WILL RESTRICTIVE LAWS FALL IN THREE TOUGH STATES?
Edward J. Stone ecognizing that times are changing, three tough states have moved to clear away R restrictive bank insurance laws: Texas, Mississippi, and Florida.
"Florida is the latest state to pass legislation that repeals its anti-affiliation statute," said Jim McIntyre, counsel for the Association for Banks-In-Insurance (Washington, D.C.). "And as you recall, anti-affiliation statutes basically prohibit banks (or financial institutions) and insurance agencies (or companies) from affiliating-doing business together. And so this is a pretty big change in Florida, to repeal that anti-affiliation statute, that will permit their state banks to sell insurance from anywhere in the state."
Florida has always been one of the toughest states for banks selling insurance. That's right," McIntyre agreed. "It's been a very tough state. That bill has passed their legislature, and the governor is expected to sign it. Both the insurance industry and the banking industry support the bill, so we don't see any reason why the governor wouldn't want to sign that bill. And in Mississippi, that state also passed a statute repealing its anti-affiliation provision. In Mississippi, only banks in small towns could sell insurance. And this legislation would repeal that restriction, and permit state banks to sell anywhere in Mississippi. What's more, they also passed a statute in Mississippi that permits referral fees-and that's important for banks as well, so that they can develop a compensation program that will permit them to pay nonlicensed employees a referral fee for referring someone to the insurance subsidiary."
How Will Clinton's Consumer Privacy