NAIFA-New York Legislative/Regulatory Fights & Wins
NAIFA, our members and their clients. NAIFA is one of the nation’s oldest and largest associations representing the interests of insurance professionals, including insurance agents, financial advisors and planners, and investment advisors. NAIFA’s New York chapter (NAIFA-NY) members extend products, services, and guidance to increase financial literacy and protect their clients against life’s inherent risks -- helping hard-working New Yorkers prepare for retirement and create financial security.
Importantly, most NAIFA-NY members serve clients who are Main Street New Yorkers -- including the teachers, police officers, small business owners, and others who form the backbone of our communities. Half of NAIFA-NY’s members report serving clients with a “typical annual household income” falling between $50,000 and $100,000; and another 34 percent report typical client annual household incomes between $100,000 and $150,000. Households in these income ranges tend to be under-represented in the purchase of life insurance and other products that are critical to ongoing financial security.
WINS
WIN - Financial Literacy (A.1337 (Clark)/S.4812 (Addabbo)).
NAIFA-NY applauds the Board of Regents adding a mandatory requirement of a course of study in financial education to enhance financial literacy beginning September 2026.
WIN - Modernization of IL 4228 to Reduce Barriers and Increase Product Availability (A.6975 (Weprin)/S.7222 (Bailey)).
A major legislative victory was secured by your lobbying team at Greenberg Traurig on Friday, September 25, 2025 when Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation to modernize Insurance Law 4228 to address inflation and limitations on consumer product availability. Now referred to as Chapter 427, here is a summary of its impact on NAIFA members:
Section 4228 of the Insurance Law contains limits on how much insurance agents can be compensated for individual life and annuity sales (based on a percentage of premium collected) and other selling expenses, and includes testing and filing requirements to facilitate the Department of Financial Services’ oversight of the life industry. Section 4228 was last updated over 30 years ago, and it broadly applies on an extraterritorial basis to business conducted outside of New York.
This new law amends Section 4228 to increase compensation for life insurance agents and to clarify certain compliance related provisions as a first step towards modernizing Section 4228. Importantly, the changes in this law will help life insurance companies recruit and retain agents by increasing the amount of training subsidies and sales awards that are permissible.
Summary by Section
Total Selling Expenses. Section one clarifies that the “total selling expenses” subject to the cap are limited to commissions, other forms of agent compensation, or proxies for items that would normally be part of the agent's overhead. Items that would not otherwise be part of an agent's overhead such as illustrations, advanced underwriting support, sales conferences and training meetings advertising the issuer’s products, should not be included in the cap.
25% Limit. Section two clarifies that the expense limits do not apply to compensation paid to employees if no more than 25% of their salary relates to the personal production of individual life and annuity business.
Training Subsidies. Section three modernizes eligibility for agent training allowance subsidies and increases the statutory limits on training allowance subsidies. Specifically, the changes will allow agents to be eligible for training subsidies if they earned less than $40,000 in the past three years based on individual life and annuity sales, or if less than 25% of their earned income or work time was based on such sales. The permissible dollar value of training subsidies was also increased by amounts that vary by training year. Further, the law provides that an insurer may accept an attestation of compliance with this requirement if the company does not have actual knowledge otherwise.
Prizes and Awards. Section four increases the statutory limit on prizes or awards that can be provided to an agent to account for inflation since the statute's enactment. The cap on a single award has been increased to $500, the total value for the agent may not exceed $2,000 in a calendar year, and a $50 monthly award.
Testing and Recoupment. Sections five and six of the Act clarify annual testing requirements and provide insurers with additional time to recover overpayments.
Effective Date. The act is immediately effective September 25, 2025.
FIGHTS
During each New York legislation session, we monitor hundreds of bills that could impact NAIFA-NY and our members' ability to serve their clients. The Legislative session begins on/about January 15 and will end on/about June 15. During the last five sessions and dating back ten years, we have monitored over 5,000 legislative bills on your behalf.
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Amendments to Regulation 187. Term life insurance products are often the best vehicle to meet the life insurance needs of a currently underserved community but exhaustive forms and disclosures (arguably not needed for such a basic product) are required pursuant to Regulation 187 when a producer helps a client with the application. NAIFA-NY has been engaged in a dialogue with DFS on this topic, to reduce the risk that the most vulnerable clients will be left to navigate purchasing life insurance without the benefit of an experienced producer so that more households may benefit from this needed protection.
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Availability of Long-Term Care products. The New York market does not include many options for the private purchase of long-term care insurance. Additionally, New York’s Partnership for Long Term Care products are not currently attractive to purchasers. NAIFA-NY seeks a dialogue with the State Legislature, the Department and Health, and the Department of Financial Services regarding reforms to improve product availability.
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