Then there is the issue of the changing association landscape after the merger between the International Association For Financial Planning and the Institute of Certified Financial Planners to create the Financial Planning Association (FPA). With only about 700 members, NAPFA pales in size compared to the FPA, which has about 29,000 members. Some privately have wondered if it wouldn‚t make sense for NAPFA to become a division within the FPA, which potentially could provide it with greater resources, so that could also be on the agenda.
Only a few NAPFA members, most of whom are fiercely loyal and independent, see that as a serious possibility. Moreover, they point to NAPFA‚s strong membership growth last year as a sign of its vitality. And NAPFA still boasts the strongest referral program of any association in the profession.
ACLI Pushes For Federal Insurance Regulation
If you want to make insurers more competitive with banks and securities firms, give them a federal regulator. That‚s the controversial proposal being touted by the American Council of Life Insurers. The proposed Office of National Insurers would have extensive regulatory and enforcement powers and would give insurers an expedited approval process for bringing products to market, ACLI spokesman Herb Perone told Financial Advisor.
Now, it can take an insurer 18 months to get regulatory approval for new products, in contrast to banks‚ and securities firms‚ centralized, streamlined process that allows them to introduce new products to the national marketplace in as little as 30 days.
"The point isn‚t to create an exclusive, mandatory federal regulator," Perone adds, "but to give the U.S.‚s 1,500 life insurers the option of choosing state or federal regulation." It remains to be seen whether the plan will expedite the National Association of Insurance Commissioners‚ decade-long effort to modernize state regulation. As part of its push, the ACLI also is asking the NAIC for more uniform product regulation, agent licensing and sales practice oversight.
Bear Market A Reason Joint Venture Is Off
Risky investments can strike a nerve closer to sheer terror in the current bear market.
So it was of no great surprise when Zurick Scudder Investments and Thomas Weisel Partners Group canceled a three-month old joint venture to sell private equities to affluent investors.
Both companies still insist there‚s a potentially large market for such alternative investments. Just not now.