New York State Officials Open Probe on 403(b) Sales to Teachers
October 9, 2019 by Leslie Scism
New York’s top financial-services watchdog on Tuesday dispatched letters to a dozen major insurers seeking details on how they market retirement-income products to teachers, opening a probe of industry practices, according to people familiar with the matter.
The New York Department of Financial Services has launched an investigation to determine whether life insurers and their agents are taking advantage of teachers to sell them potentially high-cost and inappropriate investments in so-called 403(b) retirement-savings programs, the people said.
The insurers have three weeks to respond, the people said. It wasn’t immediately clear which insurers received the letters. A spokesman for Life Insurance Council of New York, a trade group, said it had no immediate comment.
New York has one of the biggest insurance-regulation departments, and its actions are closely watched by other state regulators.