Rhode Island’s recently enacted R.I.G.L. § 27-34.2-21 provides for new producer training requirements for all Rhode Island-licensed producers who sell, solicit or negotiate long-term care insurance.  Licensed producers who have been selling, soliciting or negotiating long-term care insurance on or before July 3, 2007, must participate in a one-time training course by July 3, 2008. 

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Read More Rhode Island Enacts New Producer Training Requirements

In an opinion released yesterday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the state insurance commissioner’s approval of proposed increases in property and casualty insurance rates.  Ruling against the state Attorney General, the Court upheld the discretionary power of the Massachusetts Commissioner of Insurance to approve rate increases that exceed statutory maximums based on consideration of predicted hurricane loss effects and the cost of catastrophic risk reinsurance. 

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Read More Breaking News: Massachusetts High Court Affirms Insurance Commissioner’s Property And Casualty Insurance Rate Increase Approval

Congress recently approved a Bill (S. 2499) that empowers federal regulators at the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that employer health plans pay the medical bills of older employees even after these employees become eligible for Medicare. …
Read More Employer Health Plans To Pick Up The Tab For Older Employees

In a move that could signal trouble for the municipal bond market, troubled bond insurer ACA Capital Holdings Inc. has agreed to cede some control of its bond insurance operations to Maryland Insurance Regulators.  In exchange, the regulators have given ACA a thirty-day waiver from posting additional capital, which it was required to do after Standard & Poors cut its credit rating on December 19, 2007. 

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Read More Bond Insurer’s Decision to Cede Control to Regulators Could Foreshadow Trouble For The Municipal Bond Market

Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has announced that it has settled its differences with Universal Health Care Insurance Company (UHCIC) through a consent order.  UHCIC had previously commenced numerous court actions to fend off receivership proceedings. 

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Read More Florida Regulators Reach Settlement with Universal Health Care Insurance Company

Under Massachusetts new managed competition process to set auto insurance rates, previously discussed here and here, the State’s 19 automobile insurance companies were invited to make initial rate filings and then to submit amended rate proposals after reviewing their competitors’ proposals. 

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Read More Massachusetts Automobile Insurance – A Status Report

By Order dated December 27, 2007 a New York appeals court rejected an absent class member’s bid to obtain the work product of lead counsel in the CA Inc. securities class action.  The absent class member, billionaire Sam Wyly, a major CA shareholder, alleged that the $134 million settlement of the CA securities class action obtained by lead counsel was inadequate. 

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Read More Absent Class Member Not Entitled to Privileged Work-Product of Lead Counsel

On December 19, 2007, Barclays, PLC, Britain’s third largest bank, filed a lawsuit against Bear Stearns in federal court over subprime losses from a failed Bear Stearns hedge fund.  As we reported earlier this year, two hedge funds managed by Bear Stearns went bankrupt this summer because their investments were highly concentrated in the sub-prime market. …
Read More Barclays Sues Bear Stearns Over Subprime Hedge Fund Losses

In Shenandoah Chiropractic, P.A. v. National Specialty Ins. Co., 2007 WL 4276531 (S.D. Fla. Dec. 3, 2007), the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida recently dismissed a class action complaint, seeking declaratory relief and alleging breach of contract in relation to a claim for Personal Injury Protection  (“PIP”) benefits. 

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Read More Federal District Court Dismisses PIP Class Action Suit