POMPANO BEACH, Fla., Oct. 4, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- On September 7, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD)/Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Rule 2821, which is now scheduled to go in effect within the next six months.
Blue Frog Solutions, a leading provider of life and annuity solutions for order management, compliance, and straight-through processing, offers its AFFIRM for Annuities application that allows the annuities industry to deal with increasing sales practice standards and supervisory requirements.
Blue Frog's AFFIRM for Annuities Compliance and Order Management System is designed to integrate a Carrier's complex product rules with a Distributor's compliance processing to generate transactions that are in good order. Compliant annuity applications are then electronically submitted to Carriers for processing after successfully passing all supervisory reviews required by the Distributor.
Blue Frog's AFFIRM for Annuities solution supports all the requirements for managing compliance with Rule 2821, and can provide Compliance Officers with the ability to manage detailed suitability requirements by contract including state level variations. AFFIRM is able to validate and warn regarding the surrender period, and charges, as well as deferred variable features or riders and characteristics including expenses and advisory fees. The solution can also support the customer with detailed information about the funds, allocations, and suitability within those funds. In addition, AFFIRM supports principal supervisory review and supervisory procedures within it.
There are 33 Carriers currently selling products on Blue Frog's industry-leading AFFIRM for Annuities solution through some of the largest U.S. Distributors including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Linsco/Private Ledger.
Blue Frog also leverages the DTCC's insurance processing services including Financial Activity Reporting (FAR) to provide Blue Frog's Compliance Database with post-issue compliance reporting.
"We support Blue Frog's initiatives in the automation and standardization of key transactional processes that can help Carriers and Distributors manage compliance issues," says John Ziambras, managing director and general manager, Insurance Services, DTCC. "DTCC continues to work closely with third-party vendors who provide innovative, low-cost solutions through leveraging of their core competencies and building connectivity to our unparalleled network of users through the world's largest post-trade infrastructure."
"The market is growing in terms of retirement and wealth management -- and annuities are becoming a greater component of the portfolio," says Dan Smith, COO of Blue Frog Solutions. "With the new rule and requirement for heightened supervision, Distributors of variable annuities firms would be prudent to purchase a solution now to help them meet future compliance requirements."
Blue Frog Solutions, (www.bluefrogsolutions.com), based in Pompano Beach, Florida, is a leading technology solutions provider and business processing outsourcing (BPO) firm that focuses on the life, annuities and long-term care market. Blue Frog automates both front and back end business processes between Carriers and Distributors with a focus on compliance to create automated business process efficiencies. Blue Frog's solutions are based on the firm's flagship ADMServer Framework software suite. As one of the largest providers of ACORD-based transactions and DTCC solutions, Blue Frog currently provides ADMServer solutions to more than 60 percent of the top 40 life and annuity companies and many of the largest Distributors in the U.S.
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