Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Registration Open for NAPSLO Mid-Year

Registration is now underway for the 2011 NAPSLO Mid-Year Leadership Forum, February 23-26 at the Naples Grande Beach Resort.

To register for the meeting go to http://midyear.napslo.org and enter your NAPSLO member ID number. The registration fee for delegates is $795 and the fee for spouses is $425. Registration fees will increase on Jan. 20 to $895 and $475.

At the end of the registration process there will be a link for attendees to reserve a hotel room at the Naples Grande Beach Resorts, a Waldorf-Astoria hotel. Rooms are $259 plus a $10 daily resort fee, which includes free wireless access in the rooms.

Mid-Year meeting programs get underway on Wednesday, February 23 at 6:00 p.m. with the Opening Reception.

On Friday morning there will be an Executive Session program featuring Stephen Harvill from Creative Ventures discussing "What Keeps You Up At Night" with several industry leaders, including Joel Cavaness, Risk Placement Services; Tony Markel, Markel Corporation, and Kevin Westrope of Westrope. Mr. Harvill led the leadership panel discussion at the 2010 Mid-Year meeting.

Following the Executive Session program the annual Derek Hughes/NAPSLO Educational Foundation Golf Invitational will take place that afternoon at the Naples Grande Golf Course. In addition to the golf event there are also airboat tours of the backcountry and a catamaran sailing event. Attendees can register for all of the events online.

The Mid-Year programs end on Friday night with a cocktail hour at 6:00 p.m. to allow attendees to network with other attendees prior to going out to dinner.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

NAPSLO Applauds NCOIL's Actions on Tax Compact, NRRA Compliance

NAPSLO applauds the adoption by the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) of a revised version of the Surplus Lines Multi-State Insurance Compact (SLIMPACT) and also the adoption of a resolution urging the states to amend their insurance laws to have them conform to the recently passed surplus lines law reforms. NCOIL took both actions at its recent 2010 annual meeting in Austin, TX.

The new compact is a smaller version of SLIMPACT, which NCOIL adopted in 2007. The new compact is designed to fulfill the compact provisions of the Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act (NRRA) which Congress passed and the President signed last July as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

“NAPSLO supports NCOIL’s action in approving what is known as SLIMPACT-lite and NCOIL should be commended for responding to the concerns the NAIC expressed about SLIMPACT and creating a revised version that addresses the problems the NAIC had with SLIMPACT,” said Richard Bouhan, Executive Director of NAPSLO.

“SLIMPACT-lite is a workable compact that meets the requirements of the NRRA in ways that the NAIC compact proposal does not. NAPSLO believes it will be well received by state legislatures,” stated Steven Stephan, Government Relations Director of NAPSLO.

Also at its annual meeting, NCOIL adopted the resolution urging the states to amend their insurance laws to have them conform to the NRRA by the law’s effective date of July 21, 2011.

NAPSLO is most appreciative of NCOIL’s effort of encourage the state’s to act quickly to have their laws amended and conform to the NRRA requirements, Mr. Bouhan said.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

NAPSLO, The Council, AAMGA Urge States to Bring Laws Into Compliance with NRRA

NAPSLO, the American Association of Managing General Agents (AAMGA), and The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (The Council), released a joint letter Tuesday urging state legislators and insurance regulators to work as swiftly as possible to bring their codes and regulations into compliance with the Nonadmitted & Reinsurance Reform Act, which is scheduled to go into effect July 21, 2011.

According to the letter, “failure to act will result in confusion for regulators and licensees alike, arising from the existence of inapplicable, inaccurate and unenforceable code and regulation.”

The NRRA language was included as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was signed into law on July 21, 2010.

“In a short eight months, many of the existing state laws and regulations addressing placements of non‐admitted insurance will be preempted by federal law,” the letter stated.

The three industry trade groups outlined six potential areas where NRRA compliance will require states to address their laws:
  • Ensuring surplus lines premium tax is applicable on surplus lines policies only in the home state of the insured;
  • Producer licensing and surplus lines placement laws can apply only when the state is the “home state” of the insured;
  • Eligibility criteria for U.S.-based (foreign) surplus lines insurers must be amended to require the insurer to be licensed in the domiciliary state and meet the greater of $15 million or the state's capitalization requirement;
  • Eligibility criteria for alien surplus lines insurers must be amended so any insurer listed on the NAIC / IID Quarterly Listing is eligible;
  • The NRRA definition of an “exempt commercial purchaser” must be incorporated into state law; and
  • States must allow surplus lines brokers to participate in the National Insurance Producer Database.
Each of the states would need to conduct a comprehensive review of its code and regulations to identify inconsistencies with the NRRA, the authors wrote.

NAPSLO, the AAMGA and The Council said they would help regulators and legislators realize the uniform and more efficient standards mandated by the NRRA as they draft and pass appropriate, consistent and efficient legislation and regulatory revisions.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Industry Groups Say They Won't Support NIMA

In a letter to the Chair of the Surplus Lines Implementation Task Force, NAPSLO and five other insurance trade associations notified the Task Force they would not support the legislative proposals known as the Nonadmitted Insurance Multi-State Agreement (NIMA) or its predecessor, the Surplus Lines Insurance Multi-State Agreement (SLIMA).

The two surplus lines tax collection compacts are being considered by state insurance regulators as part of efforts to come into compliance with the Nonadmitted Reinsurance and Reform Act, scheduled to become effective on July 21, 2011.

NAPSLO, the American Insurance Association (AIA), Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc., (RIMS); the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), the American Association of Managing General Agents (AAMGA), and the Excess Line Association of New York (ELANY) sent a letter on Monday to James Donelon, Louisiana Insurance Commissioner and chair of the Surplus Lines Implementation Task Force, stating the organizations would not supports the tax compact proposals.

The NIMA proposal was approved by the Task Force on Oct. 26, 2010 however the group said they could not support the proposal for four reasons: NIMA frustrates the spirit and letter of the NRRA; it violates the NRRA requirement that "no state other than the home state . . . may require any premium tax payments for nonadmitted insurance"; it would create unnecessary and burdensome data reporting by brokers; and it fails to create a clearinghouse infrastructure.

“The clear intent of the Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act (NRRA) was to create a streamlined tax system that involved uniform requirements, forms and procedures. NIMA not only fails to establish uniform requirements, forms and procedures, but instead continues, by contract, the burdensome system that Congress sought to eliminate with the NRRA,” the letter said.

Many of the industry trade organizations are urging support of the Surplus Lines Insurance Multi-State Compliance Compact (SLIMPACT) as an interstate compact which would comply with the new federal law and also ease the regulatory burdens on E&S brokers when placing multistate risks.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Lloyd's Presents Programs on Digital Risks

Digital Risks: Trends, challenges and opportunities for business will be the subject of Lloyd's 360 Risk Insight event on digital risks on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010 in San Francisco.

Expert speakers from government, the technology sector and the insurance industry will examine the threats posed by cyber risks and discuss how business can prepare for and manage these risks.

360 Risk Insight runs a series of informative events, covering our key themes of climate change, terrorism and liability, as well as other emerging risks such as nanotechnology and pandemics. Find details of upcoming events or review past events, including keynote speeches, speakers’ biographies and video and audio snippets of the event.

For registration and more event information see the Lloyd's website.