I am William C. Scheel, Associate Professor of Finance and insurance, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut.

My remarks today are my own; they are uncompensated and may only coincidentally be views shared by anyone else.

Introduction

• During my last encounter with this task force, I questioned whether the group was just playing another game of Dungeons and Dragons.
• The Chairman assured me that; indeed, pink worms, gnomes, Merlin and ghouls were not on the Committee's agenda and that we would soon be witnessing the claims of what has proven to be the best D&D game in town for the last decade.
• Never in my wildest imagination did I think we would be handed by this task force the single most important regulatory proposal in life insurance and annuities -- ever!
• The Life Insurance Cost Disclosure System (LIDS) is, indeed, a crowning achievement. It breathes new life into this creaky mechanism we call state insurance regulation.
  • Some of us who have lost the faith can only humble ourselves and marvel at this reinstatement of independence and new found strength of state insurance regulation.
• LIDS clearly heralds a re-emergence of bold initiative and is an historical turning point. In the words of a well-known celebrity: "How sweet it is."

1981-4, NAIC Proceedings