WASHINGTON A model regulation on the sale of fixed and variable annuities to seniors has hit turbulent airspace a week from the New York meeting of the
The NAICs life & annuity committee drafted the current suitability regulation this year, following a fixed annuity suitability model law and regulation that floundered last year. It was stymied by opposition from industry, producer and consumer groups alike. The new effort took the industry by surprise, but
A May draft of the new suitability regulation "echoed NASD conduct rules," said Riva Kinstlick, vice president of government affairs at
Since then, two conference calls have eroded progress in the work and a movement towards consensus. "A work in progress is a little strong. Its more like a work falling apart," said Lawrence Mirel, commissioner of the District of Columbia
He described the most recent call as chaotic and said that regulators themselves are having a difficult time agreeing on the matter. " Merwin Stewart [chairman of the committee and the insurance commissioner of
One issue regulators disagree on is the degree of responsibility of the carrier in the sale, Kinstlick said. The initial draft, which many regulators supported, required insurers to review every application. "In the case of an unaffiliated broker/dealer, the carrier is not in a position to review every application, certainly without tremendous delays. It just doesnt seem feasible."
For this reason, the proposed regulation was changed, but not all regulators are satisfied with that level of oversight of the sales process. Also, the model regulation still does not define what constitutes suitability and how that is to be determined.
Interestingly enough, the NAICs inclusion of variable annuities in the suitability regulation may have stemmed from the industrys vigorous opposition to proposed state securities regulation of variable annuities, said David Brant, securities commissioner of
