Advocacy in action blog

The RILA Act has cleared the hotline in the Senate (meaning all 100 Senators have agreed to allow it to pass). Next, bill sponsor Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) will try to add it to the end-of-the-day “wrap up” package along with all the other cleared bills, resolutions, and organizing agreements.

On July 28, the House Financial Services Committee voted to advance a bipartisan bill requiring the Securities and Exchange Commission to create a new form for registering index-linked annuities, which allows investors to save for retirement in a more streamlined process.

A bipartisan bill to direct the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue a new form for annuity issuers to use when filing registered index-linked annuities has been reintroduced in the House. 

Over the last two years, NAIFA-CT worked diligently with state legislators supporting legislation to provide Connecticut residents unlimited protection from creditors of the cash value of life insurance. The bill ran unopposed through a public hearing in June. It then passed the House and Senate and on July 12, and Gov. Ned Lamont signed it into law.

Alabama, Maine, and Virginia have joined 12 other states in adopting consumer-protection regulations or legislation based on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC’s) Suitability in Annuity Transactions Model. The NAIC model requires financial professionals to work in the best interests of their clients during annuities transactions and aligns with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Best Interest. It also preserves the ability of consumers to work with agents and advisors offering a variety of successful business models and avoids restrictions that would likely make it impossible for financial professionals to work with Main Street investors and retirement savers.

When Colorado legislators on June 8 introduced changes to the state’s tax laws that would impact insurance companies, consumers, and retirement savers, NAIFA’s state advocacy team sprang to action. The original version of the “Adjust Tax Expenditures For State Education Fund Act” (HB20-1420) would have expanded the state’s tax on some insurance premiums to include a broader range of annuity products. It also would have removed a credit applied to existing premium taxes for insurance companies that maintain home offices in Colorado.

Iowa and Arizona are the first states to introduce measures that would implement a model standard of care for annuity sales developed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). NAIFA chapters in both states successfully advocated for the NAIC model.