No current efforts to improve standards — including one by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners –- come close to the protections that the fiduciary rule would have provided. A strong form of the rule should be revived and applied to all investment accounts, not just retirement accounts. To be clear, there are upstanding insurers and agents who sell indexed annuities only when appropriate. Proper regulation wouldn’t crimp those sales, but it would prevent over-prescription of such products to people whom they can harm.
Ethan Schwartz has worked as an investment manager and financial services executive for 21 years. He was a special assistant to the deputy secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration.