NAIFA Board OKs Federal Office Proposal

By Arthur D. Postal

May 23, 2008 at 02:56 PM

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The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors board has endorsed the idea of creating an insurance advisory office within the U.S. Treasury Department.

When members of NAIFA, Falls Church, Va., convene in September in San Diego for NAIFA?s annual meeting, they will make a decision about the idea of letting insurers and producers choose between state and federal regulation, NAIFA officials say.

The NAIFA board voted April 11 to recommend to the national council that NAIFA should support legislation creating an optional federal charter system.

H.R. 5840, the Insurance Information Act of 2008, would create the Treasury Department insurance advisory office.

The bill also would create an advisory group that would include state insurance regulators, consumer group representatives, and others in the insurance industry.

The bill was introduced April 14 by Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa.., chairman of the Capital Markets Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee.

"The decision by the NAIFA board should not be perceived as an early indicator of how the NAIFA national council will vote in September on the OFC issue," NAIFA President Jeffrey Taggart says in a statement.

"The board has simply acknowledged the need for a federal entity that understands how policies made on Capitol Hill can positively or negatively impact the insurance industry and ultimately the clients we serve," Taggart says.

CORRECTION: The nature of the NAIFA board's decision about support for a federal insurance office proposal was described incorrectly in an earlier version of this article.

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