Glauber, Chairman of the NASD, Guilty of Breaking NASD Rules in His Attack on Indexed Annuities

In speeches and quotes, Robert Glauber has repeatedly referred to indexed annuities as investments, a clear violation of SEC and NASD rules. If ANY of the registered agents under the jurisdiction of the NASD were to use the same words as Glauber, in a sales presentation, they would be guilty of misrepresentation, and could be subject to disciplinary action by the NASD. Even insurance agents, who are not registered in securities, are forbidden to represent, to a prospective client, that an indexed annuity is an investment, and must be very careful in any references they use in comparing the two, as part of the accurate disclosure requirement to the buyer, enforced and regulated by each state insurance department. Ask the registered agents in Massachusetts, whose marketing materials for indexed annuities were scrutinized by the NASD, and later found to be unacceptable, if they will ever mix up the use of this terminology again. For their incorrect sales materials and methods, in some cases incorrectly referring to, or comparing, indexed annuities to investments, they were penalized, fined, disciplined, and made a public example to all other registered agents wishing to sell indexed annuities. So, who at the NASD, or other regulatory body, has the chutzpa to call Mr. Glauber on his OWN violations of the policies of the organization he heads? Is this another example of the elite, who sit in power, exempting themselves from their own rules and laws? With the growing resentment building toward the NASD, among registered agents whose primary business is insurance products, over the aggressive and inappropriate intrusion of the NASD into non-securities areas of their business, I hope that if not some individual, then this group as a whole, will speak up and call for Mr. Glauber to be disciplined, similarly to any other registered NASD member, require that he retract his erroneous statements, and perhaps even call for him to step down as chairman of the NASD.