Veralytic Logo

FINRA makes Suitability a Priority in 2014

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

In January, FINRA placed “suitability” on its annual list of its regulatory and examination priorities for 2014. A FINRA letter to broker/dealer members noted that its concerns in this area include “the suitability of recommendations to retail investors for complex products whose risk-return profiles, including their sensitivity to interest rate changes, underlying product or index volatility, fee structures or complexity may be challenging for investors to understand.”

Suitability should be having both an appropriate product against peer groups and an appropriate product type that closely corresponds to client objectives. The Veralytic Report matches empirical characteristics of product that is unique to the circumstances of the client. An advisor must continually measure and monitor a client’s portfolio to make sure that the products remain suitable and that if objectives or temperament changes that the adjustments are made to keep within the suitable parameters.

Clients hire you for your experience and knowledge in areas they do not have and know and expect you to take care of them and do what is in their best interest. Yet few know what they are being charged for cost of insurance charges (COIs), fixed administration expenses (FAEs), cash value-based “wrap fees” (e.g., M&Es) and premium loads. These costs inside your clients’ life insurance policies vary by as much as 80% and if neither you nor they know what they are being charged, then they may be over-charged.

Veralytic can help you show your clients that you are taking care of them in ways that even most insurance agents or brokers cannot. Veralytic is the only patented, objective and rules-based research tool that goes beyond the overly-simplistic comparisons of illustrations of hypothetical policy values that can be considered “misleading” and “inappropriate” by both financial and insurance industry authorities. Veralytic’s independent research reports provide a facts-based solution that is both compliant with industry regulations and established case law.

Veralytic is simply the fastest, easiest, and most comprehensive and cost-effective way to independently verify to clients and their advisors whether or not the pricing and performance of existing or proposed life insurance is in their best interest.  Only Veralytic is accepted for independent client representation, endorsed by the New York Bankers Association (NYBA) and compliant with industry regulations and established case law.

Use the Veralytic Reports to determine the appropriateness of pricing, the reasonableness of performance expectations for invested assets underlying policy cash values, and overall suitability for your (client’s) policies based on the 5 factors of suitability.  Click here and get up to 3 Veralytic research reports under our NO-Risk trial subscription.

Comments are closed on this post.