Glauber: Annuities Rules Need ‘Harmonizing’

NASD Chairman and CEO Robert Glauber is pressing for “harmonizing” regulations that govern different types of annuities. Speaking to a Harvard Business School forum, Glauber noted that there is a “regulatory disconnect among the three types of annuities – variable, fixed and a hybrid called equity-indexed annuity. The current rules provide investors with a degree of protection that “is far from equal,” as variable annuities are the wards of the NASD and Securities and Exchange Commission, while fixed annuities as insurance products are controlled by state insurance regulators and the hybrid is “essentially, a jump ball, because no one seems to know whether they are a security or insurance product.” Glauber says he has called one summit meeting already to get the various regulators to work together on harmonizing regulations.