Six days before announcing he will not seek another term, Texas Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin submitted his biennial report to the 82nd Legislature which recommends changes in the laws regulating the insurance industry and provides information on market conditions.  Click here to view the report in its entirety.

Of particular interest to NAIFA-Texas is the recommendation to amend the Guaranty Association statute to increase the coverage limit for annuities from $100,000 to $250,000, to provide greater protection for consumers in the event their insurer becomes insolvent. Increasing consumer protections for annuities will be a major legislative initiative for NAIFA-Texas in the upcoming session.

The Commissioner's decision to leave TDI was announced Jan. 5^th in a letter to Gov. Rick Perry.  He pledged his support for a smooth transition. No exact date for Geeslin's departure was provided, and no announcement of a nominee to replace him has been made by the Governor.

Texas requires certification for resident licensees writing certain types of insurance. These certifications require the completion of training in the law and rules applicable to the insurance product they sell, solicit and negotiate a contract for. Additionally, continuing education course training is required to retain certification.

You may review 28 Texas Administrative Code §19.1022, §19.1024, §19.1026 and §19.1028 for the specific rules for these certification requirements. A continuing education chapter follows each of the certification chapters, where applicable. These certification requirements are effective on or after January 01, 2009 and affect each licensee performing the act of an agent with regards to Annuities, Medicare related products, and more.

More information is available on TDI's website at the following links:

• Annuity Certification and Continuing Education
• Long-Term Care Partnership Certification and Continuing Education
• Medicare-Related Products Certification and Continuing Education
• Small Employer Health Benefit Plans Specialty Certification

With the Jan. 21 deadline approaching for the SEC to deliver the anticipated report about the regulation of financial advisers, the fight to establish a universal standard of care is heating up. The report - mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act - will outline plans to deal with the current regulatory differences in the standard of care applicable to advisers and the standard for broker-dealers. At present, advisers must abide by a fiduciary standard which requires advisers to put clients' interests ahead of their own. Broker-dealers and life agents who sell securities must abide by a suitability standard which requires them to verify that products sold to consumers appear to suit the needs of the consumers and which requires agents and brokers to disclose possible conflicts of interest.

NAIFA has joined the influential Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) in arguing that a clear and appropriate disclosure of a conflict of interest should be sufficient protection for investors/clients. NAIFA maintains that investors can assess whether to choose to waive those conflicts for a specific investment product, strategy or practice that they feel is consistent with their best interests.

NAIFA President Terry Headley acknowledged that Congress is inclined toward a fiduciary standard and that most SEC commissioners also favor it. If the SEC proposes a uniform fiduciary standard applicable to all sellers of retail investment products, it opens up agents and brokers to litigation based on second-guessing about investments years after sales were completed.

To require all financial advisers to conduct a fee-based practice is impractical and would price many of NAIFA's middle-income customers out of the advice market. We would be hard-pressed to find any of our members who do not believe that they operate in the best interests of their clients at all times," Headley said. "They just don't want to have a lawsuit on the back end of it if something goes wrong. None of us is perfect."

As promised, House GOP members have introduced legislation (H.R. 2) to revoke the Affordable Care Act (ACA), enacted last March, as well as a resolution that calls for the development of an alternative health reform plan.

H.R. 2 completely repeals the new law and the resolution directs House committees to produce legislation that replaces the previous approach, fosters economic growth and private sector job creation, lowers health care premiums and increases the number of insured Americans.

It is anticipated that the GOP House will pass H.R. 2 which likely will fail against the Democratic majority in the Senate. The House, then, may seek to overturn key portions of the law likely beginning with the expansion of 1099 filing requirements. Click here to view a list of NAIFA modification priorities in addition to repeal of the Form 1099 filing requirements.