Poppa Challenges Need For Agent Disclosure Mandates

NU Online News Service, Aug. 16, 3:26 p.m. EDT

Trust between clients and their insurance agents cannot be regulated, according to one association leader, who said a New York regulation to impose compensation disclosure rules on producers is unnecessary and even counterproductive.

Richard Poppa, president and chief executive officer of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of New York, makes his case in a "Final Say" column in the Aug. 16 edition of National Underwriter.

"If a client wants to know about the producer's compensation to achieve that trust, then we believe the client should ask and the producer should tell," he wrote. "If for some reason the producer doesn't want to tell, then the client has the option to go to someone who will. Consumers are smart and know this."

He added, "We believe there is no need to create and mandate a burdensome and confusing disclosure regime to regulate this transaction."

Mr. Poppa argues that "the [New York] insurance department has moved transparency in a direction that is fundamentally flawed and is not in the best interest of the consumer it is charged to protect or the industry it regulates."

Mr. Poppa's column can be found here.