November 17, 2008

Subject: File No. S7-14-08

My name is John A. Sicola. I am a Chartered Life Underwriter, member of NAIFA and MDRT. I have been in the insurance and financial services industry for 31 years. I am writing to comment on proposed rule 151A and my oppositon to it.

I have received phone calls from many clients in the past few weeks, thanking me for placing their money into a product that is doing exactly what it was intended to do, protect their principal on the downside and give them an opportunity to earn interest when conditions exist. Many of my clients are in or near retirement and are looking for safety, which this product provides.

Regarding your rule proposal to"help to curve abusive sales practices", all I can say is that your time would be better spent policing the companies and investment vehicles on what is left of Wall Street. It seems that "abusive practices" have been taking place right under our noses and were ignored in the securities industry for years.

There is absolutely no data whatsoever to support the claims of widespread abuses in selling this product. You cite abusive sales practices as the reason for the proposed change, yet the Commission provides no documentation, studies, soft or hard evidence to support their claim or position. It seems that those who are screaming the loudest are those who stand to lose the most, namely the securities industry itself.

All professionals abhor any and all abusive, fraudulent, or misleading sales practices in the insurance and securities fields. What is abusive is a federal body trying to overreach its authority and circumvent state regulations by reclassifying a fixed insurance product as a security, which it surely is not, for some political end.

Fixed Indexed Annuities are currently subjected to comprehensive state insurance regulation. What we don't need right now is another government entity trying to "fix" something that isn't broken. If you want to spend constructive use of your time, please fix Wall Street and predatory abuses that have been ignored for years.

Thank you,