Topics

Subscribe to Topics via RSS

The NAIC Financial Regulation Standards and Accreditation Committee recently approved revisions that will impact some captives reinsuring XXX/AXXX reserves, variable annuities and long-term care products. The approval comes after more than a year of consideration about whether reinsurers organized as captives and reinsurance business written in other states should be…
Read More NAIC Panel Approves Draft Captive Accreditation Standards

On May 26, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower court decision and ruled that the IRS could not impose excise tax on certain wholly-foreign retrocessions of insurance. The decision represents a second major victory for Validus, a Bermuda reinsurer. The IRS…

Read More Validus Wins Round Two: Wholly-Foreign Retrocessions Not Subject to Federal Excise Tax

June 9, 2015
8:00 am – 1:30 pm

Locke Lord LLP
750 Lexington Avenue, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10022

Program:
Registration 8:00 am
Program 8:30 am
Lunch 12:30 pm

Program:
The Current State of Antitrust Immunity for Insurance Companies
by Thomas F. Bush and Rowe W. Snider
…
Read More Complimentary Seminar – 14th Annual Half-Day Insurance and Reinsurance Seminar

Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D- MA) wrote the heads of the 15 companies with the highest 2014 U.S. individual annuity sales expressing concern about whether the rewards and incentives offered by the companies to brokers and dealers create a conflict of interest that may result in inadequate advice or…
Read More Senator Contacts 15 Largest Individual Annuity Companies, Expressing Concern About Broker Incentive Programs and Requesting Information

New York Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky has brought his criticism of so-called “shadow insurance” (through which life insurers set up reinsurance captives to divert reserves to jurisdictions with less stringent regulatory requirements) to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. In his recent letter to…
Read More New York Continues Its Opposition to “Shadow Insurance”

The Internal Revenue Service late last week issued proposed regulations addressing what constitutes the “active conduct of an insurance business” for purposes of the passive foreign investment company (“PFIC”) rules. These regulations were issued in part in response to the perceived problem of hedge funds using offshore reinsurance companies to…
Read More Proposed Tax Regulations Issued on PFIC Rules for Insurance Companies

Earlier this week, the European Union’s executive body gained key approval to begin negotiations with the United States on a deal aimed at cutting the minimum collateral levels required of foreign reinsurers operating in the US. The authorization to enter negotiations, which was trumpeted by European officials as the first…
Read More Europeans Authorize Negotiations with US to Loosen Reinsurance Collateral Requirements

On April 16, 2015, the Cybersecurity Task Force of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners adopted 12 principles for effective cybersecurity insurance regulatory guidance. Recognizing that cybersecurity risks pose a significant threat to consumer financial and health information, as highlighted by recent, significant data breaches, the NAIC took steps to…
Read More NAIC Issues 12 Principles for Insurance Regulatory Guidance on Cybersecurity

On April 9, 2015, the Georgia legislature sent a bill to the governor for his signature that would improve the regulatory environment for captive formation in the state. House Bill 552 reduces the taxes imposed on all Georgia domiciled captive insurance companies, among other captive friendly revisions. Once enacted, Georgia’s…
Read More New Georgia Captive Law Lowers Taxes Among Other Changes