Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP attended the International Insurance Forum sponsored by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (the “NAIC”) in Washington, D.C. on May 18, 2009 (the “Forum”).  During the Forum, the NAIC announced its plans to review and address solvency issues within insurance holding companies.

The NAIC stated that the Solvency Modernization Initiative Task Force and its working groups will review capital requirements for insurance groups, international accounting issues, insurance group solvency issues, valuation issues and reinsurance issues.  In developing new regulatory requirements for insurance groups, the NAIC will also assert its authority to review non-insurance entities owned by insurance holding companies that are not regulated by state insurance regulators.  The NAIC states that it is not seeking to regulate such entities, but believes that it has a right to monitor non-insurance entities to detect any problems that could detrimentally affect insurance entities owned by insurance holding companies.

We will continue to monitor this issue and provide updates as needed on InsureReinsure.com.