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The Standard of Oregon Announces Changes in New Business Procedures

Rate Setting and Rate Hold Practices have been Changed

06-22-2009

The Standard of Oregon has announced changes to their Sales and New-Business Procedures effective July 1, 2009.

With the current state of the financial markets and the extreme volatility we see on a daily (even hourly) basis, The Standard will be making changes to some of our annuity sales and new-business procedures beginning with the next rate cycle.

Rate Setting Practices
As you know, The Standard will be setting rates more frequently than we have in the past, which was generally once per month. This will allow us to react more quickly to market conditions and to more effectively control the flow of business.

Rate-Hold Practices
In concert with this change, we will also be altering the way rates are held in those scenarios where rates are decreasing. Below are the new application-acceptance and rate-hold procedures that are current in effect.

All applications must be signed prior to the rate change.
The original, completed application (including all required supplemental forms) must be received in the home office within four business days of the change.
Faxed or scanned applications will no longer be accepted.
If these conditions are met, the crediting rate of a deferred fixed-rate product and the index rate cap of an index-rate product will now be held for 45 days from the day the application is received in the home office. Note that this is a change from the 60 days we previously used.
For immediate annuities, if the same conditions are met, we will honor an illustration for 30 days from the date of preparation.