The Insurance Marketplace Standards Association has released new suitability standards for annuities and long term care insurance.
The standards are normally available only to members of IMSA, Bethesda, Md., because of concerns that, if the standards were publicly available, non-member companies might say they were complying with the standards without actually going through the required independent assessment process, an IMSA spokeswoman says.
IMSA will make copies of the standards available to the news media for reporting purposes in the next few weeks, the spokeswoman says.
IMSA says in a description of the new standards that they incorporate essential elements of model regulations developed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo.
“Inclusion of these provisions means widespread, national application of these consumer protection standards by IMSA companies,” IMSA says.
IMSA member companies in many different states will be able to adopt one set of IMSA standards, rather than having to adopt separate standards in each state in which they operate, according to IMSA Chairman Leon Roday.