WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, CHIP HILTON?
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Investment Management Roundtable Discussion – Personal Estate Planning
On July 1, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced new rules for registered index-linked annuities (RILAs) and registered market-value adjustment annuities (MVAs). The new rules will significantly impact...more
In Ross v. Venerable Insurance & Annuity Co., a Missouri appellate court reversed judgment in favor of the named beneficiary of a flexible premium deferred annuity contract. Following the annuitant’s death, the beneficiary...more
Regulators Hit Jackpot: Off-Channel Communications - Several years before announcing the first “off-channel” communications enforcement action, the SEC and FINRA cautioned broker-dealers and investment advisers about...more
Worried that the cards may be stacked against certain consumers and producers, the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) released a circular letter and filing guidance note on July 17 to remind insurers of their...more
Earlier this week, the New York Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) published Circular Letter No. 6 (2023) identifying activities by life insurance and annuities providers that it views as being unlawfully discriminatory...more
New guidance from the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) takes aim at improper discrimination by life and annuity writers in the state. DFS Insurance Circular Letter No. 6, issued on July 17, explains that New...more
On July 17, 2023, the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) issued Insurance Circular Letter No. 6 (2023) (“Letter No. 6”) and a concurrent press release seeking to clarify, and in our opinion repeal, earlier...more
UK regulator continues to raise concerns that current market practices could lead to systemic risk. The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has issued another communication, the latest of a series related to...more
On February 24th, the NAIC Life Insurance and Annuity (A) Committee (A Committee) adopted amendments to Actuarial Guideline (AG) 49-A to address a concern raised by state insurance regulators regarding the use of...more
After a blustery fall, the NAIC’s Life Actuarial (A) Task Force (LATF) adopted the following at its December 2022 meeting: Actuarial Guideline LIV – Nonforfeiture Requirements for Index-Linked Variable Annuity Products...more
More than 25 years have elapsed since the SEC adopted Exchange Act Rule 17a-4(f) governing electronic recordkeeping by broker-dealers. In an effort to update the rule to reflect “technology neutral” concepts, the SEC adopted...more
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed the dismissal of a putative class action against a brokerage firm and its parent company, holding that the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act (SLUSA) barred the...more
On July 25, 2022, the Index-Linked Variable Annuity (A) Subgroup of the NAIC’s Life Insurance and Annuities (A) Committee issued for public comment an exposure draft of proposed actuarial guidelines for index-linked variable...more
The National Council of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) unanimously agreed to waive a red flag protesting insurers’ offers of enhanced cash surrender values. At its summer meeting, NCOIL adopted a Resolution Identifying Certain...more
The Mitchell Williams Insurance Regulatory team of lawyers recently attended the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) 2022 Summer National Meeting which was held in Portland, Oregon on August 9-13th. We have...more
On August 15th, the NAIC’s Life Actuarial (A) Task Force (LATF) re-exposed for comment four options to address a concern raised by state insurance regulators regarding the use of illustrations for indexed universal...more
The death of a loved one brings stress, despair and grief. It also often precipitates disagreements regarding the intended beneficiary of an annuity, life insurance policy or other account of the decedent. The financial...more
Most of you know by now that I grew up in the Panama Canal Zone which no longer exists as of 1999. In that respect, the transition left me as a man without a country. My father (of blessed memory) when referring to kids...more
The Life Insurance and Annuities (A) Committee sprang into action during the NAIC Spring 2022 National Meeting in April. The A Committee discussed recent activities and 2022 plans for its Life Actuarial Task Force (LATF), its...more
Yet another battle in the actuarial equivalence fight has just been resolved—and is immediately headed for appellate review. In Belknap v. Partners Healthcare System, Inc., the Plaintiff argued that the annuity payment he...more
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) held its 2021 Fall National Meeting from December 11 to 16 in San Diego, California. The meeting was held in a hybrid in-person and remote format due to the ongoing...more
Court Emphasizes Disclosure Substance Over Form - A recent decision in Nofsinger v. Jackson National Life Insurance Co. shut down a putative class action in which the plaintiff alleged she surrendered her annuity contract...more
In December 2020, by amending the Standard Nonforfeiture Law for Individual Deferred Annuities (Model 805), the NAIC gave the green light to lower the minimum standard nonforfeiture rate to 0.15% in response to the persistent...more
The Cayman International Reinsurance Companies Association (CIRCA) was founded earlier this year to promote the interests of commercial reinsurers in the Cayman Islands and to work collaboratively with all stakeholders in the...more
Structured settlements most often take the form of fixed payment annuities, for the most part funded by the tort defendant (or its liability insurer) in a wrongful death or personal injury suit, but are the resulting periodic...more