Birny Birnbaum has ended his 25-year run as a funded shopper consultant on the Nationwide Affiliation of Insurance coverage Commissioners.
Birnbaum, the chief director of the Austin, Texas-based Middle for Financial Justice, first turned an NAIC shopper rep in 1999, when he took over from the middle’s earlier government director, Victoria Benitez.
Birnbaum mentioned in an e-mail interview that he determined to not reapply as a result of he now not felt his work on the affiliation was doing a lot good.
“I feel there are simpler methods to advertise and obtain improved shopper safety, larger availability and affordability of insurance coverage, deal with structural racism in insurance coverage and cease the quite a few unfair and misleading practices in life insurance coverage and annuities than attending NAIC conferences,” Birnbaum mentioned.
What it means: Monetary professionals who observe the NAIC might have a tougher time understanding it now that Birnbaum is now not offering his plain-English analyses of its work.
Shopper reps: The NAIC, a bunch for state insurance coverage regulators, created the buyer rep program in 1992.
The group pays for the funded reps to journey to NAIC conferences and converse up for customers. Different, unfunded reps pay their very own meeting-related journey payments.
Grace Arnold of Minnesota is the regulator who serves because the chair of the NAIC Shopper Liaison Committee this yr.