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NAIFA Media Roundup: January 2020

By NAIFA on 2/3/20 12:30 PM

Topics: State Advocacy Federal Advocacy

NAIFA was well represented in the national and trade media during January. NAIFA experts spoke on issues ranging from senior financial protection in New Jersey to a fiduciary proposal in Massachusetts.

 

[Profile of NAIFA Past Trustee Aprilyn Chavez Geissler.]

 

 

[Ran NAIFA press release.]

 

The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, offers a similar online tool. Mark Briscoe, senior director for strategic communications at Naifa, said many financial advisors can assist clients with financial-coaching services or recommend a financial coach.

 

The Financial Planning Association and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors have pushed for protective legislation for seniors for several years.

 

Wayne O. McHargue, … the Central Indiana Chapter of the Society of Financial Service Professionals, NAIFA-Indianapolis, Inc., the Estate Planning Council of Indianapolis

 

[NAIFA not mentioned, but NAIFA helped member place letter and promoted his NAIFA membership on social media.]

 

McKeon was a prime backer of the legislation. The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors’ New Jersey chapter also lobbied hard for the law.

“A law such as this is one more tool the professional members of NAIFA-NJ will have to keep older adults safe," said NAIFA-NJ President Corrado Gugliotta.

 

[Ran NAIFA’s press release.]

 

One of those included language supplied by the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, a spokesman confirms. In those letters, Massachusetts-based NAIFA members express support for the SEC's Regulation Best Interest and takes issue with the state proposal on numerous grounds, including charging that it favors the fee-based advisory model over the brokerage model, that it will inevitably drive up costs and limit choice for consumers and that it will overlap — or potentially conflict — with SEC and other state regulations.

 

California, Illinois, Oregon, Connecticut, Maryland and Massachusetts have state-run employee savings plans for private sector workers. The first five automatically enroll most workers if their employers do not offer a retirement plan. The Massachusetts plan is more narrowly tailored to nonprofit workers, according to the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.

 

[Ran NAIFA’s press release.]

 

Mimie Yoon-Lee, assistant vice president for investment advisor training at Lincoln Financial Network. She serves as the president-elect for the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors-California and trustee for the NAIFA-California State Board. Yoon-Lee joins the Curriculum Board in the life agent trade association representative seat with a term ending Jan. 21, 2023.

 

  • Lake County (CA) News, Jan. 10, 2020: “Commissioner Lara Appoints members to the Curriculum Board and the CIGA Board of Governors” https://bit.ly/2GdHY99

In her 22 years with the firm, Yoon-Lee has also served as both the director of insurance and the director of marketing. She serves as the president-elect for the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors-California, or NAIFA-California, and trustee for the NAIFA-California State Board.

 

Kyle Atkins, CFP, CLU, ChFC, is the founder and president of Kyle Atkins Financial Group, an independent financial consulting firm. Kyle is a 22-year qualifying and Lifetime member of MDRT and is also a member of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.

 

[Notes that NAIFA testified at the hearing.]

 

Industry representatives, including the American Council of Life Insurers, the Insured Retirement Institute and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisers thanked Baker for his support.

"Governor Baker expresses some of the same concerns about Secretary Galvin's proposed fiduciary regulation that NAIFA has presented in our comment letters and my public testimony at the Securities Division hearing," said Kevin Mayeux, chief executive officer of NAIFA. "The proposal has the potential to harm the very consumers it is intended to protect and could prevent many middle-market investors in Massachusetts from receiving needed products, services, and guidance. NAIFA appreciates the governor's engaging on this important issue."

 

Kevin Mayeux, the CEO of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, argued that Galvin was placing a higher value on fee-based financial service models over commission-based models, which would lead many broker/dealers to move toward a fee-based business, potentially leaving retail brokerage clients, who generally have fewer investable assets, with a loss of options. Mayeux argued Massachusetts should delay any implementation until after the National Association of Insurance Commissioners completed amending its model regulations for annuity recommendations and sales to better align with Reg BI. The NAIC’s Annuity Suitability Committee voted in favor of the amendments last week, while a final vote may happen as early as next month.

“If individual states pursue their own standard of care regulations, the likely result will be overlapping, duplicative or conflicting requirements that could increase consumer confusion and result in serious compliance issues for firms and advisors,” he said.

 

Kevin Mayeux, chief executive of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisers, said the Massachusetts proposal would lead brokers to switch from commission-based practices to a fee-based business model, which could price investors with modest assets out of the advice market.

In his testimony, he also expressed concern about the Massachusetts rule applying to insurance products, which “will likely result in increased costs to consumers of these products due to the costs of compliance with the additional regulations.”

 

Kevin Mayeux, CEO of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, said during his testimony that NAIFA has “significant concerns that the proposal, if adopted, will negatively impact the ability of small and mid-market consumers — who make up a majority of our members’ clients — to access financial products and professional advice, guidance and service.”

Why? “Because the proposal favors a fee-based, advisory business model over a commission-based brokerage model,” Mayeux said.

“If regulators pick winners and losers in the marketplace in this manner, the result will be an increase in consumers’ costs and a decrease in consumer choice.”

He stated that the Massachusetts plan’s “bias towards a fee-based advisory model is due to, among other things, the broad and vague way the proposal addresses conflicts of interest; the requirement that covered persons make recommendations, quote, ‘without regard to the financial or other interest of any party other than the customer or client’; and the increased compliance costs and responsibilities that will result from the proposal’s fiduciary duty and its ongoing obligations.”

If adopted in its current form, the proposal “will likely lead to large numbers of broker-dealers and their registered representatives changing their business practice from a commission-based brokerage practice to a fee-based business model.”

A fee-based advisory model, Mayeux argued, “is often more expensive to consumers over the long run.”

 

"We have significant concerns that the proposal, if adopted, will negatively impact the ability of small and midmarket consumers who make up a majority of our members' clients to access financial products and professional advice, guidance and service," according to prepared comments from Kevin Mayeux, chief executive officer of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisers. "This will happen because the proposal favors a fee-based, advisory business model over a commission-based brokerage model."

He said a commission compensation structure may be more economical than a fee-based structure for many investors, particularly for clients who follow a buy-and-hold investment philosophy. In addition, many investors don't meet the minimum asset requirements required by most fee-based advisers, Mayeux said.

"So my question to you is, where will these investors get advice and service?" he said. "The answer is unclear at best, and we believe these consumers will lose out on the valuable services that NAIFA members and other financial professionals provide."

NAIFA also is concerned the Massachusetts proposal appears to apply to variable annuities and insurance products in general. Current Massachusetts law does not classify annuities, including variable annuities, as securities, he said.

"Subjecting these products to an additional layer of regulation by the state's securities regulator will not provide any additional meaningful consumer protections and will likely result in increased costs ... due to the costs of compliance with the additional regulations," Mayeux said.

 

[Notes that language in some comment letters seemingly came from NAIFA.]

 

He began his insurance career at Aid Association for Lutherans, working in insurance and security sales until his retirement in 2010. Roger was a member of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) and served two years as president of the Underwriters Association for South Central District of Wisconsin.

[Also in Wiscnews.com]

 

[Ran NAIFA’s press release.]

 

… a member of the Sikeston branch of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors…

 

Passed in 2019 and going into effect Jan. 1, HB179 was brought to me by good agents that were members of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, of which I am a member and past state officer. I personally do not sell home and auto insurance, but many members do.

 

  • Cincinnati Enquirer, Jan. 2, 2020: “NAIFA Live Educational Event Helps Financial Advisors Leverage Social Media”

[Ran NAIFA’s press release.]

 

I’ve also been involved in our industry and advocacy associations. I served as the Young Advisors Team Chair for my local National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) branch for many years.

 

  • Associated Press, Jan. 1, 2020, by Jesse Paul: “Ad blitz underway against Colorado public option” https://apnews.com/78c22d29ae08feb51bb7f8cc709ab1b9

(Article ran online with Connecticut Post, Gulfport (MS) Sun Herald, Fresno Bee, Washington Times, Miami Herald, Idaho Statesman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, U.S. News & World Report, Albuquerque Journal, and many others.)

Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a deep-pocketed nonprofit created in 2018 that attacks government-run health care efforts, boasts members including health insurance providers, such as BlueCross BlueShield, and the American Hospital Association, the Federation of American Hospitals and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.

 

With our customers and their loved ones in mind, we’re also working to expand understanding and awareness of the need for planning, through collaborations like the NAIFA Limited & Extended Care Planning Center and our national initiative with the Alzheimer’s Association. Both of these focus on sharing messages of hope and of the importance of planning for every possibility.

 

[Lists NAIFA’s Congressional Conference and Performance + Purpose.]

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