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Sun Life Financial Inc. announced on June 21, 2013 that it expects the review by the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) of investments by private equity firms in reinsurers of annuities to delay past June 30, 2013 Sun Life’s sale of its U.S. annuity business to Delaware Life Holdings, LLC, a company owned by shareholders of Guggenheim Partners. Click here for a link to Sun Life’s press release. …
Read More New York DFS Review of Private Equity Investments Delays Sun Life Transaction

In the conjoined cases of Beijing Jianlong Heavy Industry Group v Golden Ocean Group and Beijing Jianlong Heavy Industry Group v Ship Finance International Ltd [2013] EWHC 1063, Judge Mackie QC held that arbitration clauses which were included in certain guarantee contracts were enforceable, even if the guarantees themselves might be unenforceable. …
Read More UK: English High Court Rules on Separability of Arbitration Agreements

As we previously reported here, the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act of 2013 (S. 534) was introduced to the Senate and the House earlier this year and, if passed into law, would establish the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers (“NARAB”), a nonprofit corporation to license nonresident agents and brokers. The main benefit of NARAB would be that agents and brokers who are already licensed in one state could join NARAB and become licensed in all other states. …
Read More National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act Advances on Capitol Hill

In an opinion adjudicating the insurability of claims brought under the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), the Illinois Supreme Court recently ruled that public policy did not prohibit coverage of these claims. The decision is Standard Mutual Insurance Co. v. Lay, No. 114616 (Ill. May 23, 2013), and a copy of it is available here. …
Read More The Illinois Supreme Court Rules that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s Statutory Damages Are Not Punitive

On June 18, 2013, the U.S. Reinsurance Under 40’s Group will be having its 3rd Annual Bowling Extravaganza at Lucky Strike Lanes in New York City (624-660 W 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036 (42nd St & 12th Ave)! The event will take place between 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm, and is being sponsored by Transatlantic Reinsurance Company and JLT Re. …
Read More Please Join the US Reinsurance Under 40s Group on Tuesday, June 18 for its Annual Bowling Event

On June 5, 2013, President Obama issued the Executive Order 13645 “Implementing Sanctions Set Forth in the Iran Freedom & Counter-Proliferation Act of 2012” that would become effective on July 1, 2013.

EO 13645 implements several statutory provisions of Iran Freedom and Counter-proliferation Act (IFCA) of 2012 but also imposes additional sanctions. Click here to read the entire Client Advisory.…
Read More Client Advisory – President Obama Issues Executive Order Imposing Additional Iran Sanctions

n Oxford Health Plans LLC v. Sutter, 569 U.S. ____ (2013), the Supreme Court all but ordered the federal courts to not decide whether one person can pursue arbitration on behalf of a class of other people. Dr. John Sutter had a contract with Oxford Health Plans to provide his services to people Oxford insured. In exchange, Oxford would pay him. …
Read More The Supreme Court Rules that Courts Must Honor an Arbitrator’s Construction of Contractual Language in Favor of Class Arbitration, “However Good, Bad, or Ugly”

Other state insurance regulators have responded coolly to the report released by the New York Department of Financial Services on June 12. That report recommended that “State insurance commissioners should consider an immediate national moratorium on approving additional shadow transactions until those investigations are complete . . . .” …
Read More Delaware Rejects New York’s Call for a Moratorium on Securing Reserves with Captive Insurance Companies, While the NAIC Refuses to Act Hastily

On June 12, 2013, the Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office (“FIO”) released its first annual report on the insurance industry to the President and Congress, as mandated under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Act”). The Report discusses in more detail a number of the items covered in the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s (“FSOC”) last annual report, issued this past May.[1] …
Read More FIO Issues Its First Annual Report