The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) has helped agents stay in the health coverage ballgame, Thomas Currey said earlier this month at the group’s annual meeting in Seattle, which was attended by some 2,000 life insurance and financial services professionals.
Currey, the group’s outgoing president, talked about the health legislation battle during the conference’s opening session of the four-day meeting, which has attracted about 2,000 life insurance and financial services professionals.
Currey says NAIFA helped improve the Affordable Care Act, the legislative package that includes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), by contributing to the battle to block the creation of a government-run “public option” plan.
NAIFA also played an important role in the fight to ensure that consumers will continue to have access to licensed insurance agents, and to cut out a provision that would have let the U.S. Departmen
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An arm of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners has drafted a model bulletin that would encourage insurers to guard against participating in stranger-originated annuity transactions.
The Life Insurance and Annuities Committee at the NAIC, Kansas City, Mo., has posted a STOA model exposure draft on its section of the NAIC website.
The committee is asking members of the public to submit comments on the draft by Oct. 8.
A STOA is a transaction initiated by an agent, investors or others who pay a fee for the right to use an individual’s identity to buy an annuity offering high returns. T
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As of August, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and law enforcement in 24 states had filed 54 lawsuits and regulatory actions to crackdown on the fraudulent marketing of “medical discount plans” as health insurance. This crackdown has now reached a local level. Like what you see? Click here to sign up for Insurance Networking News weekly newsletter to get the latest on breaking industry news, carrier technology implementations and developing business and technology trends. The Minnesota Department of Commerce recently issued a consent order and levied a $100,000 fine against New York-based National Union Fire Insurance Co. Full Article…
The number of Americans with health insurance fell in 2009. About 253.6 million people had public or private health coverage in 2009, down from 255.1 million in 2008. The decline marks the first decline since the government began tracking the figure in 1987, according to Bloomberg. Like what you see? Click here to sign up for Insurance Networking News weekly newsletter to get the latest on breaking industry news, carrier technology implementations and developing business and technology trends. About 50.7 million people lacked health insurance in 2009, up almost 10% from 46.3 million in 2008. This has already proved to impact health insurers’ business. I Full Article…
The Insurance Marketplace Standards Association (IMSA) board wants to replace IMSA with the Life Insurers’ Forum for Ethics and Compliance (LIFEC), a group that would focus on helping life compliance professionals do their jobs.
The board of IMSA, Bethesda, Md., is having the group’s 61 member companies vote on a proposal to put IMSA’s intellectual property, compliance products and services, and staff in the new LIFEC group.
LIFEC – which has an acronym that could be pronounced either “Lie-fek” or “Life See” — would “work closely with professionals serving the life insurance industry to identify and offer products and services designed to assist their efforts to promote sound ethics and compliance practices in the life insurance marketplace,” IMSA officials say.
The IMSA board plans to announce the results of the vote Oct. 19, at the IMSA ann
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For the last three years, private mortgage insurers have suffered two great woes: credit losses on policies written before the crisis and an inability to compete with Federal Housing Administration prices on new insurance.
The latter problem, however, may soon be taken care of. On Oct. 4, the FHA plans to raise its premiums. Industry players and analysts say this price hike could restore the competitiveness of private insurance, potentially letting the companies win back market share and rebuild their reserves.
For that to come about, the insurers must regain the trust of their lender customers after intense feuds over the carriers’ attempts to rescind policies on soured loans. Full Article…
WASHINGTON BUREAU — The Senate today cleared the way for H.R. 5297, the Small Business Jobs Act bill, to reach the floor without changing a provision that could greatly expand Form 1099 reporting requirements.
Members voted 61-37 in favor of a cloture motion, or limit on debate, on the bill as a whole, which would revive a number of tax breaks that expired in December 2009. All Democrats and independents voted for cloture. Sens. George LeMieux, R-Fla., and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, also voted for cloture.
A Form 1099 amendment that was proposed by Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Fla., and supported by the Obama administration failed by a 56-42 vote.
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I am planning on taking a life insurance policy, but every time I fill a quote, I am being contacted often, I can’t even make a proper decision if there’s so much pressure.
Bottom line, is there any place where I can get a free insurance quote, provided I won’t be bombarded with a zillion phone calls and emails, exerting a great deal of pressure to decide. Also, they must offer free consultation, not just a list of options.
If anyone knows any service like this, please do let me know.
Regards, Jill