Organizers Name Annuity Roundtable Panelists

March 23, 2006 at 01:25 PM
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The National Association of Securities Dealers and the Minnesota Department of Commerce have given more details about an Annuity Roundtable that they will be holding in Washington May 5.

The roundtable will include one panel that will cover annuity product features and the annuity market, and a second panel that will cover the "fragmented nature of annuities regulation."

Panelists will include securities regulators, securities group representatives, consumer advocates, executives from financial services companies, and insurance groups.

The panelist list includes North Dakota Insurance Commissioner James Poolman, chairman of the Life Insurance and Annuities Committee at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo.; Frank Keating, president of the American Council of Life Insurers, Washington; Mark Mackey, president of the National Association for Variable Annuities, Reston, Va.; and Brian Atchinson, president of the Insurance Marketplace Standards Association, Washington.

Robert Glauber, chairman of the NASD, Washington, emphasizes in the roundtable announcement that he continues to believe that regulators should find a way to harmonize the regulations governing sales of fixed annuities, variable annuities and equity-indexed annuities.

"It simply is not fair to investors that the level of disclosure and protection they receive should vary depending on which agency regulates the version of the product they're buying," Glauber says in a statement accompanying the announcement.

Glauber says the NASD is not proposing new rulemaking of its own or any expansion of its regulatory jurisdiction.

"We are proposing a concerted effort by all interested parties to bring the rules governing sales of all types of annuities into line," Glauber says. "This is about harmonizing and clarifying disparate rules, not about seeking to change regulatory turf."

A copy of the announcement is on the Web at Document Link

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