Announcing the Life Insurers’ Forum for Ethics & Compliance

BETHESDA, MD -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 09/20/10 -- Ethics and compliance professionals must gather information from a variety of different sources both within and outside of the life insurance industry to address myriad, complex ethics and compliance challenges facing life insurers in today's marketplace.

"As of today, the proposed development of a new association to meet the needs of these ethics and compliance professionals is officially underway," says organizational spokesperson Donald J. Walters.

The new association, the Life Insurers' Forum for Ethics and Compliance (LIFEC), is designed to work closely with professionals serving the life insurance industry to identify and offer products and services designed to assist their efforts to promote sound ethics and compliance practices in the life insurance marketplace.

"LIFEC is the next logical step in the evolution of the compliance standards established by the Insurance Marketplace Standards Association (IMSA)," says IMSA Board of Directors Chairman and Sammons Financial Group Chairman Michael Masterson. "LIFEC will build upon the accomplishments of IMSA by meeting the needs of the ethics and compliance infrastructures IMSA helped to establish."

"At the time of IMSA's inception, the existence of compliance infrastructures was in the early stages throughout much of the financial services marketplace," says IMSA President & CEO, Brian K. Atchinson. "IMSA was created to advance a culture of compliance throughout the life insurance industry and to establish the standards that would ensure that culture. IMSA has effectively achieved that purpose."

"Today, virtually all companies have significant compliance teams, and are meeting regulatory requirements," says Walters, "but there is still a need for leadership on the constantly evolving issues of ethics and compliance."

He adds, "Financial services reform will generate additional state and federally-based regulations which will have a direct impact upon life insurers and their compliance operations. LIFEC will be focused upon addressing the growing needs of compliance professionals to meet these rapidly developing challenges."

The IMSA Board of Directors has recommended establishing LIFEC via a vote of the IMSA membership to permit transfer of IMSA's intellectual property, compliance solution products and services, and staffing resources to LIFEC. The result of the membership vote will be announced at the IMSA Annual Meeting on October 19, 2010. IMSA will continue to add value for its members through webinars, Summit Meetings and other compliance solution activities in 2010.

For information, contact: Jennifer Kalita 240-744-3021