Please contact your state representatives ASAP (today, this week). Ask them to support S2729 & H901, An Act Relative to Equitable Coverage in Annuity Policies and to oppose H949, An Act Relative to Savings Bank Life Insurance.

S2729/H901 is a WBA priority which would end annuity pricing and practices which violate our state ERA, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, marital status or national origin. Sen. Therese Murray’s bill (formerly S622, now S2729) has passed the Senate and is in House Ways & Means with Rep. Ruth Balser’s companion bill, H901.  

Each day that goes by before this bill becomes law in Massachusetts, more and more women continue to face discrimination in their retirement income. As more employers opt for 401K plans and the like in place of traditional defined benefit plans which must be gender neutral under federal law, more women purchase annuities that pay lower monthly benefits than are paid to men who purchase policies with the same amount of money. Our annuity fact sheet is attached.  

The WBA has been working since our early days on ending discrimination in insurance and annuity pricing and practices for all companies doing business in Massachusetts. H949 would reverse the gender neutral requirement written into the statues for SBLI. It is supported by some legislators who should know better but who probably fell for the plea that SBLI was at a competitive disadvantage. A change in the statue would, as other companies do now, allow SBLI to offer women a slightly cheaper premium but women will then receive less cash value over time; men will be likely be charged a higher premium.

Click here to read the WBA fact sheet supporting gender neutral insurance, click here to read the fact sheet on the annuity bill, and click here to read a letter from Attorney General Martha Coakley on her opposition to H949.

If you need to find out who your representative is and how to contact him or her: http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.php.