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Big I New York filed notice of our intent to appeal the Albany Supreme Court’s recent ruling upholding the amendment to Regulation 187. As you are aware, Big I NY and PIA New York jointly filed a lawsuit against the NYS DFS last November over the amendment, arguing, among other things, that the new standard improperly alters the agent/broker-customer relationship. PIA New York has elected not to join us in the appeal. Independent agents and brokers believe strongly in protecting the customers who put their trust in us. However, we remain concerned that the amended regulation will not meaningfully advance this goal. Instead, it will restrict open, honest discussions with clients and weaken the market for life insurance and annuities products, ultimately harming consumers. Our concerns about the impact of this regulation are already being borne out. Since the regulation went into effect on August 1st, multiple carriers with significant market share have announced the suspension of the sale of annuities and life insurance products in the state. We believe this concerning trend is likely to continue. From the outset, we recognized that this legal challenge would likely be appealed to a higher court, regardless of the trial court’s decision. We remain confident in the merits of our claims, and resolute in our belief that this is a fight worth fighting. Big I New York has steadfastly defended our members’ interests for over one hundred twenty years, and will continue to do so. We will keep you updated as progress is made. Don’t forget, new rules are now in effect. Effective August 1, 2019, insurance carriers, agents and brokers must comply with the new rules for all transactions related to annuity contracts. The same rules will apply to life insurance sales starting on February 1, 2020. Big I New York has your back - in addition to appealing the decision, we have already built out a library of resources for our members to use in their compliance efforts along with other educational media. Visit the Life Insurance & Annuities Best Practices (Reg 187) page on our website for more information on compliance. | Contact Scott Hobson if you have any questions.
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| By Mary Byrnes, AAI-M, AU, Education Department If you missed the Annual E&O Loss Prevention Course earlier this year, don't despair! Whether you need an E&O Course for your E&O
reduction credit, you'd like more people in your office to become more cognizant of the E&O exposures of an agency, or you'd like to earn 8 CE (all licenses) , we have the course for you.
We have a newly written class “An E&O Course for the Everyday Agent". This course is designed specifically for New York agents & brokers covering issues that they see every day. We have offered this course for agencies and carriers who were looking for in-house programs and the feedback has been great. By and large we heard that this was practical information that is relevant to the workings of an agency. We will cover many licensing issues including name changes, brokers vs. agents licenses, the ramifications of the structure of an agency (sole proprietors vs. LLC or Corporations), Cybersecurity, Sexual Harassment, Coverage issues and much much more.
By attending this course, it will create a heightened awareness of the exposures that agencies face. That's important, because no matter how much we rely on our agency management systems, the human element is the important factor.
Mishell Magnusson will be the instructor. Anyone who's taken a class with Mishell knows how great she is. She'll bring humor and insight into discussion.
Join us, classes will be held in Ronkonkoma on 9/17, White Plains 9/18, Glens Falls 9/19, Buffalo 12/10, Rochester 12/11, & Syracuse 12/12.
Register Here
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| We are aware of a phishing scam targeting insurance producers regarding a falsified insurance claim related to their company that has been submitted to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. This fraudulent email displays the NAIC and CIPR logo, currently originates from a gmail account and asks the recipient to click on a link to download the complaint notification. Certain anti-virus products will detect this is a malicious email but if you receive a similar email and have any concerns, contact the NAIC Service Desk at (816) 783-8500.
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| By Mary Byrnes, AAI-M, AU, Education Department
Change is hard, but getting out of our comfort zone and shaking it up can be so worth it!
For Big I NY Education, we take learning pretty seriously, not only is it because our members need CE for their license renewals, but also because our courses and webinars have the info our members need to be the best at what they do. It's a little Pollyanna, I know.
A few years ago (a stretch on the “few"), a friend who worked for Fidelity & Deposit called and said, “There are classes that are being offered, one night a week from 5-7 for about 10 weeks. If we do all 3 of the courses, we'd get an AAI Designation. Are you in?" That was the beginning, we didn't do it necessarily for what we'd learn, it was for the designation after our name. We all showed up every week for class and guess what we got out of it? We had a great instructor (Charlie Walker), met some really great people, and we learned a lot! We all did receive our AAI designations. This whole process woke us up, we realized that at the office, we could learn the process of the job, but to learn the intricacies of insurance itself, there was an alternate way.
To you, we offer you this same experience (minus the essay questions and a whole semester to take the course). Whether you choose either the AAI or the ASCR designations to pursue, you can do it on your own or call a friend to do it together. I promise you won't be sorry and you'll get so much more than the letters after your name; although that's a good thing too!
Here are some changes that we're going through. We've always offered classes pretty much along the Thruway from Buffalo to Long Island and we'll still be doing that. We're also shaking it up on our end too. Beginning with the Fall 2019 semester, we'll be offering AAI 83C (Commercial Property), ACSR 4 (Agency E&O) and ACSR 8 (Commercial Auto) as classes AND AAI 83C (Agency Management, Tools & Processes) & ACSR 1 (Homeowners) as webinars. The webinars will be on 2 subsequent mornings and can be taken at your office, home etc. and CE will apply. The webinars are a great way to either work on your designation & earn the CE, but also for anyone who needs CE, it's a way to gain quite a few CE credits if you're just needing the CE.
You'll notice that some of our AAI, ACSR, or AINS (AINS is offered as an in-house option) may carry a +1 on the CE. The +1 means that if the exam is taken on the same day as the in-person class, an additional CE is applied. These exams are written by The Institutes and are multiple choice usually ranging from 25 to 35 questions. The NYS DFS has changed the requirement for the additional CE for exams, for classes recently approved and for those that are submitted for approval going forward, 50 questions is the minimum for the exam CE. So for a time, we'll have some classes with the +1 and some without. We submit courses for approval when the content changes, so it will be those that the exam credit will not apply on (nor will it apply to courses offered webinar format). The course CE will still apply.
We hope that you'll check out our course offerings and shake it up a bit. As always, is you have any questions about our designation courses or any of our offerings, don't hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email.
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