Just Poking Around

Some years ago, I was pruning a pyracantha bush when I spotted a huge wasp nest in among its foliage. I looked it over carefully and could not discern any signs of life. It appeared that it had served its purpose and was no longer inhabited. But just to be sure, I gave it a few sharp pokes with a stick before attempting to remove it. Suddenly the deceptively benign nest came alive, and, like speeding bullets, I was hit by 3 of its warriors. The most painful was a hit in the ear. In a matter of minutes, I looked like a seasoned wrestler, complete with cauliflower ear and lumps on my head.

It was a painful lesson that I have never forgotten. When you see something that has the potential to be hostile, “don’t poke around it,” for any provocation may produce a painful response.

It appears to me this is a lesson that some in our business refuse to consider or heed. Poking around federal governmental entities in search of a better regulatory climate, while benign on the surface, also has the potential for painful results. I have always understood why federal regulation of insurance would have some appeal in the law departments of major companies. But, for the life of me, I have never understood why the marketing departments of those same companies did not offer strenuous objections. Surely the probable loss of anti-rebate and replacement statutes offered by state regulation would offset any possible gain in policy filing and approval in federal regulation.

There have always been some in the government’s hornet’s nest who would relish inflicting a bit of pain on our business. Our past experiences with the Federal Trade Commission are a case in point. I remember that battle as if it were yesterday, and indeed there was pain that took several years to heal.

And now we have evidence to support the foregoing concerns. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has introduced Senate Bill 618, which would repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act that has ceded regulation of insurance to the states for the past 60-plus years. While not perfect, this action has enabled the business to grow far beyond anyone’s expectations. Given the fact that one of the sponsors (a warrior, in this case) is Sen. Trent Lott, minority whip, and the fact that he has vowed vengeance upon the industry because of a dispute over his personal insurance claim following Hurricane Katrina, one could hardly view S. 618 as a positive for our business. In fact, it would turn much of insurance regulation over to the FTC, and it would not eliminate state regulation. Double trouble from poking around!

Because the industry has broadened its product base, we have already attracted additional regulation from other agencies (the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Association of Securities Dealers, in particular) and I do not know of anyone who views this development as making life simpler for field people or home office people.