Advocacy in action blog

The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance announced on September 11 that individuals who want to take the insurance producer examination may do so remotely, even after the public health crisis ends.

Maryland’s new Insurance Commissioner, Kathleen Birrane, had an opportunity to introduce herself to the state’s insurance agents and financial advisers on August 25 during a townhall webinar with NAIFA-MD, the Maryland Association of Health Underwriters and Maryland Insurance Agents and Brokers.

The Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) issued an interim final rule providing the important information employers need to comply with the new requirement that they give retirement plan participants annual illustrations of the monthly lifetime income they would receive from their retirement plan account balances.

NAIFA-GA members were invited to attend Gov. Brian Kemp’s signing of a law requiring health insurance carriers to file commissions rates they offer producers as part of their filings with the state. The law (HB 716) also gives the state Insurance Commission the power to enforce commission rates. The law will help insurance producers impacted by the Medical Loss Ratio provisions of the Affordable Care Act, which has resulted in many carriers reducing or eliminating health insurance agents’ commissions.

NAIFA President Cammie Scott submitted a comment letter on behalf of NAIFA that generally supports the Department of Labor’s proposed class exemption for investment advice fiduciaries under ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code and makes several suggestions to improve the proposal.

The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed a new rule to govern the standard of care for producers providing consumers with retirement guidance and products. NAIFA was a part of the lawsuit, along with the American Council of Life Insurers and other groups, that resulted in the DOL’s original fiduciary rule being struck down by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2018. The new proposal would create a “best interest” prohibited transaction exemption (PTE) for ERISA- and Internal Revenue Code-covered investment advice fiduciaries.

In an opinion published last Friday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the validity of the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest and rejected the challenge to the rule which had been filed last fall by a group of state attorneys general and several private financial firms. The court did not agree with the plaintiffs’ claim that the Dodd Frank Act required the SEC, if it chose to act, to adopt a standard of conduct for broker-dealers that paralleled the fiduciary standard applicable to investment advisers under the Investment Advisers Act.

NAIFA-Georgia is celebrating a win. HB 716 (Insurance; carriers issuing a health benefit plan in this state through an agent shall file proposed commission rates with the department) passed the Senate unanimously on June 26. 

Ohio’s Department of Insurance recently proposed updates to its “3901-6-13 Suitability Annuity Transactions” rule.  The state’s Director of Insurance, Jillian Froment, chaired the National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s Annuity Suitability Working Group while the working group crafted revisions to the NAIC’s “Suitability In Annuity Transactions Model Regulation (#275).”  As expected, the Ohio proposal is similar to the model. It establishes a new standard of conduct that goes beyond the rule’s current suitability standard, but it is not a fiduciary standard. 

Registered index-linked annuity (RILA) products offer a good option for some consumers who want to benefit from market growth while reducing their exposure to market losses. These are long-term, tax-deferred investments that are often well-suited for investors who are preparing for retirement, especially those who are retired or are nearing retirement and wish to reduce the impact of market downturns.