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Dear IMSA Friends:
Hope you all are having very happy holidays.
We are doing very well, except for a
couple of typographical errors (please see the letters
that are part of the non-IMSA close!
Happy New Year!
On December 18, speaking in Chicago, President-elect Barack Obama
said the government had been "asleep at the switch" in
overseeing the nation's financial system.
Saying he will force a “shift in ethics on Wall Street,”
Obama laid out his view of the role of ethics in
business: “Everybody CEO’s to shareholders to investors
are going to have to be asking themselves, “not only is
this profitable, not only whether this will boost my
bonus, but is right?
Does it conform to some higher standards in terms
of how we operate?””
It’s great to see the
White House talking about ethics and standards.
What a great time to be an IMSA member and be on
the right side of this issue and the future!
Congratulations to:
American Fidelity Assurance Company,
Oklahoma City, OK
for renewing its IMSA membership.
Are you on track for renewing yours?
Thanks for Your Help on our Survey!
Several times a year, the
Kenneth J. Kalis Company is asked to do a short survey
of the 100 or so companies in our universe concerning
some issue of concern.
The one we are working on now is about the
onboarding of independent agents from large marketing
organizations.
There is, of course, a desire to do thorough
background checks, etc. on all producers, but this is
not cost effective if only a handful out of several
hundred actually write new business.
Anyway, we asked for your
input and got several very useful comments.
We will leave the process open for another week
or two if you have anything you’d like to add.
The more complete and clear we can make the
survey, the better the results will be.
We appreciate your help.
News from
IMSA Today:
Annuity Suitability: Hot Topic at NAIC Winter Meeting
Summary Report Now Online
At
the recent NAIC 2008 Winter National Meeting, IMSA
presented its Annuity Suitability Supervision and
Monitoring Practices Report to the Suitability of
Annuity Sales (A) Working Group, drawing
one of the largest audiences during the NAIC meetings.
New
Hampshire regulators hosted a separate gathering of the
seven participating states
(IA, IL, NH, MO, OH, OR, and PA) and other interested
states (including California, Florida and Minnesota)
to join IMSA staff in discussing next steps with respect
to the findings of the report. There was some
discussion of the benefit of working concurrently on
developing a regulatory review protocol for state
insurance departments to use when conducting reviews for
compliance with the supervision requirements of the NAIC
Suitability in Annuity Transactions Model Regulation.
New
Hampshire Insurance Commissioner
Roger Sevigny was named the new NAIC President;
West Virginia insurance
Commissioner Jane
 Cline will serve as the NAIC
President-Elect,
Iowa Insurance Commissioner  Susan
Voss will serve as NAIC Vice President
and Florida Commissioner Kevin McCarty
 will
serve as NAIC Secretary-Treasurer
in 2009. A full IMSA Summary Report of the meeting event
is available in the Members section at
www.IMSAethics.org.
Renews
IMSA Qualification
IMSA
congratulates American Fidelity Assurance Company
on successfully renewing its IMSA qualification!
IMSA
Goes to Washington
IMSA
staff met
with United States
Treasury officials on December 22nd to
discuss issues related to financial services regulation
and IMSA's recent initiatives. IMSA will also meet with
United States House of Representatives Financial
Services Committee staff on January 7th
for a similar discussion.
Bankers
Fidelity Life Insurance President Named to Executive
Committee
Congratulations to Gene Choate, President of Bankers
Fidelity Life Insurance Company and member of the
IMSA Board of Directors, on being named to the IMSA
Board Executive Committee. Gene is a former chair of
the ACLI Forum 500, and a recent past chair of the
National Organization of Life and Health Guaranty Funds.
Schapiro
Slated to Lead Securities Exchange Commission (SEC)
Congratulations to
Mary
Schapiro,
 current
CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA),
on being nominated by President-Elect Obama as the new
chair of the SEC.
IMSA has had a good working relationship with Ms.
Schapiro and her senior staff in the past, and we look
forward to a continuing dialogue with her following her
confirmation into her new role at the SEC. Ms. Schapiro
is likely to play an important role in 2009 as the
Administration and Congress update financial services
regulation.
Happy
New Year!
Upcoming Meetings
January 5-6
Practising Law Institute (PLI) Understanding the
Securities Products of
Insurance Companies Seminar in New York, NY
January
11-16
Society of Financial Service Professionals Conference in Tucson, AZ
January 14-16
ACLI Executive Roundtable in
Palm Beach, Florida
February 25
IMSA Board of Directors Meeting
Happy New Year!
Best Practice of the Month – December
Here’s a best practice
from one of the nation’s largest insurers.
With such a large organization and multiple
distribution channels, big companies can have a tough
time keeping track of where their people are and how
they are meeting IMSA standard of supporting industry
organizations that encourage ethical market conduct.
How about a special industry calendar?
This company shows every person attending an
industry event for the whole year.
It’s a great tool for planning and for focusing
on area’s of strategic interest.
You’ll also find out how your resources, human
and otherwise, are being deployed.
And you may wind up saving some money too!
What’s Happening at the Kenneth J
Kalis Company?
-- We are getting
ready to move!
That’s right.
Our Alachua home is being sold, and we will be
relocating back to Gainesville.
Will let you know the new address and phone
number as soon as everything has been finalized.
We have just paid our assessors’ fee and are
looking forward to an excellent year in 2009 helping all
of our wonderful clients renew their IMSA membership and
work with them to meet any other IMSA needs.
We are continuing work on
updating our website, which is currently well visited
and content rich.
One reader called it the best site on the
Internet for IMSA information.
We are pleased at that, and it appears many of
you agree.
(We’ve had over 20,000 visits so far this year and over
100,000 hits).
What would you like to see on the site?
(Take a look at kkalis.com to see what’s there
now.) We’re
thinking of a Frequently Asked Questions or an Ask the
QIA column that would respond to visitors questions and
other issues.
Let us know what your thoughts are.
We are continuing an
outreach to 45 companies who are eligible to rejoin IMSA
under a streamlined process put together by IMSA’s
Qualifications Process Working Group.
As a member of this group, I’ve developed an
approach that will facilitate membership renewal using
the streamlined criteria at a very low cost.
You can read more about this, and our approach to
helping companies renew their membership using the
standard approach or the new alternate attestation
process, in the fall issue of our Excelsior newsletter.
Can we be of help to you?
Just give us a call at (352) 505-0705
or send us an
email at
kkalis@aol.com.
You’ll be glad you did!
.
Did You Know…..
We have a
well-defined process for facilitating self-assessments?
Using a
Qualified Independent Assessor to facilitate the
updating of your last IMSA self-assessment report could
be a very efficient way of saving you time, internal
resources and money.
This change in methodology
from last time can be implemented in a variety of ways,
but what we have found most useful is to have
facilitated meetings with the business people in small
groups covering the specific IMSA topics.
For example, we meet with the key people for each
of the topics in 2 hour sessions.
Topic 1:
Suitability process owners.
Topic 2:
Law and legal process owners
Topic 3:
Policy-making process owners
Topic 4:
Licensing people
Topic 5:
Training people
Topic 6:
Replacement people
Topic 7:
Advertising process owners.
Topic 8:
Complaint people.
Topic 9:
Executive leadership
Topic 10:
Supervision and Compliance leaders.
At each
session, we look at what was given last time, decide
what needs to be updated and then name someone to get
the updates and send them to me.
Once these intake sessions
have been completed, we follow up on getting the updated
materials and then put them all into an updated report
circulate them to the group for verification and
then develop plans for interviewing the process owners,
testing sample files and any other work that would need
to be done for the independent assessment, including
processing the membership papers.
We are also available to help you
prepare for renewing your IMSA membership using either
the standard approach or the new attestation process.
If you are unsure of what is best for your
company, please give us a call and we will be happy to
go over the options and visit with you, either via phone
or onsite.
As a part of the Working Group that designed the
attestation alternative approach to renewing membership,
we had a thorough understanding of the process and can
guide you through it successfully.
If you decide to stick with the standard
approach, we can help facilitate that process and
streamline the whole renewal approach saving you time as
well as human and financial resources.
Simply give us a call at
(352) 505-0705
or
simple respond to this email from
kkalis@kkalis.com.
We are beginning work on
updating our website, which is currently well visited
and content rich.
One reader called it the best site on the
Internet for IMSA information.
We are pleased at that, and it appears many of
you agree.
(We’ve had over
20,000 visits so far this year and over 100,000 hits).
What would you like to see on the site?
(Take a look at kkalis.com to see what’s there
now.) We’re
thinking of a Frequently Asked Questions or an Ask the
QIA column that would respond to visitors questions and
other issues.
Let us know what your thoughts are.
We are continuing an
outreach to 45 companies who are eligible to rejoin IMSA
under a streamlined process put together by IMSA’s
Qualifications Process Working Group.
As a member of this group, I’ve developed an
approach that will facilitate membership renewal using
the streamlined criteria at a very low cost.
You can read more about this, and our approach to
helping companies renew their membership using the
standard approach or the new alternate attestation
process, in the fall issue of our Excelsior newsletter.
Can we be of help to you?
Just give us a call at (352) 505-0705
or send us an
email at
kkalis@aol.com.
You’ll be glad you did!
Looking for Input on Flash Survey on Independent Agents
Several times a year, the
Kenneth J. Kalis Company is asked to do a short survey
of the 100 or so companies in our universe concerning
some issue of concern.
The one we are working on now is about the
onboarding of independent agents from large marketing
organizations.
There is, of course, a desire to do thorough
background checks, etc. on all producers, but this is
not cost effective if only a handful out of several
hundred actually write new business.
Below is the draft of a short survey we’d like to
send out in a few weeks.
Before doing so, we’d like any thoughts you have
on improving it, so we can get the best results.
If you share an idea with us, you will receive a
copy of the report on the survey results which will go
only to those companies participating in the survey
(anonymously, of course).
Remember, this is not the
time to answer the survey, but to tell us how we can
make it better.
Thanks for your help.
Questions Regarding Onboarding of Independent Agents
from Large IMO’s
(1)
Does your Company appoint all agents in an independent
marketing group once you have accepted the group as a
third-party distributor?
(2) Does your Company conduct a background check on all
such agents?
(3)
When do you do the background check:
a.
As soon as the agreement is effective;
b.
When new business is written by that agent:
c.
Other:
(please explain)__________________________
(4)
Do you use an Independent Producers Clearing house?
(5)
Which
one?________________________________________________________
(6)
What best practices have you observed in this area?
Summary of Responses
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Company
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Appoint All Agents
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Back-ground check
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Check right away
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When new business is written
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IPC?
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Best Practice
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ANTITRUST NOTICE
The Kenneth J. Kalis Company (KJKC) is committed to
adhering strictly to
the letter and spirit of the antitrust laws.
Our communications and flash
surveys are designed solely to provide a forum for
the expression of
various points of view on topics described in the
communications or
Surveys. Under no circumstances shall these
tools be used as a means for
competing companies or firms to reach any
understanding - expressed or
implied - which restricts competition or in any way
impairs the ability of
any organization to exercise independent business
judgment regarding
Matters affecting competition. Accordingly, we
ask for and appreciate any
observations or sensitivities you may have to any
aspect of our
communications or surveys that presents a risk from
the standpoint of the antitrust laws.
.
Did You Know…..
We do other things besides
IMSA assessments?
Of course facilitating companies’ IMSA
self-assessments and conducting independent assessments
are the bulk of our work, but we also use our expertise
in best practices to help companies looking for
continuous improvement or implementing a new process or
procedure.
For example, we worked with one company on developing
suitability standards for fixed annuities, creating
forms and procedures for the process and integrating the
new process into the producer training materials.
We are also available to help you
prepare for renewing your IMSA membership using either
the standard approach or the new attestation process.
If you are unsure of what is best for your
company, please give us a call and we will be happy to
go over the options and visit with you, either via phone
or onsite.
As a part of the Working Group that designed the
attestation alternative approach to renewing membership,
we had a thorough understanding of the process and can
guide you through it successfully.
If you decide to stick with the standard
approach, we can help facilitate that process and
streamline the whole renewal approach saving you time as
well as human and financial resources.
Simply give us a call at
(352) 505-0705
or simple respond to this email from
kkalis@kkalis.com.
Ken Kalis
(352) 505-0705
Be Kind.
Ephesians 4:32
The Kenneth J. Kalis Company, Inc.
With associates in: | Boston, MA | Charlotte, NC | Chicago, IL | Denver, CO | | Hartford, CT | Houston, TX | Kansas City, MO | Minneapolis, MN | | New Orleans, LA | New York, NY | Orlando, FL | Philadelphia, PA | | Portland, ME | San Diego, CA | Springfield, IL | Tampa, FL | ANTITRUST NOTICE The Kenneth J. Kalis Company (KJKC) is committed to
adhering strictly to the letter and spirit of the
antitrust laws. Our communications and flash surveys
are designed solely to provide a forum for the
expression of various points of view on topics
described in the communications or surveys. Under no
circumstances shall these tools be used as a means
for competing companies or firms to reach any
understanding - expressed or implied - which
restricts competition or in any way impairs the
ability of any organization to exercise independent
business judgment regarding matters affecting
competition. Accordingly, we ask for and appreciate
any observations or sensitivities you may have to
any aspect of our communications or surveys that
presents a risk from the standpoint of the antitrust
laws. |
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| | Past Updates
IMSA Links
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I
appreciate your continuing interest in and support of ethical market
conduct and integrity in our business. Have a great summer. Hope to
see many of you soon.
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Telephone: (352) 505-0705
Fax: (352)-215-9124
Email: kenkalis@gmail.com
3939 NW 62nd Lane
nue,
Gainesville, FL 32653
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Now for
our non-IMSA close.
Non-IMSA Close.
In case you didn’t notice, there were a couple of typo’s
in our Merry Christmas greetings.
Of course, someone did notice, hence the following letter
& response:
Dear
Ken:
Merry
Christmas to you, too! Of course, doing unto you as I
would have others do unto me, I must point out that I can find
neither "apprecite"
nor "dimention"
in my dictionary. However, to be frank (or Steve), some of
the words were Greek to me.
But
seriously ... we are indeed lucky to be in Florida, given the weather problems in the
rest of the country. I hope you continue to enjoy all the things
you're involved in, as it appears that you do. After you
have a merry Christmas, have a suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper 2009, too!
Warm
regards,
(Name withheld to protect identity of this, what else?,
famous actuary)
Dear
Reader:
I
deeply APPRICATE your Yuletide greetings. You will also
APPRICATE that I operate in the tradition of Oscar Wilde, who,
after falling out of his box at the Paris Opera house one night,
proceeded to fall out of the same box in the same way for the
next 7 nights, just to show that he was operating in a different
DIMENTION than the brain-dead bourgoisie who were attending the
opera hoping that the society press would make DIMENTION of them
in the newspapers.
Thank
you, I think, for pointing out what many others will have
noticed. We will do
a better job in 2009.
Ken
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
On a slightly higher plane, we
close with a favorite poem of my father's with hopes that we
will all write large and well in the coming year.
A New Leaf
"He came to my desk with quivering lip-
The lesson was done.
Dear teacher, I want a new leaf,' he said,
'I have spoiled this one,'
I took the old leaf, stained and blotted,
And gave him a new one all unspotted,
And into his sad eyes smiled,
'Do better, now my child.'
I went to the throne with quivering soul-
The old year was done.
'Dear Father, hast Thou a new leaf for me?
I have spoiled this one.'
He took the old leaf, stained and blotted,
And gave me a new one all unspotted,
And into my sad heart smiled,
'Do better, now, my child'."
~~Kathleen Wheeler
Thank you all for your continuing
interest in IMSA, ethical market conduct and the Kenneth J.
Kalis Company.
Ken Kalis
(352) 505-0705
Only Believe.
Mark 5:36
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