Elizabeth D. Festa

About the Author

Elizabeth D. Festa

Elizabeth Festa, Regulatory & Compliance News Editor for LifeHealthPro.com, is a longtime financial and regulatory affairs journalist with a background in insurance, securities, the investment advisor space and telecomm deregulation, both in Washington and New York. She has worked at everything from old-school newsletter sheets punched into binders to an international wire service to a hyper-local blog, and has free-lanced for major and regional newspapers and magazines on a variety for features, real estate and lifestyle stories. She found herself covering insurance when all her colleagues covered banking, and figured an actuary could talk circles around a banker and stay in a Rolodex (she still uses one) a lot longer. Elizabeth learned insurance regulatory issues on the back of the demutualization/investment bank movement and Glass Steagall reform efforts in the late 1990s and went religiously to four NAIC meetings a year, sitting in the cheap seats in back with the skeptical accountants, heckling consultants and the pacing consumer advocates. Fast forward, after a decade of real estate and Internet company boom and bust, and she is back on the beat again, covering insurance modernization, which is an evolving process, she has learned, not a destination. Festa can be reached at efesta@sbmedia.com or on Twitter@LHPro_Reg.

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  DOL seeks help on income illustrations rules

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  May 8, 2013

  The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration is considering regulations governing the use of lifetime income illustrations that are given to participants in defined contribution pension plans.

• California bill aims to create state pension program

  By Elizabeth Festa  |  August 24, 2012

  The insurance industry continues its fight against the California proposal, which seeks to largely replicate private-sector offerings under state control.

• MLR killing off business, hurting consumers, NAIFA survey says

  By Elizabeth Festa  |  May 8, 2012

  Agent commissions have declined dramatically since the medical loss ratio (MLR) provision of the health care reform law went into effect, forcing many agents to reduce their services to clients, consider charging fees for services they had been providing at no additional charge and in some cases, laying off employees...

• California moves on health reform

  By Elizabeth Festa  |  April 30, 2012

  The California state legislature is moving forward on a collection of health insurance reform bills, some specially tailored to conform to sections of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

• MetLife's unclaimed property settlement could approach $700 million

  By Elizabeth Festa  |  April 24, 2012

  MetLife may be on the hook for as much as $700 million in unpaid life and annuity policies; other insurers are expected to follow.

• Pressure mounts to apply fiduciary duty to all broker-dealers

  By Elizabeth Festa  |  April 6, 2012

  Fiduciary duty should extend to all broker-dealers if they offer investemtn advice about securities to retail customers, an industry group told the SEC.

• States eagerly await final rule on exchanges

  By Elizabeth Festa  |  March 7, 2012

  The final rule of U.S. Health and Human Services on affordable insurance exchanges is expected out this month, with reports that it can be as soon as this week or by the end of the month.

• President's budget calls for stronger defined benefit pension system

  By Elizabeth D. Festa  |  February 14, 2012

  The budget seeks to strengthen the defined benefit pension system by giving the board of the PBGC authority to adjust premiums and evaluate risks to it, and keep it viable for the times when plans fail.

• Senate MLR bill aims to give agents some relief

  By Elizabeth Festa  |  February 6, 2012

  U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., have introduced S. 2068, the Access to Independent Health Insurance Advisors Act, a companion bill and a shot in the arm for a medical loss ratio bill in the...

• The NAIC on implementation of MLR

  By Arthur D. Postal, Elizabeth Festa  |  January 17, 2012

  Obama administration officials never improperly interfered with the deliberations regarding standards it recommended for implementing the healthcare reform law, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) said in response to a congressional inquiry.