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March 01, 2013 at 09:01 AM
With sequestration nigh, and everything on the table for discussion, insurers are not taking any chances in Washington under any Congressional fiscal deal that could be worked out.
A coalition group called Americans to Protect Family Security, a partnership across insurance industry associations, including agents and financial advisors, organized a “fly-in” of more than 140 life insurance professionals and agents this week in Washington.
The people on the frontline of the industry descended upon Capitol Hill offices in Congress Feb. 28 to emphasize the importance of their products and make sure they were seen as essential, not tangential, as Congress tries to slash spending and increase revenue.
The group association members are American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU), GAMA International, the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI), National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA) and National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA).
The agents and insurance executives are not lobbying for a specific piece of legislation or regulatory policy point. Instead, they were trying to drive home the message that families turn to life insurance companies, agents and advisors to protect their financial futures at a time when “everything is on the table” to be cut, as one insurance industry representative said.
Products represented included life insurance, annuities, long-term care and disability income insurance.
If anything happened to the “inside build up” of life insurance products, the industry would have to radically change its actuarial assumptions and pricing, jeopardizing access to products that are envisioned to provide financial security in an age when pension plans no longer fill the bill.
