NAFA submitted a comment letter to the New York Department of Financial Services regarding the Department’s proposed First Amendment to NY Insurance Regulation 187, Suitability in Life Insurance and Annuity Transactions (11 NCRR 224). The proposed amendment would greatly expand the current NY regulation to apply not only to annuity transactions but to all life insurance sales and would add a new best interest of standard for life insurance and annuity transactions. It would also expand the suitability analysis and duties, and it would create a much broader definition of what would be considered a “transaction,” to include not only the recommendation of the annuity or policy but to any “modification or election of a contractual provision,” creating an ongoing obligation beyond the recommendation or the issuance of the contract.
Given the uncertainty surrounding the status of the NAIC’s work on its proposed revisions to the NAIC Suitability in Annuity Transactions Model Regulation (which NAFA provided a comment letter on in January, available HERE), the still-unresolved nature of the federal fiduciary duty rule, and the expected work by the SEC to create a uniform fiduciary standard, NAFA’s comment letter to the NYDFS requests the Department to delay adoption of the Proposed Amendment and to coordinate its efforts with the work being done by the NAIC in order to create greater harmonization across state lines for the market standards related to annuity transactions. NAFA’s comment letter to the NYDFS can be found HERE.