Dear IMSA Friends: 

Happy Halloween!  Here are some treats for your reading pleasure.

2 New IMSA Members and 13 Renewals!

MetLife Insurance Company of Connecticut and MetLife Life and Annuity Company of Connecticut have qualified for IMSA Membership.

Welcoming these two new IMSA-qualified companies, IMSA President & CEO Brian Atchinson said, "These companies are to be congratulated for successfully completing the rigorous, independent reviews of their marketing, sales and compliance practices required to qualify as IMSA members. Their IMSA qualification is a demonstration of quality business practices that safeguard the consumer."

In addition to these two new IMSA-qualified companies, eight other MetLife companies have successfully completed the review required every three years to be eligible for renewed IMSA membership:

·         First MetLife Investors Insurance Company, New York, NY

·         General American Life Insurance Company, St. Louis, MO;

·         MetLife Investors Insurance Company, Newport Beach, CA;

·         MetLife Investors USA Insurance Company, Newport Beach, CA;

·         Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York, NY;

·         Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Company, New York, NY;

·         New England Life Insurance Company, Boston, MA; and

·         Texas Life Insurance Company, Waco, TX. 

5 other companies renewing their membership are:

Ameritas Life Insurance Corp., Lincoln, Neb.;

Acacia Life Insurance Co., Bethesda, Md;

Union Central Life Insurance Co., Cincinnati, Ohio, and

Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Co. and

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., both based in Milwaukee, Wis.

"These companies have demonstrated an ongoing dedication to maintaining high ethical standards," said Atchinson. "We applaud them for their special commitment to honesty and integrity," said Atchinson. 

IMSA Announces Suitability Certification Clearinghouse

MSA announced a new Clearinghouse System to serve as the one-stop solution for life insurance companies to obtain certifications of supervision of annuity suitability from third-party distributors as required under the NAIC Suitability in Annuity Transactions Model Regulation.

Thirty states have adopted some form of the NAIC Suitability in Annuity Transactions Model Regulation requiring companies to get annual certifications from third-party distributors to whom they have delegated suitability supervisory responsibilities. IMSA’s Clearinghouse will provide electronic storage and transfer of these certifications. Services will be available to all U.S. insurance companies, whether or not they are IMSA-certified, as well as third-party distributors.

Clearinghouse services will be available on January 1, 2008.

“This service comes just in time for companies planning for 2008. A tremendous amount of work has been done by IMSA and its certified companies to craft this solution,” said Jim Buddle, Genworth Chief Compliance Officer and IMSA Standards Development Committee Chair.

“This new service offers regulators a measure of confidence that companies and distributors are obtaining all the necessary certifications in a consistent manner,” said Brian Atchinson, IMSA CEO and President. “IMSA is proud to offer this timely solution for companies, distributors, regulators and, ultimately, consumers.”

Annual Company Membership fees:

•IMSA member companies - $500

•Non-IMSA member companies - $1000

Company Certification fees:

• 1-100 $75 per certification

• 101 – 250 $50 per certification

• 251 + $10 per certification

For more information visit www.IMSAethics.org.

Insurance Marketplace Leaders Join IMSA Board

IMSA has approved a new Chairman of the Board and elected its new Board of Directors representing leaders from the life insurance marketplace.

At its annual meeting, IMSA members confirmed David Odenath, President of Prudential Annuities, as Chairman of the standards-setting organization.

"For more than a decade, IMSA has been doing important work in compliance and market conduct and this year will be no exception," said Odenath. "The standards that IMSA companies follow raise the bar for the whole industry. I look forward to an exciting year as we continue to implement new and creative compliance solutions."

In addition, Scott Curtis, Senior Vice President of Raymond James & Associates has been approved as Chair-Elect.

IMSA members also approved the following candidates for new three-year Board terms:

-- Haluk Ariturk, Chairman, President and CEO of Acacia Life Insurance Company;

-- James Gallagher, Senior Vice President, Global Compliance Chief of Manulife Financial Corp.; and

-- Karen Shaff, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Principal Financial Group, Inc.

Welcoming the new members, IMSA President and CEO Brian Atchinson said, "The wealth of knowledge and experience represented on our Board of Directors is a tremendous asset to IMSA. This is an important time for Americans as they confront the need for financial security and are concerned about purchasing suitable insurance products to meet their needs. These distinguished professionals bring valuable viewpoints on the industry and marketplace as we continue to promote ethical business practices that benefit consumers, companies and distributors."

For background on the chairman and new board members visit : www.IMSAethics.org

IMSA Leaders Named to INSURANCE NEWSCAST'S 2008 LIST OF THE 100 MOST POWERFUL 

IMSA’s President/ CEO and leaders of several IMSA member companies were named to this familiar list:

Please send any comments to http://www.insurancebroadcasting.com/caserevdraft.htm.

Used by permission of Walter B. Podgurski, CEO, InsuranceBroadcasting.com

Best Practice of the Month

One of the simplest, most effective and least used best practices is available free on your Microsoft Word toolbar.  It’s the Readability statistics under the Tools menu.  It will give you counts of words, paragraph and sentences, averages of sentence in paragraphs, words in sentences and letters per word.  But most importantly it provides information on passive sentences, a Flesch score and, my favorite, the Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level.  This last item lets you compose materials that are at the 8^th grad level – where you need to be.  Surprisingly, almost no companies use this!  They relay on surrogate measures, usually subjective, such as what the agents think or what their English majors “feel” is appropriate.  But these people have different interest and concerns that your customers!  The agents often want to display their expertise and use technical terms and “concepts” that will confuse your customers.  Your English majors think everybody know the college level vocabulary they do.  Take a hint for the direct response marketers, whose bread and butter is their customer communications.  Don’t let a piece of advertising or sales material get out there without running it through the readability tool!  It’s easy and will make your material more readable and more effective.

What We’re Up To 

We are working hard to prepare a few clients for their Independent Assessments in 2008.  We have 3 companies kicking off their efforts in the 4^th quarter .  This did not stop us from taking a short fishing trip to Ontario over one long weekend.  The fishing was good, the weather cool and the food and Canadian hospitality very fine!

Photo by Bill Warren	Photo by Patricia Kalis
Photo by Jonathan Kalis	Photo by Jonathan Kalis

Hope you’ve enjoyed this issue.  Please let us know if you have any questions or would like some help in managing your IMSA preparation or assessments.  386-462-1074 or KenKalis@gmail.com. 

Thanks for your continuing interest in IMSA and in ethical market conduct.