Now hear me out as I play devil’s advocate for a second. One could argue today’s system of state-controlled insurance regulations crawls along as an inefficient, sloppy patchwork of rules and laws designed to fatten states’ coffers and provide cushy jobs to a power-happy bureaucracy that drains corporate resources, wastes money and, in the end, makes all of these products that much more expensive for the consumer.

Of course, this argument is propped up by the fact that dealing with more than 50 different regulatory agencies—each with different rules, regulations and personalities—is more than a full-time job. Entire departments of carriers across the country are tasked with dealing with changing regulations, differences in acceptable filings, state reporting, licensing for the company and for agents, along with so many other various functions and requirements each different agency demands. A broker who does business across state lines must be licensed in each one, deal with each department of insurance, pay each state’s fees—which in some cases includes a county-by-county fee—and understand and comply with each states’ regulations when signing applications (just to name a few). The same is true for a third-party administrator, an enrollment software company, or anyone in any segment of the industry. It leaves a lot less time for a broker or TPA to actually help their clients.

Because of this regulatory quilt, a carrier might be licensed in 49 states, or have a product in only 32, or have a product that covers five different conditions in 40 states and only three in four states and nine in one state—starting to sound like a Sudoku puzzle, huh? And with fewer states accepting group trusts on products it can create huge headaches.