Sept. 15, 2017- NAFA, the National Association for Fixed Annuities, submits this letter in strong support of the Department of Labor’s proposed 18-month extension of the current transition period and delay of the applicability dates for the Best Interest Contract Exemption (PTE 2016-01), the Class Exemption for Principal Transactions in Certain Assets Between Investment Advice Fiduciaries and Employee Benefit Plans and IRAs (PTE 2016-02), and the Prohibited Transaction Exemption 84-24 (PTE 84-24) as set forth in the Department’s recent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.

Aug. 1, 2017 — NAFA, the National Association for Fixed Annuities, is pleased to announce and welcome Alaina Gullett as its membership and development manager effective August 1. This comes on the heels of Joe Grecu’s retirement from the industry.

Gullett joins the organization with a proven track record of success in operations, marketing, membership and education in the various roles she most recently held at the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME). She was promoted twice within her four years at the organization due to her ability to manage projects and resources efficiently and effectively. In addition to planning various programming for CHIME, she led the efforts of establishing a 97% membership retention rate within the organization and consistently exceeded growth goals. Prior to her time at CHIME, she got her feet wet in the financial services industry as a commissions processing specialist for a broker-dealer under the Sigma Financial umbrella.

Read the entire press release here.

Aug. 9, 2017 — In response to the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) request for information (RFI) issued July 6, NAFA, the National Association for Fixed Annuities, submitted a comment letter outlining recommended revisions to the fiduciary rule and its prohibited transaction exemptions. Specifically, the letter provides the Department with rationale for expanding the scope of PTE 84-24 to cover fixed indexed annuities as well as fixed rate annuities.

View Comment Letter here.

July 25, 2017- In a letter submitted to the U.S. Department of Labor, NAFA, the National Association for Fixed Annuities, is urging the Department to extend the January 1, 2018 implementation date of the fiduciary duty rule (“the Rule”).  NAFA’s comment letter was filed in response to a July 6, 2017 Request for Information in which the Department sought input regarding the advisability of extending the January 1, 2018 applicability date of certain provisions of the Rule relating to the prohibited transactions exemptions, including the Best Interest Contract (“BIC”) Exemption and PTE 84-24.

View the comment letter here.

WASHINGTON (Dec. 8, 2016) — The general membership of NAFA, the National Association for Fixed Annuities, approved recommendations for its newly elected 2017 board of directors at the association’s annual meeting held recently in Phoenix, Ariz. Nominations were received from the membership at large, and candidates were thoroughly vetted by the current board before being announced. With all present at the meeting in favor of the new appointments, five members will actively begin filling their roles effective Jan. 1, 2017.

Newly appointed board members include: Margo Thompson of The Annuity Source, Inc., Lauri Beck of Insurance Network America, Heather Kane of EquiTrust Life Insurance Co., Jeff Maxey of InsurMark and Mike Morrone of Nationwide.

Brian Mann of Partners Elite Advisory Group will assume the role of chairman of the board of directors, taking over for exiting chair Nathan Zuidema of Imeriti Financial Network. Dominic Cursio of M3 Financial, Inc will roll up to vice chair and Jim Maietta of Allianz to secretary, while Chris Conroy of CreativeOne will join the executive operating committee as its newly appointed treasurer.

Washington, May 23, 2017 -
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) issued the following statement regarding today’s decision by the Department of Labor on the controversial fiduciary rule:
“I was there in the Oval Office when President Trump signed his Presidential Memorandum on the Obama administration’s fiduciary rule. I don’t see how the Department of Labor’s decision is commensurate with the President’s Memorandum, so I am disappointed. It regrettably appears Obama era bureaucrats in the Department of Labor may have been allowed to overrule President Trump’s wishes. I am especially disappointed for those low and moderate income Americans who rely upon investment advice to plan their retirements. This flawed fiduciary rule means their costs will likely go up and their choices will likely go down – just like with Obamacare. Republicans believe we must preserve access, choice and affordability so Americans who like their retirement planner can keep their retirement planner, which is exactly what the Financial CHOICE Act will accomplish. That’s why I urge the administration to repropose the rule as soon as possible.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-TN) released the following statement in response to Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta’s decision to allow the fiduciary rule to partially take effect June 9, 2017:

“The misguided, Obama-era fiduciary rule drives up the cost of investment advice for low- and middle-income investors and makes it harder, not easier, for workers to save for retirement. From the day it was first announced, this rule was a solution in search of a problem. If this is the direction the secretary believes is necessary, I will strongly urge him to expedite additional relief from the rule, and in the long-term, will continue advocating the reversal of this flawed rule. More must be done to ensure Americans can more easily receive the advice they need to adequately save for retirement.”

Dr. Roe recently led a letter of 124 members in writing to the Secretary urging him to permanently delay the rule.

Continue Reading the Press Release HERE

Washington, D.C., May 8, 2017 – NAFA, the National Association for Fixed Annuities, released the following statement today from its Executive Director Chip Anderson:

“NAFA expresses its gratitude to those members of Congress who have signed letters calling for delay of the June 9th implementation of the DOL fiduciary rule.  In separate letters, key members of the Senate HELP Committee led by Chairman Lamar Alexander, Chairman Hensarling with Congresswoman Wagner and Congressman Huizenga and 124 Representatives led by Congressman Phil Roe, have urged the Department of Labor to delay the rule in its entirety.”

“While NAFA greatly appreciates the support from Congress, make no mistake about it, NAFA still appeals directly to President Trump and Secretary Acosta to exercise their authority to stop any part of this Rule from going into effect before the DOL has completed its reexamination of the Rule as called for by the President’s own February 3rd memorandum.”

“If the Rule itself, along with the so-called Impartial Conduct Standards, are allowed to take effect on June 9th, it will be extremely traumatic for our industry, and, worse yet, it will be very harmful to consumers who will lose access to advice and products that are badly needed.”

“NAFA has launched a White House grassroots campaign because we want the Administration to understand the disappointment and anxiety being felt by our membership, which thought President Trump would never allow such a far-reaching excessive regulation to get this far.  We can report over 2000 members have already written the White House, and we anticipate hundreds more will be doing so in the weeks ahead.”

“NAFA feels strongly DOL must examine the Rule in accordance with the White House memorandum because there has yet to be an objective analysis of the Rule’s adverse effects.  In its recent comment letter submitted to DOL, NAFA pointed out the regulatory impact analysis used to justify the rule was flawed in numerous ways, and axiomatically defective because it failed to account at all for the positive effects of commissions in the fixed annuity industry which encourage agents to help consumers purchase annuities as opposed to leaving money in low-earning CDs or riskier investments.”

“We have a little more than a month to stop this runaway train.  NAFA is pulling out all the stops to try to prevent any part of this rule going live on June 9^th.”

Download the Press Release HERE.

Washington, D.C., April 28, 2017 – NAFA, the National Association for Fixed Annuities, released the following statement from Chip Anderson, NAFA’s Executive Director, on the confirmation of Alexander Acosta as the Secretary of the Department of Labor.

“NAFA, extends its congratulations to Alexander Acosta on his confirmation as Secretary of the Department of Labor. We look forward to working with Secretary Acosta and are hopeful that he will bring much-needed leadership to the agency and will direct his immediate attention to delaying the June 9th implementation date of the fiduciary rule.”

“President Trump’s February 3 Memorandum was unequivocal in its directive to the Secretary that his Department conduct a full examination of the rule and to prepare an updated economic and legal analysis of the likely impacts of the rule before moving forward with any implementation of the rule’s new requirements.  The Department’s decision to implement certain parts of the rule on June 9^th – including the new fiduciary definition and the impartial conduct standards – is in direct violation of the President’s order.

“NAFA strongly urges Secretary Acosta to take immediate action to delay the June 9^thimplementation date while the Department conducts its required review of the rule.”

Download the Press Release HERE.

The DOL fiduciary rule will take effect in just four weeks – on June 9, 2017 – unless President Trump acts to stop this ill-conceived rule that will hurt our industry and our clients.  Over 3000 of you have already written President Trump!  But we need many more of you to get letters into the White House.

To those of you who have responded already – a huge THANKS.

To those of you who have not yet responded – this is your chance – it is urgent to act NOW.

We must tell President Trump to stop this unworkable rule immediately.

Make your voice heard now! – Click Here

It is easy to do and can make a big difference.  We need as many of you as possible to deliver this critical message to President Trump.

And please watch for more NAFA alerts on how you can help make sure our voices are heard.