who asked to be anonymous because the talks are confidential.

Private equity firms KKR & Co LP , Blackstone Group LP , Bain Capital LLC and TPG Capital LP are also interested in buying Carlsbad, California-based Life Technologies, which has a $10.7 billion market capitalization, the sources said.

Waltham, Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher has a market value of around $25 billion.

Talks with the potential buyers are at an early stage and may not lead to a transaction, the sources said.
Thermo Fisher and Life Technologies officials declined to comment. Representatives of the private equity firms declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

If completed, the purchase by Thermo Fisher of Life Technologies would mark its biggest acquisition since 2006, when the company was created through the $12.8 billion merger of Thermo Electron Corp with Fisher Scientific International Inc.

The U.S. government's efforts to curb spending to fix its budget deficit has resulted in a lull in government-sponsored medical research, hurting companies that make life-science tools. Thermo Fisher's response so far has been to expand in emerging markets such as China.

Life Technologies, which makes genetic testing equipment and products used in biotechnology development, said on January 18 that its board has hired Deutsche Bank Securities and Moelis & Company to assist in its "annual strategic review". Deutsche Bank and Moelis declined to comment.

Given the sheer size of a potential leveraged buyout, private equity bidders are expected to team up as the sale process advances, Reuters reported previously.

"Fitch thinks that there is a lack of an obvious business strategy behind a leveraged buyout transaction, such as cost cutting opportunities," analysts from the credit rating agency wrote in a note on Tuesday.
"An acquisition by a strategic interest could be more likely given opportunities for cost synergies, coupled with the attractive growth potential of the company's next-generation DNA sequencing assets," Fitch added.

Thermo Fisher serves more than 350,000 customers in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, hospitals and clinical diagnostic labs, universities, research institutions and government agencies.

Analysts have previously suggested that Thermo Fischer may have the financial firepower to buy Life Technologies, provided it sees the rationale for an acquisition of the entire company.

"We believe Thermo may be interested in the recurring revenue and synergy potential of the research consumables business (of Life Technologies) as well as solid growth of the applied sciences business," UBS analysts wrote in a note this week.

"(Thermo) management has historically not been interested in playing in the next-generation DNA sequencing market, making the ion torrent business less attractive," they added.

Life Time Introduces Three Unique All New Programs from Life Time Weight Loss

Ask any Life Time personal trainer or weight loss coach, and they’ll tell you that total health requires attention to activity and nutrition, never one or the other. Lasting health and fitness requires a holistic approach, and it can be hard to know where to start. That’s why Life Time – The Healthy Way of Life Company (NYSE:LTM) is introducing three all new programs from Life Time Weight Loss— utopaSM, palaraSM and signiaSM.

Understanding your metabolism is key to sustainable weight loss so each Life Time Weight Loss program begins with determining an individual’s unique metabolic profile, and tailoring each program for real, lasting weight loss. Participants will work with Life Time’s fitness and nutrition professionals to address habits, environment, diet and activity to provide all the tools needed to achieve total health. Life Time Weight Loss offers three programs to choose from to support differing fitness and nutrition levels and goals including:

utopa: utopa offers the ultimate one-on-one, personalized approach and is perfect for those who want the highest level of attention and accountability. The utopa program includes personal training and weight loss coaching sessions, a heart rate monitor and activity monitor, nutritional supplements, Longevity and Vitality lab testing and continued support throughout the program. Participants also have access to support groups for a social atmosphere when it’s needed.

palara: palara provides weight loss support in a group setting. Participants get face time with a fitness professional without private session rates through group training and nutrition classes. palara’s support groups and weigh-ins hold members accountable to personalized fitness and nutrition plans, and the program includes a heart rate monitor, unlimited phone access to a team of expert health advisors and continued support throughout the program through materials including Eat Well. Live Well, a Healthy Way of Life Nutrition Manual.

signia: For individuals who benefit most from a group approach, but also need flexibility and variety to design their own experience, signia offers world-class facilities, expert guidance and weekly support groups. The signia program includes an initial meeting with a weight loss coach to develop a personalized fitness and nutrition plan, weekly weigh-ins, and flexibility and variety in fitness options.

“Life Time has always provided the best programs, the best places and the best people to help our members achieve success in their fitness, nutrition and total health goals so it seems only natural that we would expand our program offerings to provide additional support specific to weight loss that can be tailored and unique to each individual,” says Tom Nikkola, Sr. Director of Nutrition and Weight Management at Life Time. “Our members tell us over and over again that they’ve tried everything to lose weight but nothing has worked. We understand their frustration. utopa, palara and signia will truly lend a helping hand to those struggling by focusing on support from the inside out, providing personalized plans and, most importantly, making weight loss fun.”

Life without parole: Right for some, wrong for others

It has been nearly two years since 24-year-old Jared Lee Loughner opened fire upon a crowded plaza in Tucson, killing six and wounding several others, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Yet, after all the legal maneuvering, Loughner received sentence that guarantees he will never again walk free.

Mass murderers like Loughner or Winchester's Thomas Mortimer deserve nothing less than life imprisonment given the enormity of their crimes. While absolutely fair and appropriate for such atrocities, there are many other offenders, particularly here in Massachusetts, who receive the very same fate but who arguably deserve something less extreme.

In Massachusetts all defendants convicted of first degree murder are sent away to prison for life without the possibility of parole, regardless of any mitigating circumstances surrounding the offense or the offender. By contrast, two dozen states having life without parole on the books include it among a group of alternative sentences depending on the circumstances of the offense and the offender.

As one of the states that prohibits parole for first degree murderers, Massachusetts ranks high on the list in terms of the percentage of its incarcerated population having no hope of ever walking free (except for the very remote possibility of executive clemency). As of 2008 (see table below), according to statistics compiled by the Sentencing Project in Washington, D.C., 8.7% of the Massachusetts state prison population was under a life without parole sentence, a level that ranked third (behind Louisiana and Pennsylvania) and was four times the national average.

Of course, many states employ a more extreme sanction -- the death penalty -- among the possible sentences for first degree murder. Might the inordinately high proportion of whole-lifers in Massachusetts be a statistical artifact of our refusal to put these offenders to death?

Apparently, our extreme usage of life without parole cannot so easily be dismissed. Even when adding to the mix all those murderers given a death sentence (either executed or on death row), Massachusetts still stands at the high-end in sentencing murderers to die in prison either by natural causes or by action of the state executioner.

If the most severe punishment is to be reserved for the "worst of the worst," then life without parole makes sense for serial killers, mass murderers, certain repeat violent offenders, and those who rape or torture victims before murdering them. However, in Massachusetts life without parole eligibility is mandatory for cases of felony murder, even though homicide may not have been part of the plan. It is also mandatory for those convicted in joint ventures, even if they were not the one to pull the trigger or plunge the knife.

Many other states allow for parole eligibility as a sentencing option for murder, if the circumstances warrant it. Included among the states that allow penalty short of life without parole are Mississippi and Texas, but not Massachusetts.

So maybe it is time for Massachusetts to infuse some flexibility into sentences for first degree murder by permitting parole consideration after, say after 30 years, in those cases where mitigation outweighs aggravation. Such factors as being a first offender, suffering from psychological conditions that fall outside of the narrow definition of legal insanity, being the follower in a group-perpetrated homicide or voluntarily surrendering and confessing to the crime should matter.

Giving judges or juries options besides life without parole has several advantages, and not just for the offender. Parole eligibility would encourage participation in drug rehab and other treatment programs currently eschewed by those who have no prospect of ever walking free. Parole, as a strong incentive for pro-social behavior, helps to maintain institutional order. Also, why keep locked up large numbers of aging prisoners (with their expensive health needs) whose criminality is well in the past and thereby limiting available for younger, more active offenders? Prison space is an expensive commodity; we should utilize it more wisely and sparingly.

Importantly, whatever the justification for granting parole eligibility may be in a particular case, that is not the same as parole release. Parole is never a guarantee; inmates should be released only if they earn it.

Of course, as victim advocates say, there's no parole for those who were murdered. And some say that paroling murderers adds insult to injury. However, many other Western nations do not employ life without parole (or the death penalty). Apparently, many reasonable people do not believe that murderers must necessarily forfeit their life or their freedom.

Here in the U.S., we often dismiss long prison sentences as "mere slaps on the wrist" or "county club vacations" when neither characterization even comes close to the truth. Ask anyone who has spent decades deprived of their freedom.

So it is about time to reintroduce rationality into the sentencing process, even for murder. Not all murders are the same in severity, and not all murderers are the same in dangerousness. So while life without the possibility of parole is justifiable for some first-degree murderers, like Loughner, it is certainly not appropriate for all.

Pacific Life Foundation Grants $5.6 Million to U.S. Nonprofit Organizations

The Pacific Life Foundation announced today that it will provide $5.6 million in grants throughout 2013. Pacific Life has long recognized the importance of helping communities where its employees live and work, predominantly in the greater Orange County, California area and Omaha, Nebraska. Since 1984, the Foundation has provided thousands of grants to nonprofit agencies that focus on supporting the areas of arts and culture; civic, community, and environment; education; and health and human services.

The Pacific Life Foundation’s initial grants of 2013 were distributed during an early Thursday evening reception held at Pacific Life’s headquarters in Newport Beach, California. More than 150 nonprofit agencies serving Southern California gathered to receive over $1.5 million in grants.

A highlight of the evening was a special presentation of the Walter B. Gerken Community Service Award, along with a $25,000 grant to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County. To date, $280,000 in Pacific Life Foundation funding has been given to support Second Harvest’s efforts to collect and distribute food to the hungry.

Life Time’s myHealthCheck Expands Comprehensive Wellness Programs to Five Twin Cities Businesses

The Healthy Way of Life Company (NYSE: LTM) today announced five new Twin Cities businesses who will take part in the myHealthCheck sm program, a program aimed to reduce health care costs for employees, employers and insurers. Leonard Street and Deinard, Millerbernd, Process Displays, Inc., City of St. Louis Park, and J&B Group have joined Allina Hospitals & Clinics to take part in myHealthCheck , which includes a comprehensive health assessment that identifies risk factors, promotes ongoing guidance with wellness coaches and a 12-month reassessment to measure progress against the plan.

“We are excited to launch these new partnerships and the myHealthCheck program in such a diverse group of industries,” says Holt Vaughn, Senior Director of the HealthCheck Division at Life Time. “Our goal is to help these companies and their employees realize measurable change and progress in creating a healthier, more productive workforce as opposed to relying on employee participation as the sole measure of success.”
myHealthCheck empowers employees to take personal responsibility for their health and empowers employers to author a results-based health benefits strategy that encourages personal responsibility and rewards employees for positive change. Coupled with Life Time’s more than 2,600 fitness professionals, more than 60 registered dietitians, online fitness and cooking videos, myPlan™ workout and nutrition trackers myHealthCheck makes it easy.

Unlike traditional self-reported risk assessments, myHealthCheck assesses employees’ health and wellness, fitness level and lifestyle, through blood work, metabolic testing and wellness coaching, while providing each individual with a personalized health profile to set personalized goals and measure progress. Users can track their exercise, nutrition, weight loss and more through their personal myHealthCheck online dashboard. Additionally, each myHealthCheck participant can participate in wellness coaching sessions and receives ongoing guidance from Life Time health and nutrition professionals. At 12 months, a new wellness assessment is completed to gauge the employee’s progress.

“Millerbernd Systems elected to join the myHealthCheck program in an effort to create a healthy environment for our employees and to encourage them to pay attention to nutrition and exercise,” says Farid Currimbhoy, senior vice president, Millerbernd Systems. “We are anxious to help improve our employee’s wellbeing in the years to come through the various programs within this Life Time plan.”

In 2011, Life Time introduced myHealthCheck at Allina Hospitals & Clinics, a not-for-profit family of hospitals, clinics and other care services throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. myHealthCheck is optional for Allina’s 12,000 employees but between 70 and 75 percent of those eligible, including their spouses, participated in the program and a majority received full credit toward their health care premiums.
Life Time’s myHealthCheck program is led by trained technicians and wellness coach professionals who assist each employee with their wellness profile in a mobile LifeLab at their corporate work place or at Life Time centers. Employees are provided with an online dashboard to track their nutrition and exercise. The myHealthCheck team remains available to each employee to provide ongoing support by answering questions and providing online coaching.

Life Technologies Named #33 among Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations

Life Technologies Corporation (LIFE) announced today it is #33 among the "Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations."  The Global 100 2013 list was announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland earlier today.

The goal of the Global 100 is to highlight the 100 top-performing stocks worldwide on a range of sector-specific sustainability metrics in managing environmental, social and corporate governance issues.  Of the 12 key performance indicators, Life Technologies rated highly in resource management – reducing its energy use, water consumption, waste generation and CO2 emissions as a percentage of revenue.

"In the past five years, we have radically transformed our company in the pursuit of a better sustainable business model – one that is more efficient, smarter, and with a lighter footprint," said Cristina Amorim, Chief Sustainability Officer for Life Technologies.  "Being named to the Global 100 is recognition of the many changes – both large and small – made by the people of Life Technologies."

Life Technologies is the first life science company "moving off the grid" with a Bloom Energy fuel cell system. The system self-generates electricity for the company's manufacturing and distribution centers in Carlsbad, California, reducing carbon emissions by 30 percent and increasing energy reliability.  By reducing both its carbon emissions and operational costs, the company is well positioned to thrive in a circular economy.

Last year the company took on Zero Waste, not only as a green initiative but also to stay ahead of regulatory requirements and cut operating costs.  Manufacturing sites in Pleasanton, California; Kingsland Grange, UK; Regensburg, Germany and Bleiswijk, Netherlands have achieved Zero Waste status, meaning more than 90 percent of their non-hazardous waste now finds a home somewhere other than a landfill.

"From ideation to end of life, we challenge how we manage our raw materials, energy, water, packaging and product take-back to become ever more resource efficient," added Amorim.

The "Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations" list is produced by Corporate Knights, a Canadian media and investment research company dedicated to promoting "clean capitalism."

"The Global 100 are leading a resource productivity revolution, transforming waste into treasure and doing more with less," said Toby Heaps, Corporate Knights CEO.  "They are steering our civilization away from ecological overshoot and back to a place of balance with our planet."

Life Technologies Acquires BAC BV, Expands Capabilities in Bioprocessing

Life Technologies Corporation (LIFE) today announced its acquisition of BAC BV, a privately held company based in the Netherlands, and a leader in the discovery, development and manufacture of protein purification products. The acquisition expands Life's capabilities and product offerings in the growing market of biopharmaceutical research and manufacturing.

"Our acquisition of BAC BV positions Life Technologies as a leading provider of end-to-end solutions that are widely utilized in the bioprocess workflow," said Tony Hunt, head of BioProduction at Life Technologies. "Combining BAC's current portfolio and pipeline with our pre-existing portfolio expands Life's product offering and enables us to compete more fully across the protein purification market. We intend to immediately integrate the portfolios and leverage the Life commercial platform to drive accelerated growth in this market."

Bioprocessing is the production and analytical testing of biologically-based therapeutics, which are developed in cultured cells or microorganisms, and include drugs, vaccines, biosimilars, and gene and cell therapies. Life Technologies' Gibco® brand is the market leader in cell culture media, a position it has held for 50 years, and the company more recently integrated its POROS® brand of chromatography resins for purification of therapeutic products into the Bioproduction portfolio.

The acquisition expands Life's existing portfolio by adding BAC BV's unique set of innovative and proprietary affinity ligands to the company's world-class POROS® resins. Affinity ligands are molecules capable of binding with very high affinity to specific proteins, and are typically attached to chromatography resins in a production-scale, bio-purification process.

Life customers will benefit from a streamlined approach to protein purification with tailored end-to-end solutions. In addition to Gibco® culture media, POROS® resins and the BAC BV affinity ligand portfolio for protein purification, Life also offers the Applied Biosystems® SEQ rapid molecular kits for contaminant and impurity testing of bio-therapeutic products. 

"We are looking forward to developing and providing unique, enabling products from our combined portfolios and capabilities to our purification customers," said Laurens Sierkstra, Ph.D., chief executive officer of BAC BV. Sierkstra and an additional 34 employees will join Life Technologies. Current BAC BV facilities, a manufacturing site in Naarden and R&D facility in Leiden, Netherlands, will remain in operation.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The tuck-in acquisition of BAC BV is expected to be neutral to the company's overall ROIC three years after close.

China Life Falls to Underperform

On Jan 17, 2013, we downgraded China’s leading life insurance company – China Life Insurance Co. Ltd. (LFC) to Underperform from Neutral, based on the constant decline in operating cash flow, which is affecting the financials. The gradual decline in premiums and increasing competition on the domestic front are the other downsides.

Why the Downgrade?
China Life carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). One out of the two analysts covering the company revised their 2012 earnings estimate downward over the past 30 days. As a result, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2012 fell to 95 cents per share, down 39% over 2011.

China Life reported net loss of RMB0.08 (US$0.18 per ADR) per share in the third quarter of 2012, declining substantially from net income per share of RMB0.13 (US$0.31 per ADR) in the comparable quarter of 2011.
China Life’s cash flow from operating activities is declining gradually. It reduced 15% year over year in the first nine months of 2012, mainly due to a substantial decrease in policyholder deposits along with increased cash paid for held-for-trading financial assets, and taxes and surcharges.

Moreover, China Life has been witnessing deterioration in net premiums over the past few quarters. Given that premiums are the main source of business for an insurance company, premium increase is essential for top-line growth in the long run.

Further, China Life faces intense competition from both domestic as well as foreign companies. The company is also exposed to significant foreign exchange risk.

Life Insurance a Priority for Those With Dependents

January is naturally a time when a lot of people take stock of their situations in life. They take a step back and determine whether they are happy in their relationships, whether they are happy in their professional circumstances, their current living circumstances, and so on. The team at Lifebroker wants to make sure that people draft life insurance into this annual evaluation.

Life insurance is no superfluous expense. The raison d'etre for life insurance is to give the policy holder peace of mind as far as their dependents are concerned. Nobody can predict the future and as such it makes sense for consumers to prepare for the worst, however expected or unexpected it happens to be.

A suitable life insurance policy will cover the holder in the event of their death and it will provide the necessary financial support for the dependents left behind. This is extremely important for homeowners and others who have outgoings that will need to be covered even after they pass away.

Life insurance comes in all sorts of shapes and forms. There are policies designed especially for people who are over 50, life insurance policies designed for couples, life insurance policies designed for people with specific illnesses, mortgage protection schemes for homeowners and many more varieties besides.
People who take a look at their personal circumstances in January and decide they need some form of life insurance policy are advised to speak to a professional life insurance broker in order to make sure they get a good deal on a policy that provides the right sort of cover for them.

Lifebroker is the UK's leading online life insurance broker operating wholly online through its website http://www.lifebroker.co.uk. The site offers fast, free and secure comparisons for life insurance policies of all kinds from some of the leading insurance companies.

Life Technologies jumps on strategic review

Life Technologies Corp. said Friday that it retained two banks to conduct a strategic review, and its shares jumped to an all-time high.

The life science and medical research instrument maker said Deutsche Bank Securities and Moelis & Co. will assist in its annual strategic review. Life Technologies said it has not decided on any course of action.
Companies sometimes hire bankers to find ways to unlock shareholder value, which can result in the spinoff of a division or even the sale of the whole company.

Shares of Life Technologies jumped $5.68, or 10.3 percent, to $60.65 in afternoon trading. The stock has climbed 33 percent since July 10 and reached an all-time high of $62 in morning trading.

Life Technologies offers biological technology including DNA synthesis, protein analysis, stem cell tools and chemicals used in forensics and food safety. Based in Carlsbad, Calif., it was formed in November 2008 through the combination of Invitrogen Corp. and Applied Biosystems Inc. Over the first three quarters of 2012 Life Technologies' revenue grew 1 percent to $2.8 billion.

Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Sung Ji Nam said it's not clear why Life Technologies is reviewing its options at this point. She said the company has generally been viewed as an acquirer buying other companies instead of an acquisition target. Nam wrote that Life Technologies shares have been doing well, as have stocks in the life science industry generally. She added that Life Technologies' profit margins have been good and its growth could pick up in 2013/

Despite the solid performance of Life Technologies shares, Nam said the stock is inexpensive compared to the company's profits and its free cash flow may make it attractive to potential acquirers.

Jefferies & Co. analyst Jon Wood said he thinks $50 to $60 per share is a reasonable price range for Life Technologies it if is acquired in a leveraged buyout.

The company is scheduled to report fourth-quarter results after the market closes on Feb. 4.

Protective Life Insurance Company Introduces New Guaranteed Universal Life Products

Protective Life Insurance Company today announced the recent release of a new line of guaranteed universal life insurance products. The products can be tailored to individual needs, representing a step forward for the industry in providing simple and affordable life insurance solutions.

The lineup includes Protective Custom Choice Universal Life, Protective Advantage Choice Universal Life and Protective Survivor Universal Life, with Protective Custom Choice Universal Life offering options for customized protection, including multiple level benefit coverage durations and the ability to exchange product types without the need for additional medical examinations.

“Life insurance can provide financial protection that everyone needs, though the products have not always been flexible enough to change with the consumer,” said Carolyn Johnson, chief operating officer for Protective Life. “The introduction of this new suite of products offers that needed flexibility and, in the process, demonstrates our Company’s commitment to providing customers with access to important financial products with a focus on innovative solutions that can protect their tomorrows.”

Protective Custom Choice Universal Life is the line’s flagship product and is designed for individuals who want affordable coverage over lifetime or shorter durations, without cash accumulation. It offers flexible options for coverage at the end of the initial benefit period, including the ability to swap products without a new medical exam should needs change during the first 20 years of the policy (up to age 70). For even more customization, customers can also access Protective’s industry-leading riders.

“Protective Custom Choice Universal Life is one of the most unique and consumer-friendly products on the market,” Johnson said. “Its design is a solution to the challenges consumers and agents face when trying to provide for long-term coverage or decreasing protection after an initial level benefit period – all with the ability to plan premiums that stay level for an extended period of time.”

The second product, Protective Advantage Choice Universal Life, is designed for those with a need to build cash value. It offers flexible terms and is competitive for single-pay and 1035 exchange cases. As with Custom Choice Universal Life, customers choosing Advantage Choice Universal Life can access Protective’s industry leading riders.

Finally, Protective Survivor Universal Life, offers options to protect a second insured individual.

“Protective’s mission is to tear down barriers that block people from protecting their tomorrows, ensuring that they can embrace today,” Johnson said. “The new guaranteed universal life lineup provides products that are accessible, affordable and customizable to customer’s unique needs. We couldn’t be more pleased to introduce them to the market.”

Pacific Life Insurance Company Announces Early Tender Results

Pacific Life Insurance Company (“Pacific Life”) today announced the Early Tender Time (as defined below) results in connection with its previously announced cash tender offer to purchase up to $250,000,000 (subject to increase) aggregate principal amount of Pacific Life’s 9.25% Surplus Notes due 2039 (the “Notes”).

On January 2, 2013, Pacific Life commenced the offer to purchase Notes in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in the offer to purchase, dated January 2, 2013 (the “Offer to Purchase”) and the related letter of transmittal (the “Letter of Transmittal” and, together with the Offer to Purchase, the “Offer Documents”), sent to holders of the Notes. As of 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on January 15, 2013 (the “Early Tender Time”), $322,793,000 aggregate principal amount of Notes were validly tendered and not validly withdrawn.

As set forth in the Offer to Purchase, holders who validly tendered and did not validly withdraw their Notes at or prior to the Early Tender Time and whose Notes are accepted for purchase will receive the Full Tender Offer Consideration, which will be determined at the Yield Calculation Time. In addition, holders whose Notes are accepted for purchase will receive accrued and unpaid interest.

The Withdrawal Deadline for the offer was 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on January 15, 2013 and has not been extended. The offer will expire at 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on January 30, 2013, unless extended or earlier terminated by Pacific Life (such date and time, as the same may be extended or earlier terminated, the “Expiration Time”).

The offer is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions, including a financing condition and a minimum tender condition, as specified in the Offer to Purchase.

Capitalized terms used in this press release and not defined herein have the meanings given to them in the Offer to Purchase.

Say ‘Namaste’ to Your Healthy Way of Life

The finish line was only the beginning for the tens of thousands who participated in Commitment Day on Jan. 1 and made a commitment to the healthy way of life. To help people get off the roller coaster of failed resolutions and succeed in their commitments, Life Time – The Healthy Way of Life CompanySM (NYSE: LTM) is challenging America to commit to 30 consecutive days of yoga as part of the 30-Day Commitment to Yoga beginning today, Jan. 15.

The 30-Day Commitment to Yoga invites people of all ages and fitness abilities to participate in yoga for 30 straight days. Life Time members are invited to a variety of daily yoga classes at their local Life Time destinations, while non-members are encouraged to participate in nearby yoga classes or at home.

Accountability through in-club or at-home tracking is key to keeping participants on the road to success.

The practice of yoga provides excellent health benefits, including: decreased stress and anxiety levels, decreased overall body soreness and pain, improved sleep, increased levels of the brain chemical GABA (which is connected with feelings of happiness), improved total body awareness, improved muscle tone from head to toe, and increased flexibility. Various practices also include cardio components which increase weight loss potential and improve blood pressure and heart rate.

Members who wish to take the 30-Day Commitment to Yoga further can also participate in the 21-day Evolve Cleanse beginning Jan. 20. The Evolve Cleanse involves removing caffeine, sugar, alcohol, gluten and animal products from the diet. The cleanse is available to members only at a cost of $100, which includes four workshop sessions for added coaching and assistance.

New York Life Announces Senior Executive Promotions in the Insurance Group

New York Life announced today that Annamaria Banaszek, Craig DeSanto and John DiRago have been elected senior vice presidents of the company, reporting to Chris Blunt, president of the Insurance Group.

As head of the Group’s Wealth Management Department, Ms. Banaszek is responsible for wealth management and investment advisory services, including Eagle Strategies. Ms. Banaszek joined New York Life in 2001 as a director in the Finance area of New York Life Investments and held several roles of increasing responsibility. She was elected managing director for New York Life Investments in 2006 and vice president for New York Life in 2008. Ms. Banaszek then served as chief administrative officer in Retirement Income Security (RIS) Third Party Distribution from 2008 to 2010 before becoming chief administrative officer of RIS in 2010. She was elected first vice president in 2011 and appointed to her current role in April 2012. Prior to joining New York Life, Ms. Banaszek held progressively more responsible roles at Coopers & Lybrand, Citibank and Deutsche Bank and is a Certified Public Accountant in New York State. Ms. Banaszek earned a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from St. Francis College. She resides in Bethlehem, PA with her husband.

Mr. DeSanto is responsible for the Group’s life insurance product management, including managing all accounting P&L for life products sold through the company’s career agency system, identifying segmented market opportunities and developing product strategies and solutions to address targeted consumer/market needs. He also oversees the Group’s life insurance product development and implementation, and manages the company’s in-force product lines.

Mr. DeSanto joined New York Life in 1997 as an actuarial summer intern in the Financial Management Department and returned to the company in 1998 as an actuarial assistant in the Individual Life Department. He held multiple roles with increasing responsibility focused on product development and financial management for various life insurance and annuity product lines, and was named corporate vice president in 2007. From 2008 to 2011 he worked as vice president and actuary in the Advanced Markets Network Department managing the company’s institutional insurance business. In 2011 he was elected first vice president and actuary and became head of the affluent market business, where he was responsible for all product development, compliance and marketing activities related to the Affluent Market Initiative, including leading Eagle Strategies. Mr. DeSanto earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. Mr. DeSanto resides in Manhattan, NY.

Mr. DiRago is responsible for leading the Group’s Service Department, overseeing approximately 2,100 new business and customer service professionals across the country. Mr. DiRago joined New York Life in 1990 in the Individual Policy Services Department and has held numerous service positions with increasing management responsibility. He was promoted to assistant vice president in 2000, corporate vice president in 2003, and from 2004 to 2005 he served as chief of staff for the Individual Life Department. He worked in the Agency Department from 2005 to 2006 and was elected vice president in 2007 and first vice president in 2010. Mr. DiRago earned a MBA from Iona College and a BBA degree from Pace University. Mr. DiRago resides in Somers, NY with his wife and three children.

New York Life Insurance Company, a Fortune 100 company founded in 1845, is the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States* and one of the largest life insurers in the world. New York Life has the highest financial strength ratings currently awarded to any life insurer by all four of the major credit rating agencies.** Headquartered in New York City, New York Life’s family of companies offers life insurance, retirement income, investments and long-term care insurance. New York Life Investments*** provides institutional asset management and retirement plan services. Other New York Life affiliates provide an array of securities products and services, as well as institutional and retail mutual funds. Please visit New York Life’s Web site at www.newyorklife.com for more information.

Sun Life, Khazanah to buy Aviva's Malaysian operations - sources

Canada's Sun Life Financial and Malaysian state investor Khazanah have agreed to buy Aviva's Malaysian insurance joint venture with lender CIMB for about 1.7 billion ringgit ($563 million), sources said on Sunday.

The deal will help the Canadian company expand its Asian footprint.

The consortium of Sun Life Financial Inc and Khazanah Nasional Bhd edged out rival Manulife Financial Corp to win the eight-month old auction, sources familiar with the sale process said.

Britain's No.2 insurer Aviva is exiting marginal markets across the world with the aim of boosting its underperforming share price, and the sale of its Malaysian unit is part of that overhaul. Last month, Aviva sold its U.S. business for $1.8 billion, its biggest-ever disposal.

The Malaysian deal is expected to be signed on Monday, the sources said.

SOUTHEAST ASIA
Global insurers are showing increasing interest in Southeast Asia because of its rapid economic growth, high savings rates, and relatively young populations.

Malaysia is the third-biggest economy in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and CIMB has 320 branches across the country through which it can sell insurance products.

Sun Life already has joint ventures with CIMB Group Holdings Bhd elsewhere in Asia.
A Sun Life spokeswoman did not offer an immediate comment. Aviva could not be reached for comment immediately. CIMB and Khazanah officials were not available for an immediate comment.

Aviva's sale of its Malaysian operations drew interest from Prudential Plc and AIA Group Ltd . AIA dropped out of the bidding last fall after making a successful bid for ING Groep NV's Malaysian operations.
Under the deal, Sun Life will buy Aviva's 49 percent stake in the joint venture, while Khazanah will buy CIMB's stake.

"Most of the value comes from the exclusive distribution agreement that Aviva has with CIMB," one person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Aviva and CIMB entered into a 20-year bancassurance agreement five years ago.

As part of a business reorganization launched last July, Aviva decided to sell or close 16 businesses that tie up over a third of the insurer's capital, while contributing just 18 percent of operating profit.

Aviva's Malaysian operations were formed as a joint venture with CIMB in 2007. The business struggled, and Aviva announced its intention to sell its underperforming assets and boost its capital reserves and share price last summer.

Aviva recently sold its Sri Lankan operations to AIA, and named New Zealand-born Mark Wilson as its new chief executive.

For the Malaysia deal, Sun Life was advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Morgan Stanley advised Aviva, JPMorgan advised CIMB and Rothschild advised Khazanah.

rigin of Life: Did a Simple Pump Drive Process?

A new theory proposes the primordial life-forms that gave rise to all life on Earth left deep-sea vents because of their "invention" of a tiny pump. These primitive cellular pumps would have powered life-giving chemical reactions.

The idea, detailed Dec. 20 in the journal Cell, could help explain two mysteries of life's early origin: How did the earliest proto-cells power chemical reactions to make the organic building blocks of life; and how did they leave hydrothermal vents to colonize early Earth's oceans?

Authors of the new theory argue the environmental conditions in porous hydrothermal vents — where heated, mineral-laden seawater spews from cracks in the ocean crust — created a gradient in positively charged protons that served as a "battery" to fuel the creation of organic molecules and proto-cells.

Later, primitive cellular pumps gradually evolved the ability to use a different type of gradient — the difference in sodium particles inside and outside the cell — as a battery to power the construction of complex molecules like proteins. And, voilà, the proto-cells could leave the deep-sea hydrothermal vents.

"A coupling of proton gradients and sodium gradients may have played a major role in the origin of life. This is really cool, novel stuff," Jan Amend, a researcher at the University of Southern California, who was not involved in the study, wrote in an email to LiveScience. The study reflects the increasingly popular idea that a simple, everyday source of power, not a rare occurrence like a lightning strike, could have provided the power to initially create life, he said.

Deep-sea start
Many scientists think life got its start around 3.7 billion years ago in deep-sea hydrothermal vents. But figuring out just how complex, carbon-based life formed in that primordial stew has been tricky.
Somehow, the precursors of life harnessed carbon dioxide and hydrogen available in those primitive conditions to create the building blocks of life, such as amino acids and nucleotides (building blocks of DNA). But those chemical reactions require a power source, said study co-author Nick Lane, a researcher at the University College London.

Now, Lane and William Martin, of the Institute of Molecular Evolution at the Heinrich Heine University in Germany, propose that the rocky mineral walls in ocean-floor vents could have provided the means.
The theory goes: At the time of life's origin, the early ocean was acidic and filled with positively charged protons, while the deep-sea vents spewed out bitter alkaline fluid, which is rich in negatively charged hydroxide ions, Lane told LiveScience.

The vents created furrowed rocky, iron- and sulfur-rich walls full of tiny pores that separated the warm alkaline vent fluid from the cooler, acidic seawater. The interface between the two created a natural charge gradient.

"It's a little bit like a battery," Lane told LiveScience.
That battery then powered the chemical transformation of carbon dioxide and hydrogen into simple carbon-based molecules such as amino acids or proteins. Eventually that gradient drove the creation of cellular membranes, complicated proteins and ribonucleic acid (RNA), a molecule similar to DNA.

Leaving the vents
At that point, primitive cells used the thin, serpentine walls of the vent to corral the new carbon-based molecules together into precursors of cells and used the charge gradient in the environment to power the building of more complex organic chemicals.

But in order to leave the vent, primitive cells would have needed some way to carry a power-producing gradient with them — think battery pack. To solve that problem, the team looked at existing archaea bacteria in deep-sea vents.

Those primeval life-forms use a simple type of cellular pump that pushes sodium out of the cell while pulling positively charged protons in. The team proposed that a precursor to that cellular pump evolved in the membranes of the proto-cells.

The membrane started out very leaky, but over time, the membranes would have slowly closed, preventing much larger sodium particles from leaving the cell while smaller protons could still slip through. That enabled the proto-cells to still use the existing power-source in the environment — the charge gradient — while gradually evolving an independent way of getting power.

Eventually, when the pores closed completely, the primitive cells would have had a sodium pump that could power their cellular reactions, enabling more complex life to form. They could then leave their birthplace.
Testing the idea, however, will be tricky, Amend told LiveScience. "Mimicking natural conditions in the lab is a lot more difficult than it sounds."

Life Insurer Acquisitions ‘Ripe for Acceleration’

Life insurers may pursue more acquisitions worldwide to add business as capital builds while low bond yields and sluggish economic growth weigh on results.

“There seems to be a rising appetite” for deals this year, Sam Friedman, insurance research leader at Deloitte Services LP’s Center for Financial Services, said in an interview. “They’re well-capitalized and there’s some impatience in terms of trying to meet expectations for what their return on equity will be.”

Firms led by New York-based MetLife Inc. (MET) and Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU) have pursued deals in the U.S. and emerging nations as they seek to increase shareholder returns. Faster economic growth and expanding middle classes in emerging countries such as India and in Latin America can offer greater opportunities to insurers than developed markets in the U.S. and Europe, Friedman said.

“The overall M&A environment seems ripe for an acceleration of deals in 2013,” Deloitte analysts said in their 2013 life insurer outlook, scheduled for release today. “Merger or acquisition deals may spring from carrier interest in entering or growing within emerging markets to pursue growth potential that seems more elusive in mature regions.”

Economic growth in Latin America is projected to quicken to 3.6 percent in 2013, compared with 2 percent in the U.S. and contraction in the region that shares the euro, according to economists’ forecasts compiled by Bloomberg. China’s economy, the largest after the U.S., may grow 8.1 percent, and India’s is estimated to expand by 5.5 percent, the forecasts show.
Emerging Markets

“If there’s growth to be found, a lot of it is in the emerging markets,” Friedman said yesterday in a phone interview. “You see companies going into South America, you may see some additional companies going into Asia.”

MetLife, the largest U.S. life insurer, expanded beyond the U.S. with the purchase of American Life Insurance Co. from American International Group Inc. (AIG) in 2010. Alico had operations in more than 50 countries at the time.

Prudential acquired an individual life business from Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (HIG) Principal Financial Group Inc. (PFG), the seller of life insurance and retirement products, agreed in October to buy Chilean pension provider AFP Cuprum (CUPRUM) SA for about $1.5 billion.

How to Turn Life's Challenges Into Positive Outcomes

Life can be hard enough without creating extra problems for ourselves. Yet that's what many of us do by applying false or incomplete expectations to our major life goals. According to psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky in her new book, The Myths of Happiness, people carry around many misguided visions of what it will take to make them happy about their lives. "Immoderate aspirations are toxic to happiness," she writes.

U.S. News has reported extensively on how people can achieve more happiness in their lives in its e-book, How to Live to 100.

In Lyubomirsky's book, she applies extensive research findings toward helping people deal with 10 major life-crisis points, including problems in human relationships, money, careers, and older-age health and achievement regrets.

The myths she refers to are conceptions people often have about the things they think they need to lead happy and successful lives: strong marriages and personal relationships, wealth and professional acclaim, and long lives featuring good health and the comfort of having achieved their life goals.

In fact, she argues, there is a growing and persuasive body of solid scientific evidence that idealized versions of life goals can prevent people from being happy and living successful lives. While there are many reasons this happens, the strongest is that people simply fail to appreciate the powers of human adaptation.

When we fall in love and pursue a passionate relationship, for example, we adapt to the passion and it becomes less central to the relationship. Interactions that once were novel and exciting become routine. Hedonic adaptation is the phrase social scientists apply to the decreasing value of repeated positive events. It is a natural process, but one that still takes people by surprise, often leading them to question important relationships and life goals.

"Our tendency to get used to almost everything positive that happens to us is a formidable obstacle to our happiness," Lyubomirsky writes. "Reduced sexual passion [for example] is perceived as a symptom of something being wrong with our relationship (when it's just a symptom of the normal process of adaptation)."

Likewise, humans also are incredibly resilient in adapting to negative events and hardships. Yet people often overestimate the consequences of adverse life events, in terms of both the duration of their effect and their severity. "Because most of us aren't aware of the ordinary but remarkable dominance of this ability," she writes, ""we typically underestimate our capacity to weather almost any unhappiness."
Lyubomirsky provides research-driven advice to help people deal with specific crisis points in her book. But there are a few tips that apply to many of the problems we confront.

1. Because hedonic adaptation is so powerful--"We can never experience something for the first time twice," Lyubomirsky observes--it can be helpful to devise ways to delay the adaptation process, breaking it down into smaller pieces or steps. Seeking to acquire experiences rather than material goods is especially effective, because it's much harder to take memorable experiences for granted, and their value may actually grow over time. Variety, surprise, and unpredictability can also introduce freshness into experiences that would otherwise become commonplace.

2. It's not the destination points in your life goals that ultimately give you satisfaction and happiness, but the striving and experiences along the way. And among those experiences, it's the small ones that seem to add up to have the largest impact, not a few big ones. "The scientific evidence delivers three kernels of wisdom," she writes. "First, that short bursts of gladness, tranquility, or delight are not trivial at all; second, that it's frequency, not intensity, that counts; and third, most of us seem not to know this."
3. Writing about your life issues is a powerful and often emotional way to confront them and work through tough challenges. "Putting our emotional upheavals into words helps us make sense of them, accommodate to them, and begin to move past them," the book says.

4. It is hard, if not impossible, to live a full life without also having many regrets. "Instead of letting our regrets and might-have-beens poison our happiness," she writes, "we can choose to examine them in ways that will help us grow into more complex, wiser, and ultimately happier individuals."

5. People who succeed at making sense of their lives achieve "autobiographical coherence." Being able to view their activities as part of a coherent life story gives meaning and richness to events, making them part of a significant journey and not just "a collection of isolated, fleeting moments."

Lastly, Lyubomirsky counters the myth that people become unhappy and disappointed with their lives as they get older. The reality is just the opposite. Research concludes that "older people are actually happier and more satisfied with their lives than younger people," she writes. "They experience more positive emotions and fewer negative ones, and their emotional experience is more stable and less sensitive to the vicissitudes of daily negativity and stress."

Allianz Life Contributes $275,000 to Local Senior Service Organizations

Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life®) contributed $275,000 in 2012 to Twin Cities metro area charitable organizations focused on senior services. Organizations received grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 to support programs that address a variety of issues including home food delivery, transportation, exercise and wellness. In addition to these grants, Allianz Life also raised more than $159,000 for the Alzheimer’s Association of MN-ND earlier this year through its annual Driving to Donate charity golf event.
“Allianz Life is proud to support the vital work of these organizations as they strive to improve the quality of life for seniors in our community,” said Gretchen Cepek, senior vice president and general counsel for Allianz Life, who also serves as a board member for the Alzheimer’s Association of MN-ND and is a member of the Allianz Life Community Relations Governance Committee.
The 2012 grant recipients include:

Store To Door – supporting their grocery-delivery program.

Better Business Bureau Foundation – supporting their Senior Outreach program.

Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly – supporting their outreach programs.

Senior Community Services – supporting their Frail Elderly Support Services.

PRISM – supporting their PRISM Express Transportation program.

Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches – supporting their Paint-A-Thon and HandyWorks programs.

Canvas Health – supporting their Service Coordination and Transportation for seniors program.

The Amherst H. Wilder Foundation – supporting their Community Services for Aging program.

Catholic Charities – supporting their Aging Services program.

DARTS – supporting their Community Services for Older Adults and Caregivers program.

Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People (VEAP) – supporting their Food and Transportation program for seniors.

Keystone Community Services – supporting their Senior Services program.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts – supporting their Discover Your Story program.

CommonBond Communities – supporting their Senior Advantage Center program.

Friends of the Hennepin County Library – supporting their Deposit Collections and At-Home Services for seniors and people with disabilities program.

The Arthritis Foundation – supporting their Better Living for Seniors program.

Courage Center – supporting their Wellness, Fitness, Aquatics and Nutrition program.

Volunteers of America – supporting their Southwest Senior Center.

Sabathani Community Services – supporting their Sabathani Senior Center.

Mixed Blood Theatre – supporting their senior theatre and transportation program.

Organizations were chosen by the Allianz Life Community Relations Governance Committee, which directs the grants program and oversees Community Relations policies to ensure charitable practices and procedures are in line with Allianz Life's core values. In addition to senior services, Allianz Life also supports organizations that focus on improving financial literacy throughout the Twin Cities community.

SV Life Sciences Announces Key Promotions Within Senior Leadership

SV Life Sciences ("SVLS"), a leading international life sciences venture capital firm, today announced the appointments of Darren Black as Managing Partner and Tom Flynn as Partner.

"It is with great enthusiasm that we recognize both Darren and Tom for their extraordinary accomplishments and significant contributions to SVLS' success," said Eugene Hill, Managing Partner and head of SVLS' Healthcare Services team. "These promotions are also an opportunity for the firm to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to offering long-term career growth and opportunities for advancement to its investment professionals. I look forward to Darren's and Tom's continued success, as they take on these enhanced roles within the firm."

Mr. Black, who joined SVLS in 2003, was named a Partner in 2008. As a Managing Partner, he will continue to focus on his areas of expertise, healthcare services, pharmaceutical services and healthcare information technology. Prior to joining SVLS, Mr. Black was a Co-Founder and President of ClinCare, a site management organization; and PharmaStar, a central nervous system education services company.  Darren earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an AB in Government from Harvard College.
Mr. Flynn joined SVLS in 2011 as a Venture Partner and is focused on investments in the areas of post-acute care delivery and healthcare information technology services. Before joining SVLS, Mr. Flynn served as a Partner at healthcare-focused growth capital investor Ferrer Freeman & Co., where he focused on investing activities, including deal origination and structuring, fundraising and portfolio management. He also served as the Firm's Chief Financial Officer. Earlier in his career, Mr. Flynn served in a variety of important roles at GE Capital, Prudential Capital Corporation and Lehman Brothers, focused in the areas of private equity, fixed income and mezzanine debt portfolio management and investment banking. Mr. Flynn earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and an AB Degree in Economics from Holy Cross College.

Messrs. Black and Flynn are members of SVLS' team of 35 professionals organized according to experience and specialization into three practice areas: Biotechnology / Biopharmaceuticals; Medical Devices / Instrumentation; and Healthcare Services / Healthcare Information Technology. These individuals' diverse and complimentary skill sets and experiences enable SVLS to tailor an investment team for almost any life science business. Typically, SVLS recruits operating executives who have distinguished careers in the life sciences fields and can bring extensive operating expertise to the SVLS portfolio of investments. They assist in sourcing, building and exiting investments successfully. SVLS employs a close symbiosis between operating and financial professionals which has led to significant success over five investment funds.

''Life of Pi'' edges ''Hobbit'' at overseas box office

Fox's "Life of Pi" was king at the overseas box office this weekend, taking in $60.1 million from 65

foreign markets to raises its international gross to nearly $302 million.

The big weekend narrowly beat out "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," which added another $57 million

overseas, and raised its worldwide box office haul to nearly $825 million since opening on December 12.
Director Ang Lee's "Pi" opened No. 1 in seven of eight markets in which it debuted. Russia, at $14.1

million, was the weekend leader, followed by Australia ($8.2 million) and South Korea ($5.4 million).

China, where "Pi has completed its run, is its top market with more than $90 million.

With the big weekend, Warner Bros.' and MGM's "The Hobbit" has passed "Twilight" Breaking Dawn 2" at the

global box office. The "Twilight" finale has brought in $813 million since opening on November 16.
The overseas total came from 65 markets, and was run up with roughly 5.6 million admissions from almost

13,500 screens. That's a 43 percent drop from the previous week.

Overall, "The Hobbit" has taken in more than $560 million overseas. Germany remains the strongest foreign

territory, having brought in $74 million. The U.K. ($72 million), France ($39.6 million), Russia ($36

million) and Spain ($32 million) are next. Its North American total, after adding $17.5 million this

weekend, is $263 million.

Paramount's "Jack Reacher" was third for the weekend with $22.3 million from 16 territories and Universal's

"Les Miserables" was No. 4 with $14.5 million from 18 markets.

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America Acquires Reed Group

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (“Guardian”), one of the nation’s largest mutual life insurers and a leading provider of employee benefits, today announced that it has acquired Westminster, Colorado-based Reed Group, a recognized leader in absence management services that help employers comply with federal and state regulation and get employees back to work quickly and safely.

Reed Group will operate as an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of Guardian, retain its name and continue to serve all of its customers as it does today. Specifically, Reed Group helps its customers reduce the cost, compliance risk and complexity of employee absences. Its products and services address FMLA, ADA, state leaves, company leave plans, and short- and long-term disability programs.

This acquisition expands Guardian’s disability and absence management portfolio, further demonstrating the company’s commitment to innovative employee benefit solutions and meeting the needs of employers.

Commenting on the transaction, Deanna Mulligan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Guardian said, “Reed Group is well recognized and respected in the marketplace with a proven track record of ensuring workplace productivity and compliance for customers. We look forward to helping ensure their continued success in the markets they serve and working with them to seek out new opportunities.”

David Roberts, Chief Executive Officer of Reed Group, added, “We are excited to have our long-term home as part of Guardian. We share their commitment to providing excellent absence management services to employers and employees. All of our customers can expect a continued high level of service from Reed Group and, backed by the strength of a Fortune 500 company, we will take advantage of new opportunities.”

Reed Group will continue to operate, and invest in, its current three divisions: Reed Group Services to help manage and administer claims and absences; LeaveProTM, a software solution that helps employers manage absences; and MDGuidelinesTM, a web-based return-to-work toolkit.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Cain Brothers & Company, LLC served as exclusive financial advisor to Reed Group on the transaction. DLA Piper served as legal counsel to Reed Group.

Email reminders encourage end-of-life talks

Email alerts may encourage cancer doctors to talk with terminally ill patients about their end-of-life wishes and to record those preferences in their medical records, a new study suggests.

Oncologists who were reminded each time one of their patients started a new chemotherapy regimen were more than twice as likely to note patients' wishes before they became very sick, researchers found.
"If, God forbid, the patient does end up in a medical emergency and it's unclear what their medical wishes are, then it's always a difficult situation for the doctor and the family," said Dr. Jennifer Temel, who led the study at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in Boston.

Doctors tend to wait for a patient's condition to get much worse before bringing up their end-of-life wishes, such as whether they want health care staff to use CPR and other measures to try to prolong their lives, she said. But reminders may help them initiate those discussions earlier.

"Patients in the inpatient settings are in crisis, and it's a highly emotional state for patients and their families," Temel told Reuters Health.

"Everybody thinks it's better to have these conversations when people are less ill" - before they end up in the hospital, for example.

She and her colleagues surveyed doctors and nurse practitioners about their end-of-life conversations with people with incurable cancer, including how the health care providers would like to be prompted to have those conversations.

Then, the researchers designed and tested an email system that reminded doctors when they were seeing patients who were coming in to start a new chemo regimen.

The study included 100 people with advanced lung cancer. A year after the email alerts began, just over one-third of the patients had end-of-life wishes documented in their electronic health records.
In comparison, during the pre-alert period less than 15 percent of people diagnosed with incurable lung cancer had had their wishes written down before they were hospitalized, according to findings published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

During both time periods, most patients who had end-of-life wishes recorded were listed as do not resuscitate (DNR) or do not intubate (DNI), meaning they didn't want doctors to take aggressive measures to keep them alive at the end.

Not only are such measures sometimes against a patient's wishes, they can also be very expensive.
According to data from the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, 32 percent of total Medicare spending goes toward caring for very sick patients in their last two years of life. In the early 2000's, that spending totaled about $46,000 per chronically-ill patient.

"In the absence of these discussions, patients may receive unwanted, overly aggressive care that incurs cost for the patient and society and is associated with decreased quality of life for the patients and family and worsened bereavement adjustment for caregivers," wrote Dr. Jamie Von Roenn, in an editorial published with the new study.

The change seen with email alerts "is an improvement, but we still have a long way to go," added Von Roenn, a palliative medicine specialist from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
Temel said patients and their families should know that end-of-life discussions are part of comprehensive cancer care.

"They should feel comfortable initiating these conversations too," she said.