Senators float bill targeting shady advisers

Two U.S. Senators have introduced bipartisan legislation that would offer states resources to protect senior citizens from losing their life savings through “unscrupulous financial advisers” who steered older investors toward practices that didn’t meet their retirement profile. Sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), who is chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and David Vitter (R-La.) have proposed the Senior Investor Protection Act of 2008. The legislation would create a new grant program to encourage state regulators to adopt a uniform standard for the accreditation of senior financial advisers to protect older investors from being duped by misleading designations. The bill provides incentives for states to improve their own rules regulating the use of senior financial adviser designations and calls on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners of Kansas City, Mo., to work with the Washington-based North American Securities Administrators Association Inc. to develop improved rules and suitability standards for the sale of insurance products such as deferred variable annuities. “[Seniors] should not be worried that the title after their adviser’s name is scarcely more than a marketing ploy and that it was not earned through sufficiently rigorous financial education or training,” Mr. Kohl said in a statement.