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On January 10, 2019, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed House Bill No. 4806 into law.  The bill amends certain provisions of the state data breach notification law, increasing reporting requirements on a person or agency collecting personal information of Massachusetts residents.
Read More Updates to Massachusetts Data Breach Laws: House Bill No. 4806

On June 17th, the Excess Lines Association of New York (“ELANY”) published Bulletin No. 2019-19 (the “Bulletin”) detailing New York’s substantial restrictions on group property and casualty insurance policies. The Bulletin echoes some of the remarks at the most recent Surplus Lines Law Group Meeting where this author provided details on the growing regulatory concerns as to group P&C policies.
Read More Locke Lord QuickStudy: Excess Lines Association of New York Publishes Guidance on New York Group P&C Policies

On June 10, 2019, Governor Phil Scott of Vermont signed Senate Bill 131 (the “Bill”) into law, permitting domestic surplus line insurers to offer and sell surplus lines insurance under a surplus lines certificate of authority in the state.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and as mentioned in our previous post found here, Nevada passed similar legislation earlier this month.
Read More LL Surplus Lines Series (Entry 11): Vermont authorizes Domestic Surplus Lines Insurers; Standardizes Premium Tax rates; Repeals SLIMPACT

Add Nevada to the growing list of states that have adopted domestic surplus lines legislation. Senate Bill 86 (the “Bill”) was signed into law on June 1, 2019, with most provisions effective October 1, 2019. Of perhaps most significance Is that Nevada will now allow for insurance companies to domesticate in Nevada for the exclusive purpose of writing surplus lines insurance coverage within the state and potentially elsewhere.
Read More LL Surplus Lines Series (Entry 10): Nevada Joins List of Domestic Surplus Lines Insurer States; Revises Broker Fee Statute; Other Changes

The NAIC has scheduled an Executive Committee meeting on June 25, 2019 to consider finalizing proposed revisions to the NAIC Credit for Reinsurance Model Law and Regulation (Models).  It is anticipated that the Executive Committee will adopt the revised Models during this meeting.
Read More NAIC Anticipated to Adopt Revised Reinsurance Law and Regulation

On March 1, 2017 the cybersecurity regulation of the New York Department of Financial ‎Services (the “DFS Regulation”) took effect, requiring subject financial institutions, including ‎insurance companies, (“Covered Entities”) to among other things adopt written information ‎security programs to address the protection of nonpublic information and information systems.
Read More Cybersecurity Update: NYDFS, NAIC, and What’s Going on in SC, OH, MI, and MS?

Earlier this month, Florida passed House Bill 301 to remove the cap on the amount of fees that may be charged by a surplus lines broker in connection with the procurement of surplus lines insurance for a prospective insured. Instead of the old cap of a maximum of $35 per policy, surplus lines brokers will be able to charge any fee that is “reasonable” and disclosed to the insured in advance.
Read More LL Surplus Lines Series (Entry 9): Florida and California Make News on Broker and Agent Fees

As an early stage or startup InsurTech, you’re highly focused on all the right things: identifying a ‎challenge for the insurance industry, developing an innovative technical solution, making it ‎practical and scalable, getting it funded, and implementing it. The industry for which InsurTech ‎seeks to develop and deliver solutions is awash, however, in requirements and restrictions related ‎to the collection, use, sharing, and protection of data.‎…
Read More What Every InsurTech Should Know About Privacy and Cybersecurity