NAIC Floats Easing Reserve Requirements

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners will hold a public hearing to discuss a proposal that would ease reserve requirements for life insurance companies.

The Kansas City, Mo.-based association of state insurance regulators announced the public hearing during a Jan. 2 conference call after consumer advocates criticized NAIC for moving forward on nine initiatives proposed by the Washington-based American Council of Life Insurers.

The proposal included a move to permit the 2001 preferred mortality tables, currently only available for policies issued in 2007 and later, to be used for any product that is based on the 2001 Commissioners Standard Ordinary tables.

However, another part of the proposal called for regulators to eliminate the use of a stand-alone asset adequacy analysis that covers only variable annuity living benefit guarantees.

NAIC instead suggested that insurers test all blocks of variable annuity business with guarantees, test for investment volatility and set assumptions for policyholder behavior.

The public hearing is set for Jan. 27 at 10 a.m. at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington