American Fraternal Alliance: support for Senate Bill 712 (September 20, 2022)

Summary

In this letter dated September 20, 2022, Allison Koppel, CEO of the American Fraternal Alliance, asks Chair Julie Calley of the House Rules & Competitiveness Committee to support Senate Bill 712, which would strengthen fraternal life insurers doing business in Michigan. The letter describes the Alliance as a national trade association representing more than 50 fraternal benefit societies, including two domiciled in Michigan and 320,000 policyholders across the state. It states that SB 712 passed the Senate unanimously, 38-0, in late June, and that similar legislation has been enacted in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Texas. It says the bill protects individuals from potential loss should a fraternal insurer reach a regulatory insolvency trigger.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

Text recognized from a scanned document; may contain errors.

AMERICAN
FRATERNAL
ALLIANCE

PO Box 68700 | Indianapolis, IN 46268-0700 | P: 630-522-6322 | www.fraternalalliance.org

September 20, 2022

The Honorable Julie Calley

House Rules & Competitiveness Committee
N-1191 House Office Building

Lansing, Mi 48933

Dear Chair Calley:

On behalf of the Board of Directors and membership of the American Fraternal Alliance, | appreciate the
opportunity to share our support for Senate Bill 712, legislation that would strengthen fraternal life
insurers doing business in Michigan. The American Fraternal Alliance is a national trade association
representing more than 50 fraternal benefit societies operating in the United States, including two
fraternals domiciled in Michigan and 320,000 policyholders across the state.

Fraternal benefit societies are 501(c){8) member-owned organizations that provide life insurance
products to help members secure their financial futures and fund a variety of benefits — from college
scholarships to financial literacy programs — and community service projects. For more than 100 years,
fraternals have served as a different kind of insurance provider and one of North America’s largest
volunteer networks at 7 million members strong. In Michigan, fraternal benefit society members
contributed more than $23 million to local communities and volunteered 2 million hours of their time in
2021 alone. Enactment of this proposed bill will help ensure that they are able to continue this
community-focused work for years to come.

In late June, SB 712 was passed unanimously in the Senate by a vote of 38-0. Similar legislation has been
enacted in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Texas and is pending in Ohio. This common sense,
pro-consumer legislation protects individuals from potential Joss should the fraternal insurer reach a
regulatory insolvency trigger. This bill will strengthen the entire fraternal community, allowing societies
to better fulfill their financial and service missions in Michigan and across the country.

| urge you to support SB 712 so that fraternals can better serve both their members and those in need
for decades to come. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Allison Koppel, CAE
CEO
American Fraternal Alliance


File and source

File

2022-09-29_testimony_rule-2021-allison-koppel_47432.pdf

Size

32,067 bytes

SHA-256

fcf8333fc8bec841a968ca85807768e2672852a91b33d6ddf068b9e1636a5f6f

Our copy

2022-09-29_testimony_rule-2021-allison-koppel_47432.pdf

Original

No public link identified.