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October 22, 2007 at 12:26 PM
Producer licensing reciprocity and easing of accelerated death benefit rules are two of the issues surfacing at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Life Insurance and Annuities Committee.
Kentucky Insurance Commissioner Julie McPeak, chair of the committee, talked about the committee’s agenda here Sunday at the annual conference of the American Council of Life Insurers, Washington.
It has been an “interesting year” for the committee, said McPeak, who took over as chair of the Life and Annuities Committee from James Poolman, the former North Dakota commissioner.
McPeak said she is excited about getting the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Commission up and running and cutting approval times for some products to less than 30 days.
But fees at the IIPRC may be “a little bit steep, I think, for smaller companies,” McPeak said.
Meanwhile, in the area of producer licensing, “the industry doesn’t think we’re doing so well at reciprocity,” McPeak said.
To learn why agents and others think state producer licensing systems are diverging, the NAIC, Kansas City, Mo., intends to “go in and take a state-by-state look” at the licensing process “from point A to point Z,” McPeak said.
States may be following the letter of the licensing laws, but some may be weakening uniformity by seeking additional information from potential licensees, McPeak said.
Discussing the NAIC’s new viatical settlements model law update, McPeak said the revised model would impose a 5-year ban on “a very limited group of transactions” that the NAIC feels require extra scrutiny.
“We all know there are completely appropriate life settlements, completely appropriate premium financing and completely appropriate life insurance products,” McPeak said.
But regulators do want to root out the transactions that could cause problems, McPeak said.
So far, she said, regulators in 13 states have talked about plans to take up the viatical model act during their legislative sessions.
Kentucky will not be one of those 13 states.
