The Center for Board Certified Fiduciaries (CBCF) has published fiduciary best practices for a specific segment of the industry—insurance and annuities.
CBCF’s insurance standard (the term is intended to be inclusive of annuities) “is based on proven best practices first applied in 2013 at a conference held at West Point for leaders from the financial services industry,” according to the Center.
But it wasn’t without controversy, according to CEO Don Trone.
“There are a fair number of advisors who won’t touch insurance,” Trone said. “If our CBCF shareholders are any indication, 25% were vehemently opposed to CBCF taking on the task of defining fiduciary best practices for insurance.”
Though this initial attempt to define a fiduciary standard for insurance was met by resistance, recent legislation, such as the Secure Act and the SEC’s Reg B, has put insurance back on the fiduciary track.
“I’m coming across retirement advisors who are planning to use in-plan annuities, but never considered that the associated decision-making is still a fiduciary function, and that the advisor will be required to demonstrate the details of their decision-making process,” he added. “Still other younger advisors believe that filling out Reg B CSR is all they must do to meet a fiduciary standard.”
The CBCF framework for insurance was collaboratively developed by a committee of insurance specialists led by Barry Flagg and Larry Raymond.
“For the most part, insurance products have been left out of the retirement planning and wealth management process,” Flagg said. “The CBCF framework provides advisors with a detailed decision-making process for addressing what has become the last, largest, most neglected and worst-performing asset relative to consumer expectations.”
“The first training associated with the new fiduciary insurance standard will be held June 13 – 16, 2022 at the Wake Forest University Charlotte Center,” Raymond concluded. “We affiliated with Wake Forest so industry professionals could receive the Certificate in Applied Fiduciary Practices from a top-ranked university.”
The Board Certified Fiduciary (BCF) is a professional mark awarded by the Center for Board Certified Fiduciaries, (CBCF), that recognizes the knowledge, skills, work experience, and special expertise of an exemplary fiduciary leader.
The Center for Board Certified Fiduciaries (CBCF) is a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) founded and funded by fiduciary advocates. CBCF is affiliated with Wake Forest University School of Professional Studies so that CBCF can provide a graduate-level certificate in fiduciary leadership, stewardship, and governance.
Learn more at www.c-bcf.com.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
