An annuity technology firm, iPipeline, is talking to its customers in person this week about what the U.S. Labor Department's new annuity sales requirements will mean for annuity distribution tech.
The department told agents and brokers to put clients first when recommending strategies and products and to document the reasons for their recommendations.
The rule drafters suggested that independent marketing organizations, field marketing organizations and brokerage general agencies could help annuity producers meet the requirements.
Executives from iPipeline, which has about 750 IMO, FMO and BGA customers, are now meeting in Orlando, Florida, with representatives from hundreds of the firms at its annual customer conference.
For Robert Powell, iPipeline's vice president for wealth management sales, one key question is how the new requirements will affect the distributors' role.
"Who will take ownership of suitability?" Powell asked in a recent interview.
What it means: Companies like iPipeline are looking for ways to make fiduciary standard compliance tolerable, and to understand how the standard will change their customers' strategies.
The history: The company now known as iPipeline was founded in 1995 as an annuity distribution systems business.
Roper Technologies, a technology company, acquired it from a private equity firm in 2019.
The company competes in the financial services distribution market with businesses like Zinnia's AnnuityNet arm and Hexure's FireLight arm.
