November 14, 2008
Dear sirs-
I have spent 34 years as licensed insurance professional, and 31 years as a registered representative of the NASD/FINRA. I am a member in good standing with the International Association of Registered Financial Consultants. In addition to being a Life & Qualifying member of the Million Dollar Round Table and repeating recipient of the National Quality Award for exempliary client satisfaction, I am also a member in good standing of the National Ethics Bureau(NIB). I am writing to encourage you NOT TO ADOPT the "Equity-Indexed Annuity Rule", which, by the way, is a misrepresentation of these insurance instruments. The correct and accepted description is "Fixed Index Annuities". While there have been abuses by some members of the insurance industry re: the appropriate sale of these products, they are vastly in the minority, and can be and have been dealt with- when exposed- most appropriately by the Insurance Commissioners of each state. Let's keep insurance product regulation within the Insurance Departments of the states where they belong. And these Fixed Index Annuities are insurance products because of the inherent guarantees they provide re: the assurance of preservation of principal, which has certainly proven to be a God-send in these turbulant economic times. Thank you.
Sincerely,
R. Leslie Hammock,RFC