"We're not willing to answer your questions." Stephen P. Horvat, Jr., Esquire, on behalf of Midland National Life Insurance Company, quoted by David S. Hilzenrath, "Politics Puts Insurance Regulators in a Bind" (Washington Post.com, Friday, June 12, 2009).
An assault on Life Insurance Companies' Reserves requirements began nearly five (5) years ago, in late 2004, it is reported by David S. Hilzenrath, "Politics Puts Insurance Regulators in a Bind" (Washington Post.com, Friday, June 12, 2009). What is not reported in the linked article is that Life Insurance Companies' Reserves requirements were adopted and in effect for years before.
On the eve of a meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to consider the latest steps in loosening Life Insurance Companies' Reserves requirements -- which directly affect the ability of Life Insurance Companies to pay Claims on their Life Insurance Policies -- the linked article reports these fairly recent developments in this story:
December, 2004: The NAIC begins "to make the shift".
March, 2005: Life Insurance Companies put together a lobbying operation they call the Affordable Life Insurance Alliance.
"Early 2005": A newly elected Insurance Commissioner from North Dakota, sympathetic to relaxing Life Insurance Companies' Reserves requirements, becomes Chair of the NAIC Life Insurance Committee.
May, 2005: The Alliance holds either a "fundraiser" or a "reception," depending in part on who provides the description, for the subject North Dakota Insurance Commissioner.
July, 2005: The Chair of the NAIC Life Insurance Committee, who is the same North Dakota Insurance Commissioner, reportedly announces that he is changing the agenda of an upcoming meeting to devote it entirely to Reserves requirements.
August, 2005: The NAIC Life Insurance Committee Chair/North Dakota Insurance Commissioner holds a Hearing "at which members of the [Life] insurance industry pressed their case."
Other events occur in the interim, detailed somewhat in the linked newspaper report, until 2007, when the North Dakota Insurance Commissioner resigns, "and became an insurance industry consultant". In 2009, reportedly "he has served as spokesman for a coalition of [Life] insurers arguing that the Securities and Exchange Commission should leave regulation of certain annuities to the states." Id.
Although not mentioned in the linked newspaper report, it was posted here previously that in the Spring of 2009, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners voted to relax long-standing Reserves requirements established by the NAIC for Life Insurance Companies.
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