Birny Birnbaum

• 

  Debate over fed, state, international rules intensifies

  By Elizabeth Festa and Arthur D. Postal  |  March 21, 2013

  Insurance regulation is going to change. The critical issue is how and to what extent.

• 

  CDAs get federal attention; GAO report said to be out soon

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  November 30, 2012

  Are feds only monitoring or is there concern? Some say the former, but that could change if greater solvency and reserve concerns become part of the broader discussion.

• 

  Insurers Working to Thwart Federal Regulation

  By Arthur D. Postal and Elizabeth D. Festa  |  August 28, 2012

  Insurance companies and trade groups—both property and casualty and life—are pulling out all the stops in an effort to thwart or delay the Federal Reserve Board’s efforts to impose consolidated regulation of them through its new authority to oversee thrift holding companies.

• 

  SERFF Board Should Make Insurance Rate Filings Public, Advocates Say

  By Elizabeth Festa  |  August 27, 2012

  "It does so with PPACA filings, why not the whole industry?" Birnbaum, Jost and others argue. But wait, SERFF's board is almost half-comprised of industry members.

• 

  Who will be the next Glenn Neasham?

  By Elizabeth Festa  |  May 2, 2012

  Lake County, California, is said to be known for a few things besides having the state’s largest freshwater contained lake—pear production, bird watching, wineries, recent meth lab busts and Glenn Neasham, the convicted insurance agent who thought, he claims, he was selling a good product to a competent senior.

• 

  Who Will Be the Next Glenn Neasham?

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  April 20, 2012

  When Glenn Neasham was convicted on felony theft charges and sentenced to jail for selling an annuity to an 83-year-old woman with dementia, it sent shockwaves through the agent community. But a bigger issue looms: Will Neasham's case repeat itself elsewhere?

• 

  FIO Advisors to Meet March 30 as Treasury Keeps Overdue Report Close to Vest

  By Elizabeth Festa  |  March 12, 2012

  With report delay continuing, and reports of cancelled appearance later this month rumored, one wonders if March, which came in like a lamb at the NAIC meeting, will go out like a lion with the FIO report.

• 

  MetLife and Pru Square Off Over Contingent Deferred Annuities

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  January 19, 2012

  Usually regulatory allies, MetLife and Prudential find themselves at odds over whether contingent deferred annuities should be formally classified as annuities or as financial guaranty insurance.

• What's Wrong With Florida? ...and with Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California...

  By Allison Bell  |  October 25, 2010

  An avid reader called us here in the Hoboken, N.J., office of National Underwriter and said, "I live in Florida. Why is it that every questionable life insurance and annuity sales practice seems to start or take off here?"