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AuguStar Life enhances its suite of living benefits

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New feature gives clients flexible access to death benefit when they need it most

CINCINNATI, June 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — AuguStar® Life, a Constellation business, has enhanced its LiveNow Access accelerated benefit rider with a new critical illness feature, giving clients more ways to use their life insurance when it matters most.

The addition complements the rider’s suite of living benefits, which also includes chronic and terminal illness coverage. Together, these features allow clients with a qualifying illness to access a portion of their death benefit during their lifetime for any purpose, helping provide financial flexibility at a critical time.

The LiveNow Access rider is designed to give clients clarity and control. Unlike discount-based approaches commonly used across the industry, AuguStar’s lien method allows clients to see in advance how much they can access and how it will impact their remaining death benefit, helping them make informed decisions about how and when to use their policy. It also gives financial professionals the ability to illustrate benefits in advance and set clearer expectations with clients.

“As more carriers offer accelerated benefit riders, how benefits are calculated matters,” said Jack Heller, AuguStar Life vice president and chief distribution officer. “Our approach gives clients clarity upfront so they can see what they can access and what remains for their loved ones.”

Emphasizing transparency

Under AuguStar’s approach, benefit eligibility does not require additional underwriting at the time of claim, and maximum benefit amounts can be illustrated in advance. When a benefit is taken, a lien is established against the policy’s death benefit for the amount of the benefit taken plus a one-time administrative fee. The lien accrues additional carrying charges over time and is deducted from the death benefit when the insured passes away.

By contrast, discount‑based riders often rely on life expectancy and condition severity at the time of claim, which can result in reduced payouts and a disproportionate reduction to remaining death benefits.

Designed for flexibility and predictability

LiveNow Access benefits can be used for any purpose, including health‑related expenses or personal goals. Premiums and policy charges remain unchanged after benefits are taken.

The LiveNow Access accelerated benefit rider is available on select permanent life insurance products issued by AuguStar Life Insurance Company. Rider availability and features vary by state.

About AuguStar Life

AuguStar Life markets indexed universal life, indexed whole life, term and bank-owned life insurance through a national network of traditional direct agent distribution and independent marketing organizations. AuguStar Life is a member of the Constellation family of businesses, which also includes AuguStar Retirement, AuguStar Seguros, Constellation Investments, Constellation Re and Constellation Institutional Markets. Constellation’s investors and equal partners, CDPQ and Ontario Teachers’, are two of North America’s largest long-term institutional investors, managing CA$796 billion in net assets, including CA$136 billion in private capital investments (as of Dec. 31, 2025). More information is available at augustarfinancial.com.

The optional LiveNow Access Rider issued on Form ICC26-CCTAD-1 and any state variations. LiveNow Access rider not yet available in California, and Florida. LiveNow Access rider benefits and features may vary by state. 

The LiveNow Access rider provides for a partial acceleration of the policy death benefit in the event that the base policy insured is certified by a licensed physician as being chronically ill, critically ill or terminally ill. By taking an accelerated death benefit payment, a lien is created against the policy death benefit. The lien accrues carrying charges at an adjustable rate we declare. The lien, including the lien carrying charges, will be deducted from the total death benefit otherwise payable to the policy beneficiary(ies) and will reduce the cash value available for policy loans, surrenders, or the exercise of any non-forfeiture option. The required premium for the policy must still be paid even if an accelerated death benefit is taken. If an accelerated benefit is taken and the policy lapses or otherwise terminates, a taxable event may occur. 

While the lien method used by the LiveNow Access rider is designed to provide enhanced value to policyholders as compared to discount-based riders, individual circumstances may vary, and discount-based riders may offer superior benefits under certain circumstances.

The LiveNow Access rider is not long-term care insurance and does not provide a lifetime benefit payment, nor may it cover all of the expenses associated with long-term care. It is not intended to replace the need for long-term care insurance, health insurance, or nursing home insurance.

Indexed whole life insurance is issued by AuguStar Life Insurance Company on Policy Forms ICC22-IWL-1/U and any state variations. Indexed universal life insurance is issued by AuguStar Life Insurance Companion Policy Forms ICC19-IUL-1/1U and any state variations. The life insurance policy and associated riders contain exclusions, limitations, reductions of benefits, and terms for continuing to keep coverage in-force.

Guarantees based on the claims-paying ability of the issuer. Guarantees do not apply to the investment performance of any chosen index. Product, product features and rider availability vary by state. Issuer not licensed to conduct business in NY.

Contact: Lisa Doxsee
513.794.6418 (o) | 513.218.5519 (m)
mediarelations@constellationinsurance.com

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SOURCE AuguStar Life

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PAVS Announces Pricing of a $10 Million Registered Direct Offering of Class A Ordinary Shares and Pre-Funded Warrants

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NEW YORK, June 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — PAVS (NASDAQ:PAVS) (the “Company”), a consumer products and digital commerce solutions company, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with certain institutional investors for a registered direct offering of an aggregate of 50,000,000 Class A ordinary shares (or pre-funded warrants to purchase Class A ordinary shares in lieu thereof) at a purchase price of $0.20 per share. The gross proceeds to the Company from the offering are expected to be approximately $10 million, before deducting offering expenses.

The offering is expected to close on or about June 16, 2026, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for evaluating and pursuing strategic acquisition opportunities in the consumer products, wellness, fitness, lifestyle, and digital commerce sectors, and working capital and general corporate purposes.

A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners is acting as the exclusive financial advisor to the Company.

The Class A ordinary shares (or pre-funded warrants to purchase Class A ordinary shares in lieu thereof) are being offered and sold pursuant to a prospectus supplement to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) in connection with a takedown from the Company’s shelf registration statement on Form F-3 (File No. 333-291788), which was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on December 3, 2025. The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus which are a part of the effective registration statement. A prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to the registered direct offering will be filed with the SEC and will be available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Additionally, when available, electronic copies of the prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus may be obtained from A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners, 590 Madison Avenue, 28th Floor, New York, NY 10022, or by telephone at (212) 624-2060, or by email at prospectus@allianceg.com.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction.

About Paranovus Entertainment Technology Limited

Paranovus Entertainment Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: PAVS) is a consumer products and digital commerce solutions company. In March 2025, the Company completed the acquisition of the controlling equity interests of Bomie Wookoo Inc., a New York company that offers e-commerce solutions. As part of its strategic transformation, Paranovus has exited its legacy businesses, including the e-commerce, internet information, and advertising businesses in September 2023 and ceased its automobile sales business in July 2024.

For more information on our latest innovations and developments, visit https://www.pavs.ai/.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts. When the Company uses words such as “may,” “will,” “intend,” “should,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate” or similar expressions that do not relate solely to historical matters, it is making forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations discussed in the forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, the following: the Company’s goals and strategies; the Company’s future business development; the Company’s future acquisition opportunities; the Company’s ability to identify any acquisition opportunities that fit with our business strategies; the Company’s ability to consummate an attractive acquisition and realize the benefits of such transaction; product and service demand and acceptance; changes in technology; economic conditions; reputation and brand; the impact of competition and pricing; government regulations; fluctuations in general economic; and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing and other risks contained in reports filed by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. For these reasons, among others, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional factors are discussed in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available for review at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof.

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SOURCE Paranovus Entertainment Technology Ltd

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New Cognizant Research Reveals $4.7 Trillion in Untapped AI Value Across G2000

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Organizations that pair mature technology infrastructure with a fundamentals-first AI investment strategy outperform laggards by 31% on composite outcomes—and could unlock trillions in unrealized value across the G2000

TEANECK, N.J., June 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) today released new research showing that AI’s real-world results depend less on the technology itself than on the maturity of a company’s tech infrastructure and where it directs its investment. The companies getting this right are generating financial returns measurable in the billions.

The study, “Closing the AI Execution Gap: A $2 Billion Business Boost,” surveyed 1,100 senior business leaders at Global 2000 companies and 100 startups across 10 industries. Its central finding is stark: two-thirds of leaders have yet to demonstrate measurable business productivity gains from AI, and one in four have already paused or abandoned AI deployments—with an estimated average of $2 billion in unrealized cost savings and revenue opportunity.

The research identifies a clear set of behaviors that separates the top performers from the rest.

31% — The performance gap between the highest- and lowest-performing AI segments on composite outcomes.

$1B–$2B — Estimated annual returns available to a typical G2000 company that moves from the weakest to the strongest performing segment.

$4.7T — Total unrealized annual value across the G2000 when worker productivity, business productivity, revenue and cost reduction are included.

60% — How much more likely organizations with immature infrastructure and broad AI investment are to abandon a deployment versus those with the same infrastructure who invest in AI fundamentals first.

27% — Productivity advantage held by organizations with strong data foundations versus those still working to improve theirs.

“The evidence in this research could not be more direct: companies that build on a mature technology foundation and invest in AI fundamentals first are already generating billions in returns that their competitors are leaving on the table,” said Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S. “This is the AI Builder dividend and it is real, it is quantifiable, and it is widening. Two-thirds of organizations have yet to move the needle on business productivity from AI. That is not a capability gap in technology. That is an execution gap. Cognizant exists precisely to close it. We help companies do the work that unlocks AI value: strengthening compute infrastructure, building data foundations that AI can trust, and deploying the focused investment strategies that turn AI’s potential into verifiable, compounding returns.”

The research shows organizations can continue to improve their AI outcomes through building technical and data foundations, focusing investment strategies, and leveraging strong external partnerships where needed:

Organizations with focused AI investment strategies outperform their peers regardless of maturity level—even lower-maturity companies with a focused approach achieve an 11.4% composite outcome score, versus 9.7% for same-maturity peers investing broadlyCompute and data foundations are the most consequential infrastructure factors; just 19.9% of organizations rate their on-premises compute as excellent—and companies with excellent cloud compute outperform those with adequate ratings by 4.8 percentage points in worker productivity gainsData gaps are pervasive: 64.5% of organizations have at least one of five key data dimensions rated adequate or below; organizations with strong data foundations report nearly 27% higher productivity gains and are 20%+ less likely to abandon AI initiativesInfrastructure quality has a compounding effect on outcomes—organizations with all 10 infrastructure dimensions rated good or excellent achieve 15.6% average productivity gains; that drops to 14.1% with just one adequate dimension, and to 12.5% when any dimension needs improvementHigh-performing organizations are significantly more likely to work with external partners: 72–76% of focused-strategy companies engage outside expertise, compared to 54–60% of broad-investment peers

ABOUT COGNIZANT
Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) is an AI Builder and technology services provider, bridging the gap between AI investment and enterprise value by building full-stack AI solutions for our clients. Our deep industry, process and engineering expertise enables us to build an organization’s unique context into technology systems that amplify human potential, drive tangible outcomes and keep global enterprises ahead in a fast-changing world. See how at cognizant.ai or @cognizant. 

MEDIA CONTACT

Global Corporate Communications

Cognizant Technology Solutions

media@cognizant.com

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SOURCE Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation

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Responsible AI Institute Launches TrustX for Finance to Bring Verifiable Trust to Autonomous AI in Financial Services

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New Autonomous Finance Initiative will help financial institutions classify, control, and verify autonomous AI systems before production deployment.

AUSTIN, Texas and NEW YORK and LONDON, June 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Responsible AI Institute, the world’s largest responsible AI non-profit and an independent organization with a decade of experience advancing trusted AI governance, today announced the launch of TrustX for Finance, a sector-specific assurance initiative designed to define how autonomous AI systems are evaluated, controlled, and approved for production in financial services.

RAI Institute launches TrustX Finance Working Group. Founding members: U.S. Bank · NatWest Group

As banks and financial institutions prepare to deploy AI systems that can initiate payments, execute workflows, and act with delegated authority, traditional AI governance is no longer sufficient. These systems do not simply generate recommendations; they can take action. Institutions need a consistent way to classify their risk, define their authority, enforce operating boundaries, and generate evidence that those controls hold in practice.

Across industries, AI is moving from advisory systems to agentic systems: software that does not simply generate outputs, but can plan, decide, and execute actions across enterprise environments. This shift is accelerating risk in two areas in particular. First, organizations are increasingly deploying AI through vendors and SaaS platforms, often without clear visibility into agent behavior, authority, tool access, or system reach. Second, frontier models with advanced coding, tool-use, and agentic capabilities are increasingly able to interact with internal tools and data through legitimate integration pathways. That access expands the potential blast radius when systems are misused, compromised, or misaligned.

TrustX for Finance provides a structured path to production by classifying AI systems based on autonomy, authority, reach, and persistence; applying controls proportional to risk; and producing audit-ready evidence for internal approval, external assurance, and regulatory review.

The initiative builds on the TrustX Health program launched in the United Kingdom in December 2025 with Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex, the University of Cambridge’s Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence Lab, and The King’s Fund. TrustX Health established a sector-specific pathway for safely verifying, testing, and monitoring agentic AI in health and care. TrustX for Finance extends that assurance model to financial services, where autonomous systems may initiate payments, execute transactions, and operate with delegated authority.

To address the full agentic AI surface, RAI Institute is expanding TrustX across three domains: Build, for internally developed and deployed agentic systems governed through Agent Risk Classification; Buy, for third-party and SaaS-based AI systems assessed through an AI Risk Procurement Framework; and Protect, for enterprise systems exposed to agentic AI through tool access, data access, and workflow integrations. Together, these domains reflect a core TrustX principle: governance must follow what AI systems are allowed to do, not just how they are built.

The Autonomous Finance Initiative will operate as a bank-led working group and hands-on program under TrustX for Finance. At the center of the initiative is a proving ground where participating institutions can test and validate autonomous AI systems in a controlled sandbox environment before production deployment, including systems that initiate payments, execute financial transactions, manage workflows, and operate within delegated authority limits.

Within this environment, institutions can:

Classify systems into defensible risk tiers based on autonomy, decision authority, execution scope, persistence, and enterprise reachApply controls proportional to risk, aligned to regulatory expectationsValidate system behavior against enforceable policies, constraints, and approval thresholdsAssess third-party and SaaS-based agentic AI systems beyond traditional vendor questionnairesIdentify enterprise systems exposed through AI tool access, data access, and workflow integrationsGenerate audit-ready evidence required for internal approval, external assurance, and regulatory reviewDemonstrate that systems operate within approved boundaries under real-world conditions

“Financial institutions cannot approve autonomous AI for production using governance models built for static systems,” said Manoj Saxena, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Responsible AI Institute. “As AI begins to initiate payments, execute workflows, and act with delegated authority, the industry needs a shared way to classify risk, enforce boundaries, and prove systems are operating as approved. TrustX for Finance establishes that foundation.”

“As consumers and businesses begin using AI systems that can act on their behalf, financial institutions need a common assurance framework,” said Dr Samuel Assefa, Senior Vice President and Head of AI Innovation & Solutions, AI Center of Excellence at U.S. Bank. “While we have strict controls in place to govern AI, preparing for new trends and the inevitable expansion of Agentic AI use cases is critical. Classification, controls, and independent verification will be essential to deploying these systems safely and responsibly.”

“”TrustX for Finance comes at a critical moment for our industry.”, said Dr. Paul Dongha, Head of Responsible AI & AI Strategy at NatWest Group “As financial services organizations begin deploying agentic AI, we must move quickly but responsibly — assessing the risks of this powerful new technology, embedding robust controls before deployment, and proving those controls hold in production.”

Initial workstreams will focus on autonomous commerce and payments, where AI systems are already beginning to take action on behalf of users, institutions, and ecosystem partners. Participating organizations will collaborate on real-world use cases while testing systems against shared assurance criteria for risk classification, delegated authority, tool access, runtime behavior, auditability, and control effectiveness.

Central to TrustX for Finance is the TrustX Open AI Registry — an openly licensed governance core that makes working group outputs inspectable and reusable across the sector. The registry provides a shared schema, risk classification logic, agent blueprints, and policy and controls. The Public Edition will be free and openly available. Working group members receive early access to new blueprints, peer benchmarking data, and finance-specific implementations as they are developed.

For more information on TrustX for Finance and the Autonomous Finance Initiative, visit https://www.responsible.ai/trustx-finance/

About the Responsible AI Institute

The Responsible AI Institute is the world’s largest responsible AI non-profit and an independent organization with a decade of experience advancing practical governance and assurance systems for AI deployment across regulated industries. RAI Institute is vendor-neutral, standards-aligned, and supported by a global community of enterprises, researchers, policymakers, and responsible AI practitioners.

Through TrustX, RAI Institute enables organizations to define, control, and prove how AI systems operate before they impact real-world outcomes.

Media Contact:
news@responsible.ai

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SOURCE Responsible AI Institute

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