November 13, 2008
Dear sir or madam…
If you find yourself in need of more evidence to support the passage of this rule, please contact my office where I will gladly provide you with a list of senior citizens who have come to our practice asking… no pleading… for help in getting their money back from annuity purchases they made in an environment of deceptive, misleading, inappropriate and most often omitted information. “I was told I could never lose money! I was not told that I had to wait the full _(?)_ year term in order to never lose money! We need the money now and we’re going to get less than we gave them ____ years ago! I call that losing money!”. If I had a $20 bill for every time I’ve heard that lament or something similar to it, I would not need to go to work in the morning. I likely still would… I just wouldn’t NEED to!
The combination of a highly commissioned product with an improperly supervised and often “bogus credentialed” and/or poorly trained salesperson makes for a potent cocktail for our senior citizens. Throw in the unsupervised use of deceptive and misleading tactics and that cocktail becomes financially lethal.
Just grab a few back issues of “insurance selling” or National Underwriter magazine and read the headlines… SEC To steal your commissions! Kiss your lavish lifestyle Goodbye! and other similar titles… with hardly a single mention of the client or their interests. It’s all about keeping the “golden goose” of indexed annuities alive in a “free-range” environment. So what if the goose has evolved into a nest-egg eating dragon… it’s still just a goose at heart… right?
Any legislator who attempts to block this critical piece of consumer protection should have his or her calendar reviewed in retrospect to see how many visits from the Insurance Lobby have occurred in the past year. What good is government if it can’t (or refuses to) protect its citizens.
I am a Certified Financial Planner Practitioner and have been insurance licensed since 1993. It was the patriarch of a client family, Arthur Moyer (deceased), who was the focus of Senator Casey’s (D –PA) testimony before the Senate Special Committee on Aging in late 2007. The panel was chaired by Senator Herb Kohl. (D-Minn?).
The insurance agent who abused Mr. Moyer is still in practice in PA today. With no other education or credential but a “Certified Senior Advisor”, this renegade continues to operate without any supervision. Not holding a securities license or employed by a member firm… he’s free to do as he pleases. There is no one to hold him to any established suitability standards.
Imagine if you will, a motorist who… after running a red-light, is pulled over by a police officer who intends to issue a summons. “You can’t issue me a summons”, replies the driver…
“I don’t have a driver’s license and therefore do not come under the jurisdiction of the traffic laws.” Sound ridiculous? Not if were talking selling a “derivative” annuity. Under current regulations it can be sold by a “non-licensed”, unsupervised salesperson who can scoff at all the suitability requirements and compliance guidelines for which his licensed, member firm colleague is held responsible.
There is simply no justification for this massive “gap” in oversight. Please close it now. You will be changing the lives of many of our seniors for the better.
A.T. "Al" Benelli, CFP, FIC
The Merlin Group
Securities & Investment Advice offered thru
Capital Financial Services, Inc.
Broker-Dealer / Investment Advisor
Member FINRA (formerly NASD)/SIPC/MSRB