The Importance of Regulatory Advocacy
By Peter J. Molinaro, Esq., NAIFA-NYS General Counsel
When most people think about government relations work, their first thought is of legislative advocacy. I believe that this is because issues surrounding the legislative process, more often than not, occupy the front page of newspapers or online news services, and the lead reports of television news. Much attention has been paid to how legislators develop and pass legislation, and whether such legislation is truly in the public interest. NAIFA-NYS staff and leadership spend a great deal of time on our legislative advocacy program.
Equally important, and frequently overlooked, is the interaction we have developed with the State’s administrative agencies that develop and adopt thousands of pages of rules each year, every syllable of which has the full effect and force of law. Therefore, I would like to let our membership know about the ever-expanding NAIFA-NYS regulatory advocacy program, or, as I like to refer to it, legislative advocacy’s nerdy cousin.
Regulatory advocacy is much different than legislative advocacy. New York’s administrative agencies are granted significant authority by the legislature to enact rules and regulations implementing the purpose and intent of the state’s statutes. While legislative enactments need at least a majority of votes in both houses of the legislature, as well as the approval of the Governor, regulatory enactments require the approval of only one person, the agency’s commissioner or superintendent. Regulations are generally much more technical and lengthy than legislation; and sometimes take months, even years, to develop. In order to become effective, proposed regulations appear in the State Register, which is published by New York’s Secretary of State. The publication is followed by a two-month public comment process. After receiving public comment, the agency may either amend the regulations or publish the final version, making the regulation effective. The process can be lengthy or short because once published in the state register, a regulation could become law within less than six months.
Quite often regulations are much more technical and detailed than legislation and, as a result, our advocacy must address the issues presented on a much more technical and detailed level. Also, regulatory advocacy must work within the confines of the regulation as proposed. One generally does not have the option to offer completely different approaches than the one that the agency has put forth.
The reality of the matter is that generally regulations affect the day-to-day operation of our members’ businesses in a much greater manner than most of the legislative enactments. Thus, regulatory advocacy is a vitally important aspect of the work we do here at NAIFA-NYS.
NAIFA-NYS has made significant progress recently with our members’ primary regulator, the New York State Department of Financial Services. We successfully urged the Department to raise the training allowance amounts in Regulation 50. In the past year, the Department has honored NAIFA-NYS by asking us to interact with the life insurance bureau staff during the development of several new regulatory amendments, long before those regulations are published in the State Register. We are currently in discussions with the Department on proposed changes to Regulation 74 (Illustrations) and Regulation 210 (Cost of Insurance increases). The Department was receptive to the comments we provided, along with numerous other associations and businesses, to the newly effective Cybersecurity Regulations (12 NYCRR Part 500). After reviewing all of the comments from the industry, the Department made many important changes to the proposed regulations that are designed to enable our members to be better able to comply.
We appreciate our working relationship with the Department, and we are always presenting the questions and concerns of our membership during the regulatory process. We encourage our members to reach out to NAIFA-NYS staff with any questions about the Department’s regulations or to contact the members of our Legislative/Regulatory Committee with any such input. The more feedback we are able to hear about the impact of these important regulations on our members’ businesses, the better our program can be.
As always
, I would like to hear from our members, who may contact me at pmolinaro@naifanys.org.
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The National Association of Insurance & Financial Advisors-NYS (NAIFA-NYS) represents the interests of life insurance agents and financial advisors throughout New York. Since 1919, the association has advocated for a positive legislative and regulatory environment, enhanced business and professional skills, and the ethical conduct of its members in order to protect consumers and to encourage a healthy marketplace. Further details are available at www.naifanys.org
