Advocacy in action blog

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.

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-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. 

NAIFA will celebrate its 130th anniversary Thursday, June 19, with an online Town Hall meeting “The State of NAIFA on Our 130th Anniversary Celebration.”

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.

NAIFA-WI teamed up with other trade associations representing the insurance and financial services industry to push back on a potential regulatory proposal that would complicate existing data privacy and security laws. 

Colorado’s Implementation of Colorado Secure Savings Program bill, SB 200, is on a trajectory to pass. NAIFA, along with the American Council of Life Insurers, Insured Retirement Institute, and National Federation of Independent Business, worked diligently to counter the measure. There was limited time for debate. Also, the proposal is an initiative of the House Speaker. These factors make it all but impossible to defeat.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed into law SB 1557 on Friday June 5, 2020. The measure will amend the state’s requirements governing annuity recommendations and sales by requiring producers and insurers to act in the best interest of annuity purchasers and to not put their own financial interests ahead of the consumers’ interest. These revisions track amendments made earlier this year by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to the NAIC Suitability in Annuity Transactions Model Regulation, which aligns well with the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest and will raise the standard of care required of financial professionals while preserving consumers’ access to valuable financial advice, services and products.

Last week NAIFA issued a joint statement with industry association partners to denounce racial injustice. NAIFA has always advocated for financial security for all and the responses we received to our statement were overwhelmingly positive. Our active pursuit of racial equality does not support violence or any activity that works against financial security—including looting, marring our national monuments and destroying private property. We are further saddened by the damage done through rioting and in no way condone these activities as a method of protest.