IRI to launch ‘painless’ annuity training platform

Investment advisers will be able to visit one website for the annuity-sales training required under a new suitability standard issued by regulators.

The portal, which was created by the Insured Retirement Institute and compliance company RegEd, also will provide advisers with training in specific annuity products offered by companies across the industry. The platform, which is meant to give advisers a “one-stop shopping” training experience, will be launched on Nov. 22.

The site was designed to help advisers meet the requirements of the new suitability regulation approved over the summer by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The model rule was developed to help ease consumer concerns about annuities, which are often portrayed as expensive and overly complex. Press accounts of abusive sales practices have not exactly burnished the reputation of annuities, either.

So far, two states have adopted the suitability regulation and 29 others have committed to putting it in place. Iowa is set to implement it Jan. 1and the IRI platform will be up in time for advisers in that state to use it.

IRI president and chief executive Cathy Weatherford said that the “industrywide solution” was developed by a suitability task force comprised of more than 70 IRI members, including representatives of broker-dealers, wirehouses, banks and insurance companies. The platform will be constructed with funding from the industry.

She said the site would provide a “painless” way for all advisers to receive training on the whole range of annuities.

“The advisers, no matter who they sell for, can go into a single portal,” Ms. Weatherford said. “It is very powerful. It is very robust. It has a simple elegance for the adviser.”

In July 2010, the IRI task force deemed the suitability standard’s training requirements as “a major implementation challenge, posing the possibility of negatively impacting consumers and the industry alike,” according to a statement.

Jamie Shepherdson, president of retirement savings at Axa Equitable Inc. and chairman of the IRI board, said in a statement that he is confident that the training platform “will not only make it easy for financial advisers to comply with the requirements, but also ensure that consumers have access to products and advice that meet their individual retirement income needs.”

The Dodd-Frank Act includes incentives to encourage states to adopt the NAIC suitability standard. Ms. Weatherford said that the pace at which the 19 remaining states do so will depend on a variety of factors, such as gubernatorial and insurance commissioner elections, as well as health care reform implementation.