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As a consumer you need to be aware of the realities of the most recent regulatory over reach in the insurance industry. The debate was about the benchmark of fiduciary or suitability standards. In the annuity and life insurance industry agents have long been held to a suitability standard which suggested that any product solution provided for a consumer should be suitable for their financial needs. Agents have long served the public through this standard and have done no harm. Of course there is always a few agents who use predatory sales tactics and abuse consumers, these agents are always weeded out and they represent a very small sampling.
Now the Dept of Labor (DOL) comes along and decides they should jump in and protect consumers by changing the standard to a Fiduciary benchmark which basically says that a client's best interest is always the standard. Well that is not the issue here at all. The real issue is the new levels of regulatory administration and burdensome costs that go with these new levels of pseudo taxes. Insurance agents have long been regulated at the state level and consumers have strong protections from the state insurance depts. Now, the federal government wants to add an additional layer of burden and thus create new pools of revenues (this is truly what regulatory statutes are. In essence they represent a new level of taxation).
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9248477
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