States to Send New CEO Into Annuity Sales Standards Fight

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has named Gary Anderson to be its new chief executive officer.

Anderson will take over as CEO May 1, after his term as Massachusetts’ insurance commissioner ends, NAIC officials announced Saturday in Phoenix, at the group’s spring national meeting.

What it means: Anderson will have a key seat at the table when insurers, financial services groups and state insurance regulators are wrestling with the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Congress over the standards that should apply to sales of annuities and other financial services products.

The NAIC: Federal law leaves regulation of the business of insurance to the states.

The NAIC is a Kansas City, Missouri-based group that helps state insurance regulators coordinate their activities and work with the federal government.

It has about 520 employees and reported generating $151 million in revenue on $192 million in assets in 2023, according to its new annual report.

Andrew Mais, the Connecticut insurance commissioner, will continue to be the group’s president.

The NAIC is involved in many legislative efforts in Washington, ranging from Medicare plan marketing standards to ideas for holding down the cost of personal property insurance.

The NAIC has also developed and updated many sets of annuity sales standards over the years. Today, the NAIC is promoting an annuity suitability model update it developed to complement the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest to serve as a potential alternative to the efforts by the Labor Department to impose a fiduciary standard on individuals and companies that help retirement savers roll assets from 401(k) plans or individual retirement arrangements into nonvariable annuities.