John Mangan, ACLI regional vice president, state relations, participated in the Nevada Office of Secretary of State’s workshop on developing fiduciary regulations. A summary of Mr. Mangan’s opening comments:

“The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) supports appropriately-tailored, uniform standards requiring all financial sales professionals to act in the best interest of their customers.

“The reason behind ACLI’s advocacy for this position is clear. As retirement savers address their financial and retirement security needs, they should have continued access to a wide variety of retirement products. They should have retirement savings information and related financial guidance from financial professionals acting in their best interest, regardless of the retirement products they purchase or whom they turn to for advice.

“Life insurers provide these tools on a daily basis. Life insurers create and market products and services that fulfill consumers’ retirement, tax and savings needs.

“These activities should be regulated by strong. carefully-crafted and uniformly applied standards that serve the best interests of consumers and financial professionals alike. Such standards should avoid conflicting or duplicative regulation and preclude harmful regulatory arbitrage.

“The U.S. Department of Labor’s effort to promote a best interest standard of care through its fiduciary regulation has proven detrimental to small and moderate retirement savers by driving away financial professionals, creating an advice gap for those most in need of help. Some retirement service providers have already begun to move retirement investors from advised to self-directed products. Others have increased account minimums for advised accounts, or will require commission-based account holders to either enter into fee-based arrangements or to go without any advice.

“Meanwhile, numerous regulatory initiatives addressing issues parallel to the Nevada Workshop are currently under examination by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and state insurance regulators. Deliberative awareness of these initiatives and their timetables is important to the Nevada Workshop and for any regulations that are developed.

“Rulemaking implementing Nevada SB 383 which modified Chapters 90 and 628A of the Nevada Revised Statutes should focus on uniform best interest standards where adequate consumer protections do not currently exist.

“With jurisdiction broader than most regulators, state insurance regulators are best positioned to exercise leadership toward a uniform best interest standard across all state and federal regulatory platforms.

October 6. 2017
Las Vegas, NV

The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association with approximately 290 member companies operating in the United States and abroad. ACLI advocates in federal, state, and international forums for public policy that supports the industry marketplace and the 75 million American families that rely on life insurers’ products for financial and retirement security. ACLI members offer life insurance, annuities, retirement plans, long-term care and disability income insurance, and reinsurance, representing 94 percent of industry assets in the United States. Learn more at www.acli.com.