Editor’s Blog: Battle Royal 

The Senate is expected to take up as early as the week of Sept. 13 changes to the to the health care reform law designed to limit a stringent tax-reporting mandate scheduled to go into effect in 2012.

Tax credits in the healthcare reform law designed to offset health insurance premium costs mean that small businesses will be one of the first groups to benefit from the legislation, according to a new report.

Oversight of insurance professionals when selling insurance products registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is different than for other types of security products, the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting (AALU) says.

Almost half of employers say they are unsure what impact health care reform would have on the benefit coverage they offer in the next five years, according to a recent survey by Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company.

Eliminating the broker-dealer exclusion from fiduciary requirements could result in a substantial increase in “frivolous litigation” that could result in “catastrophic costs” for its members, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors has told the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should adopt a uniform standard for sale of investment products no less stringent than the fiduciary standard under the Investment Advisers Act, a coalition of financial planner groups says.

Six financial services trade groups are urging the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to study the fiduciary standard issue in “a comprehensive manner.”