{"id":12813,"date":"2018-11-12T14:39:25","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T19:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/Life-Insurance-Blog\/naic-working-group-settles-on-policy-summary-concept\/"},"modified":"2018-11-12T14:39:25","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T19:39:25","slug":"naic-working-group-settles-on-policy-summary-concept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2018\/11\/12\/naic-working-group-settles-on-policy-summary-concept\/","title":{"rendered":"NAIC Working Group Settles On Policy Summary Concept"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A state insurance commissioners’ working group ironed out a few sticking points Friday with its long-delayed\u00a0\u201cpolicy overview\u201d summary to accompany life insurance sales.<\/p>\n

With language and process proposed by Chairman Richard Wicka,\u00a0deputy chief legal counsel for the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, the group agreed to require distribution of a policy overview in tandem with the buyer’s guide on all life insurance policies.<\/p>\n

Policies without an illustration will also include a premium and benefit pattern summary, Wicka added. The group accepted these suggestions from the Center for Economic Justice.<\/p>\n

Designed to \u201cenhance consumer understanding,\u201d the two-page summary proposal has been in the works for nearly three years. The Life Insurance Illustration Issues Working Group held a final conference call in advance of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Fall Meeting this week in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

The CEJ is also pushing for specific language to help consumers with “comparison shopping” of products, said Executive Director Birny Birnbaum in a comment letter. The industry opposes a language template in the policy overview.<\/p>\n

“The tool for these purposes should be very similar across insurers for similar products,” Birnbaum wrote. “The way to address industry concern about one-size fits all is to develop templates for different categories of products.”<\/p>\n

Too Much Change<\/h2>\n

Michael Lovendusky, vice president and associate general counsel for the American Council of Life Insurers, had concerns that too much has changed from the working group’s initial charge.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s not clear to ACLI staff at least whether our member companies comprehend how the work effort is evolving and just what the practical applications are of requiring not only a policy overview, but also a premium and benefits pattern summary,” he said.<\/p>\n

While calling the effort to achieve consistency in disclosures and illustrations “admirable,” Lovendusky said those efforts can go too far.<\/p>\n

“Neither policy was intended to replace buying guide or to relive consumers of their own responsibility to learn about the products they\u2019re spending their hard-earned money to buy,” he said.<\/p>\n

But the process started with a plan to make the policy overview an attachment to illustrations, Wicka reminded him.<\/p>\n

“Now we\u2019re kind of looking at it as a standalone document. That\u2019s really the only change,” Wicka said. “As drafted, it shouldn\u2019t change any of the delivery requirements right now.”<\/p>\n

During their last call, the group was receptive to a proposal to limit the policy overview to Model Law #580, the Life Insurance Disclosure Model Regulation. The working group charge calls for a duel policy summary reviews for both model laws #580 and #582 \u2013 the Life Insurance Illustrations Model Regulation.<\/p>\n

But Birnbaum argued that it is inappropriate for the policy summary to be a part of Model Law #582.<\/p>\n

The working group will accept public comments on the new policy overview for 30 days, Wicka said.<\/p>\n

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at\u00a0john.hilton@innfeedback.com<\/a>. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Entire contents copyright 2018 by InsuranceNewsNet.com Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted without the expressed written consent from InsuranceNewsNet.com.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The post NAIC Working Group Settles On Policy Summary Concept<\/a> appeared first on InsuranceNewsNet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A state insurance commissioners’ working group ironed out a few sticking points Friday with its long-delayed\u00a0\u201cpolicy overview\u201d summary to accompany life insurance sales. With language and process proposed by Chairman Richard Wicka,\u00a0deputy chief legal...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12813"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}