By
San Francisco
After the American Council of Life Insurers warned regulators that a compact project for a single filing point for life insurance products could be heading for a ditch, the ACLI was accused of “speaking out of both sides of its mouth” on the issue.
“Are we heading in the right direction or are we heading for a ditch? There is serious danger that it will fail to meet its objective,” said Diana Marchese, representing the ACLI, Washington.
The remarks concerning an effort by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., to create an interstate compact for life insurance product filings were made during the NAICs summer meeting here.
Those remarks surprised Alabama Commissioner Walter Bell, who is heading up the effort. He responded to ACLI comments by stating that he thought all parties were happy with the projects speed and progress.
NAIC President and South Carolina Commissioner Ernst Csiszar said, “I recall very vividly [the ACLI] saying that we can live with any standards as long as they were uniform. I dont think you should be playing both sides of the game. Standards [for the compact] will be in place by December. ACLI cannot speak out of both sides of its mouth on this one.”
Of ACLIs criticism, Csiszar said, “I am personally upset about it. We are trying to do our darndest to get standards in place. Im rather ticked. This is an area in which we are finally making progress and doing it quickly.”
The ACLIs comments “seem almost Machiavellian in a way,” Csiszar continued. “They are really setting us up for failure and Im wondering if that is really what they want so they can go to the Feds and say that we cant get anything done.”
During her comments at a regular quarterly session designed for insurers and regulators to dialogue on issues, Marchese said the reason the compact project could be “significantly off course” is that standards of a minority of states rather than the majority of states are being incorporated into compact standards.