Under Tennessee's suitability and best-interest rule for annuities, whose financial interest must a producer place first when making a recommendation?

Why B is correct

Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0780-01-86 establishes a best-interest obligation: when a Tennessee producer recommends an annuity, the consumer's financial interest controls and must be placed ahead of the producer's and the insurer's interests. The Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance adopted this consumer-first standard as the foundation of its annuity suitability framework.

Why the other options are wrong

• A) Later client approval does not reorder the duties; the producer's obligation to put the consumer first applies at the time of the recommendation.
• C) The insurer's interest in the transaction is subordinate to the consumer's under the best-interest standard.
• D) Who bears the commission is a compensation question, not the measure of whose interest the recommendation must serve.

Memory hook

Best interest means the buyer's interest — the rule says so before anything else.