Independent Agents Hung Out to Dry?
May 17, 2016 by Cyril Tuohy
With some insurance companies balking at assuming fiduciary status under the Department of Labor’s new fiduciary rule, some independent agents are wondering if they are being hung out to dry.
As a condition of receiving compensation that would otherwise be prohibited, an exemption under the “Conflict of Interest” rule would require financial institutions to acknowledge their fiduciary status and the fiduciary status of their advisors in writing.
But what if an insurance company declines to acknowledge fiduciary status and instead hands off the responsibility to a distributor such as a broker-dealer? Some carrier execs suggested this route during recent earnings’ calls.
In that case, what happens to agents and their fixed indexed annuity (FIA) books of business?
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