Originally posted on Financial Advisor Magazine by Tracey Longo.

The New York Supreme Court has upheld the state’s contentious fiduciary rule governing annuities and lift insurance sales practices.

The ruling (https://www.dfs.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2019/08/reg187.pdf) found that the New York State Department of Financial Services was neither “arbitrary” nor “capricious” in “providing guidelines for trustworthy and competent producer practices and preventing self dealing by producers at the consumer’s expense,” Acting Supreme Court Justice Henry F. Zwack wrote in the ruling.

The decision is a blow to the insurance industry and the trade groups who filed complaints asking the court to dismiss the state regulator’s rule.

Trade groups and businesses asking the court to dismiss New York Insurance Regulation 187 are the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisers – New York State Inc., the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of New York Inc., Professional Insurance Agents of New York State Inc., Testa Brothers, an insurance brokerage and Gary Slavin, an insurance broker.

The groups were consolidated into one petition by the court, which soundly rejected the complaint to dismiss the fiduciary standard it is decision on July 30.

Read more at FA Magazine.