With a Little Help From My Friends

"A battle is brewing between the insurance industry and the [SEC] over a proposal that would put equity-indexed annuities under the purview of securities regulators. ... Such a move would have far-reaching implications for insurance companies and agents selling these products as well as for consumers, says Rachel Alt-Simmons, a research director in the inurance practice at research firm, TowerGroup. ... New opportunities for broker-dealer firms and insurance companies, to sell equity-indexed annuities, however, will emerge as the products 'lose their ambiguous regulatory status', she says", Daisy Maxey at the WSJ, 7 August 2008.

This is an SEC attempt to take this product from insurance agents and give it to stock brokers. Does the SEC, which claims to be spread thin, need to regulate these products, or can it leave them to state insurance regulators? This is another SEC "payoff" to stock brokers. While I'm no big fan of the insurance industry, I'm in its corner on this one. Chris Cox, get lost.