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Effective February 1, 2022, all agents who are assisting their clients with qualified rollovers to Individual Retirement Accounts, annuities, and defined contribution plans, defined benefit plans or who are selling qualified life insurance and annuity products to such plans must comply with the requirements of Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 84-24 and the Impartial Conduct Standards. New disclosure forms will be required for any tax-qualified annuity product sold. In addition, many of the annuity product disclosures will be updated to reflect the Department of Labor changes. Please make sure you are only using the most current paperwork when submitting new business. Please contact Kevin McNulty at 800-749-9900, ext. 143, for more information.

After all the dust from the last-minute legal wrangling settled, the ruling by the 5th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals vacating the Department of Labor Fiduciary Rule (the Rule) finally took effect on May 7th, 2018. The Rule, and all of its associated prohibited transactions, including the Transition Best Interest Contract Exemption, are removed from the list of Federal regulations and no longer apply.  | more

We are pleased to inform you the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided to vacate the Department of Labor’s Fiduciary Rule. A number of procedural matters must still occur before the decision is final. The Department of Justice has 45 days to request a rehearing by the Fifth Circuit. If a rehearing is not requested or is denied, the Fifth Circuit will issue a mandate in early May making its decision fully effective. The Department of Justice also has 90 days to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. Until this all gets sorted out, please continue to use PTE 84-24 disclosure paperwork for your life and annuity transactions involving qualified money.
Sample PTE 84-24 Disclosure

The Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced that the more onerous provisions of the Fiduciary Rule, originally scheduled to take effect January 1, 2018, have been delayed until June 30, 2019. The delay does not “roll back” any elements of the existing regulation. As a result, policies and procedures that were instituted in June of this year remain necessary, and in effect. Over the coming months, we expect that the DOL will continue to study whether the rule will have a negative impact on the retirement security of main street Americans, and whether the rule should undergo further changes. Until then, please continue to use PTE 84-24 disclosure paperwork for your life and annuity transactions involving qualified money.
Sample PTE 84-24 Disclosure

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently approved an 18-month delay for the more onerous provisions of the Department of Labor (DOL) Fiduciary Rule. The DOL proposed amendments to three exemptions, which were all approved by OMB. The delay covers the best-interest contract exemption, Prohibited Transaction Exemption 84-24 (PTE 84-24) and class exemption for principal transactions in certain assets between investment advice fiduciaries and employee benefit plans and IRAs. While we are still waiting for guidance as how to best proceed, nothing happens until the DOL finalizes the delay. We are expecting this in the coming weeks. Until then, please continue to use PTE 84-24 disclosure paperwork for your life and annuity transactions involving qualified money.
Sample PTE 84-24 Disclosure

The Department of Labor Fiduciary Rule (the Rule) went into effect on June 9, 2017. The Rule, by law, requires a higher standard of care for advice given on qualified retirement assets. The full requirements will go into effect on January 1, 2018, barring further regulatory or legislative changes.

As of June 9th, those who give advice and/or make a recommendation regarding assets in retirement accounts and expect to be compensated based on the advice/recommendation will be held to the Impartial Conduct Standards, which has three requirements:

• Advice is in the best interest of the customer
• Compensation is reasonable
• Statements about investment transactions, compensation & conflicts of interest are not misleading

During this initial phase-in through the end of the year, the Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 84-24 can be used to sell traditional fixed annuities, fixed indexed annuities and life insurance involving qualified retirement assets. Under current law, transactions on or after January 1, 2018, will require additional scrutiny and only traditional fixed annuities and life insurance can be sold using PTE 84-24. Fixed indexed annuities will need to be sold through a Financial Institution as defined by the Rule using the Best Interest Contract Exemption (BICE)

Continue Reading   |   View Company Updates   |   Sample PTE 84-24 Disclosure

On March 1, 2017, the Department of Labor released a proposed rule to extend for sixty days the applicability date of the Fiduciary Rule. It was widely expected that the delay would be six months so the sixty-day delay is somewhat of a surprise. This proposal, which includes a 15-day comment period, would extend the effective date from April 10th to June 9th. We will keep you updated as the more details become available.