Annual Statements & Financial Reporting
    Iowa has amended two rules dealing with derivative transactions:
    • IAC Chapter 93 applies to quarterly reporting of conduit derivative transactions. New subsection IAC 93.6(3) allows a conduit to apply to be exempted from the reporting requirements. However, all of its obligations arising out from its derivative transaction activities must be unconditionally guaranteed by a qualified counterparty.
    • A new chapter, IAC Chapter 97, tells how to account for certain derivative instruments used to hedge the growth in interest credited for indexed insurance products. and how to account for the indexed insurance products reserve.
    Details about each are on pages 567 and 568 of the Aug. 26 edition of the Iowa Administrative Bulletin.
 
 
Automobile Insurance
    New York has published a new Proposed Regulation 153 that provides new flexible rating rules for nonbusiness automobile insurance. The rules are for a new system, which took effect Jan. 1, which allows periodic overall average rate changes up to 5 percent on a file-and-use basis, and requires the superintendent's prior approval of overall average rate increases above 5 percent in any 12-month period.
 
    Texas Bulletin B-0034-09 has assigned-risk auto insurance rates that go into effect Nov. 1. It also contains links to the revised rates, premiums, rating factors and instructions for companies to use to generate those rates for new and renewal business.
 
 
Credit Scores
    Illinois HB 418 ends a requirement for insurance companies to recheck a policyholder’s credit information every three years. Credit checks at renewal will now be voluntary, giving consumers the option to have the insurer check only when they think their score has improved. According to the law, "an insurer that uses credit information to underwrite or rate risks shall, at annual renewal upon the request of an insured or an insured's agent, re-underwrite and re-rate the insured's personal insurance policy based on a current credit report or insurance score."
 
 
Insurance Fraud
    New Jersey lawmakers, for example, are still working on two bills of interest to fraud fighters and managers. AB 3863 would target automobile rate evasion and AB 3984 would expand the state’s immunity law to allow greater exchange of information among insurers, law enforcement and the National Insurance Crime Bureau. The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud is working closely with NICB and others to pass both bills.
 
    Rhode Island lawmakers failed to pass two insurance bills, HB 5773 and SB 667, that included provisions requiring fraud warnings on insurance documents. Another bill, HB 5775, would have expanded the state’s definition of insurance fraud but it failed earlier in the session.
 
    The District of Columbia has a new fraud law that helps clarify the jurisdiction for prosecuting insurance fraud. Fraud charges can now be brought if the insured, insurer or claimant resides in the District, an address in the District is used, the services were provided or alleged to have been provided in the District, the payment was made to an address in the District, the loss occurred or alleged to have occurred in the District or any part of the offense took place in the District. The coalition thinks the new language should help federal prosecutors embrace more insurance fraud cases in the jurisdiction.
 
 
Life Insurance & Annuities
    A new Illinois law, SB 2091, is intended to prohibit stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI) transactions and protect Illinois consumers who enter into viatical settlements. It increases disclosure and supervision requirements for viatical settlements.
 
 
Medicare Supplement Insurance
    New York has posted new information about Medicare supplement and Medicare Select insurance rates.
 
 
Producers
    Rhode Island Regulation 40 increases fees for continuing education course for insurance producers. Also, Amended Regulation 103 updates licensing and renewal fees. Both rules go into effect Sept. 14.
 
 
Property/Casualty Insurance
    North Carolina HB 1305 changes the state-created but privately run Beach Plan for 18 coastal counties by placing a surcharge on every property insurance policy in the state if hurricane damage claims exceed $2.4 billion. The insurance commissioner could also add an additional charge if the plan lacks enough money to pay claims. That could add up to an extra 10 percent on the average annual premium. The law also reduces the maximum value of a home that can be insured by the plan from $1.5 million to $750,000. The surcharge doesn’t kick in until all of the state's property insurers first pay $1 billion in assessments. "The bill protects consumers and provides needed long-term stability to the insurance market," the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America said in a prepared statement.
 
 
State Regulation of Insurance
    Karen Stakem Hornig has been promoted to from associate deputy to deputy insurance commissioner at the Maryland Insurance Administration. She serves as the commissioner’s designee for quasi-judicial hearings, heads the agency’s administrative unit and handles special projects.
 
    Minnesota has published a 58-page summary of recent legislation of interest to insurance companies.
 
    Texas Proposed Regulation 28 TAC 21.4801-.4807 addresses noninsurance benefits that are provided or disclosed as part of an insurance policy, contract or certificate of insurance, and that are reasonably related to the type of policy, contract or certificate being issued.
 
 
(RR&B is produced with the assistance of The CLEAR Report) and the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.
 
Copyright 2009 ProBusiness Publishing LLC

Publish date Aug 31 2009
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Reprinted with permission from Insurance Compliance Insight.
Copyright © 2009 ProBusiness Publishing LLC
Licensed from ProBusiness Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.