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.