Fiduciary Funds: Agents and Brokers Face Potential New Exposures Amid Uncertainties in Financial Markets

As solvency and liquidity issues continue to plague financial markets, New York's agents and brokers need to pay careful attention to existing standards for establishing and maintaining specially designated accounts in their control. In particular, State law limits the kinds of transactions that may take place when monies are handled by agents or brokers in a fiduciary capacity. Readers of the Insurance Advocate, members of PIANY, IIABNY and other associations have expressed a particularly keen interest lately in the relevant law and regulation, amid recent financial market uncertainty. Here we present a summary of pertinent considerations presented at our invitation by Dr. Ellen Kiehl who has written considerably on the topic over the past several years. First and fundamental to any discourse on fiduciary funds in this unsteady economic climate is recognition and underlining of the long standing principle that producers are responsible for ensuring that their fiduciary accounts remain protected by federal deposit insurance. There is no ambiguity about this, but there are ways of approaching this responsibility that should be considered carefully and there are circumstances new to the scene that need to be placed in focus.