Life Insurance in 2013

So now that we can finally stop being harassed by political commercials, billboards, emails, Facebook posts, and even unsolicited phone calls, let’s discuss how the next four years could affect the life insurance industry.  Although life insurance carriers were never mentioned in any of the debates and certainly aren’t at the top of Obama’s list of most important things to fix in the economy, there were quite a few politicians that highly influenced our beloved insurance industry who also had important elections to win yesterday.

In particular, Representative Jeb Hensarling, a Republican from Texas who is a very strong supporter of the insurance industry, will most likely become the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.  A very positive thing for our industry!

The sad news is that Representative Judy Biggert, a Republican from Illiois, was defeated from her position which also included heading up the Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity of the House Financial Service Committee.  The loss hurt us as she was supposed to be an integral role on insurance and regulatory issues.

In regards to any expectations of big changes in the industry, keep a look out on what happens to things such as estate taxes (most likely to be altered in 2013), changes to corporate-owned life insurance, bank-owned life insurance, non-qualified deferred compensation plans, dividend-received deductions on variable annuity contracts, and changes to reserve requirements for carriers.

The next four years will be a big challenge as our country’s leaders continue to be divided and not willing to compromise.  Let’s hope that their lack of agreements do not force us back into another serious recession and for the sake of the insurance industry in particular, let’s hope for less unnecessary regulation overkill.

Life Insurance Education