Consumer advocates are asking the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a group for state insurance regulators, to set up a national directory site for consumers looking for individual insurance policies and annuities.
The site should resemble the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's BrokerCheck directory for securities brokers, and it should give information about nonprofit navigators, assisters and counselors as well as for agents, brokers and consultants, according to Richard Weber, the treasurer of the Life Insurance Consumer Advocacy Center, and Harry Ting, an independent health care consumer advocate.
"BrokerCheck is an excellent model," Weber and Ting told regulators in Indianapolis at a recent in-person meeting organized by the NAIC's NAIC/Consumer Liaison Committee, according to a session document packet.
The NAIC "is uniquely qualified to help," because it already maintains an insurance producer database, already helps fight insurance fraud and already posts advice for consumers about how to choose insurance producers on the web, the advocates said.
The BrokerCheck site gives information about where a broker is licensed to operate, what exams the broker has passed, and a summary of their employment and disciplinary history.
An insurance advisor website should provide similar information, and it should provide information about advisors who help individual consumers with all different types of insurance and annuity products, Weber and Ting said.
Weber and Ting pointed to reports about consumers coping with deceptive marketing practices and buying what regulators see as questionable products as evidence for why an insurance advisor website is needed.
Consumers clearly need more help than they're getting with finding ethical, knowledgeable live-human advisors who can educate them, help them find suitable options, help them compare options and advocate for them with the insurers, the advocates said.
A national website would be better than a single-state site, because a national site could help users learn about the disciplinary actions facing an insurance advisor in another state, the advocates added.
Credit: PaeGAG/Adobe Stock
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.