WASHINGTON BUREAU — The lawmakers who are representing the Senate in H.R. 4173 conference committee proceedings moved Tuesday to offer the Senate an amendment that would keep most indexed annuities state-regulated.
House negotiators could respond at any time today to the Senate offer.
The indexed annuity jurisdiction amendment was sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.
Senate conference committee representatives voted 8-4 to approve the amendment.
The amendment states that indexed annuities should be regulated by the states, if the issuers are domiciled in states that have adopted the indexed annuity model regulations recently developed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., or if the issuer has agreed to apply the NAIC standards to all of its indexed annuity sales.
The amendment would have no effect on the legal status of the indexed annuity products not subject to the NAIC model rules.
"This is an insurance product," Harkin told Senate conferees. "It always has been and still is today. The Security and Exchange Commission's got a lot of other things to do other than regulate what is now an insurance market."
He also defended the instruments as an appropriate investment. "No one has lost their money — period," Harkin said.
