Locke Lord’s Regulatory & Transactional Insurance Practice Group is pleased to be a part of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners meetings throughout the year. Being present at the NAIC national meetings and talking directly with attendees is one way that we stay abreast of industry trends, a critical component…
Read More Locke Lord and NAIC – Fall 2017 Meeting Information

The wine country wildfires of October 2017 are expected to have caused greater losses than any other in U.S. history.  AON Benfield predicts that on an aggregated basis, “this is costliest insured wildfire event ever recorded.”  Back on October 31, 2017, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones revealed that the then…
Read More Heard It Through The Grapevine: Wine Country Wildfires

This week, the 21st Century Flood Reform Act (H.R. 2874) passed the House of Representatives and is now headed to the Senate. H.R. 2874 would renew the National Flood Insurance Program (“NFIP”) for an additional 5 years beyond its existing termination date. NFIP was originally enacted to provide…
Read More National Flood Insurance Program Gets One Step Closer to Renewal

On Monday, November 13, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, in conjunction with the Center for Insurance Policy and Research and The Griffith Insurance Education Foundation, presented a webinar entitled “Wearables and their Insurance Implications.” The webinar covered a broad range of developments in the wearable space, as well as…
Read More NAIC Co-Hosts Webinar on Wearable Devices

The Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act, which requires insurers to periodically match their policies, annuity contracts, and retained asset accounts against the United States Social Security Administration’s Death Master File was signed into law on August 26, 2016 and became effective January 1, 2017.  In January of 2017, Illinois…
Read More Changes to Illinois Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act Become Law

On October 27, the NAIC Model Law (E) Working Group released an exposure draft of its proposed revisions to the Life and Health Guaranty Association Model Act (#520), intended to address the financial challenges of Long Term Care (“LTC”) insurance insolvencies, such as this year’s Penn Treaty liquidation, and to…
Read More NAIC Working Group Exposes Proposed Revisions to Life and Health Guaranty Association Model Act

The Missouri Supreme Court has unanimously held a pollution exclusion to apply in a dispute between a lead smelting company and one of its insurers.  Doe Run Resources Corporation faced litigation alleging that its smelting operations caused pollution that injured various plaintiffs.  Doe Run sought defense costs from St. Paul…
Read More Missouri Supreme Court Upholds Pollution Exclusion

Earlier this week, the Department of the Treasury released a report that examined the current regulatory framework for the insurance industry and made recommendations on how to improve it. The report concluded that entity-based systemic risk evaluations of insurance companies are generally not the best approach for mitigating risk. Alternatively,…
Read More Department of Treasury Releases Report on Regulation of Insurance

On October 25, 2017, the White House issued its previously-rumored Presidential Memorandum (“Memorandum”) calling for the establishment of a UAS Integration Pilot Program (“Program”) to test the further integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (“UAS” or “drones”) into the national airspace system (“NAS”) in a select number of State, local and…
Read More White House Issues Memorandum Announcing UAS/Drone Integration Pilot Program

Although there are still 9 active wildfires in California’s wine country, Cal-Fire anticipates that nearly all of these will be fully contained by the end of this week.  Even as the fires continue, the region’s vineyards, wineries, and related businesses are starting to file their insurance claims.  To date, no…
Read More We’ll Drink to That… Not So Fast?