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June 25, 2006 at 04:00 PM
Just prior to the start of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ summer meeting in Washington earlier this month, I was able to catch up with an old friend who is a railroad buff.
In the course of conversation, my friend noted his son Tim’s fascination with old railroad trains. In fact, he and his son are planning a trip to ride the California Western Railroad, more colorfully known as the Skunk Train. The Skunk Train earned its name because the smell of its gas engine combined with smoke from a pot-bellied stove that kept loggers warm preceded its arrival at station stops.
He noted how his son’s taste in railroad trains differed from his more practical preference for faster, modern trains.
The contrast between speed and old-fashioned dependability and the need for both was something that also surfaced during the NAIC meeting.
The first meeting of the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Compact Commission marked a quantum leap forward in the quest for speedier delivery of life insurance products to the marketplace. In record time, state insurance commissioners, state legislators, life insurers and producers marshaled efforts to enact a single point of product filing that will go a long way toward making the life insurance industry more competitive with other financial services sectors.
The feat was accomplished in the regulatory equivalent of bullet train speed, with 27 states hopping on board the compact in a little over two years. States in the compact represent about 41% of premium volume. The compact includes life insurance, annuities, disability income and long term care insurance products.
Now that the compact train is ready to leave the station we’ll be interested in monitoring its journey.
