The Insurance Marketplace Standards Association has opened a certification program that will help life insurers keep tabs on outside annuity distributors.
IMSA, Bethesda, Md., says the clearinghouse will gather certifications of supervision of annuity suitability from third-party annuity distributors.
IMSA started the clearinghouse in response to a new annuity suitability model regulation developed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., and implemented by about 30 states.