Iowa Insurance Commissioner Susan Voss, a member of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Life Insurance and Annuities Committee, will meet today in Washington, D.C., with Christopher Cox, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to discuss a proposed SEC rule that would regulate equity-indexed annuities as securities rather than as insurance products.

The proposal has been driven by incidents of abuse in which seniors have been sold annuities that lock up large portions of their retirement savings longer than their expected life spans.

Iowa Insurance Division spokesman Tom Alger said Voss plans to tell Cox that the annuity products should continue to be regulated at the state level as insurance products.

“Iowa has certainly taken a strong lead position in the country on this issue,” Alger said. “Part of that is we do have a better understanding of these products than most states because of the companies that do business in Iowa.”

Equity-indexed annuities sold by Iowa-based insurers account for approximately one-third of that $20 billion market. A portion of the products’ returns is based on the market values of the underlying securities, but the contracts guarantee minimum returns to accountholders, which state regulators say makes them insurance products.

The public has until Sept. 10 to comment on the proposed rule, which was introduced by the SEC last month. If implemented, the rule is not expected to go into effect until January 2010.