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On January 16, 2009, American Equity Investment Life Holding Company (“American Equity”) issued a press release announcing that it, together with a coalition of insurance companies and independent marketing organizations, filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit seeking to overturn Rule 151A adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). …
Read More Suit Filed to Overturn SEC Rule Classifying Indexed Annuities as Securities

On December 29, 2008, the New York Insurance Department’s (“NYID”) Office of General Counsel (“OGC”) issued an opinion setting forth its position with respect to NYID Circular Letter No. 27 (2008) (the “Circular Letter”) that addressed the issue of whether same-sex marriages from jurisdictions outside of New York are covered under group long-term disability, group short-term disability and group term life insurance issued in New York.  We previously reported here on the Circular Letter. …
Read More New York Insurance Department: Legally Married Same-Sex Couples Should be Recognized with Respect to Certain Types of Health and Term Life Insurance Issued Under New York Law

The Chairman of the FSA, Lord Adair Turner, gave a speech on 21 January 2009 setting out his views of  the causes of the current financial crisis and outlining the future of financial regulation. Although the speech was about banking regulation, the key areas of future regulatory focus – capital adequacy and liquidity – are likely also to be applied to insurers. …
Read More UK: FSA Chairman Outlines Future of Financial Regulation

Florida’s largest private homeowners insurer, State Farm Florida, today informed the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) that it will stop selling homeowners and other property-related insurance policies in the state.  The company’s withdrawal affects approximately 1.2 million customers who currently have State Farm Florida homeowners, renters, condominium unit owners, personal liability, boats, and/or personal articles insurance.  It does not, however, affect State Farm Florida’s 2.8 million automobile insurance customers. …
Read More State Farm — Florida’s Largest Provider of Homeowners and Property Related Insurance — Is Withdrawing from the Market

The Connecticut Insurance Department issued an Order for Default Judgment (the “Order”) and a $5.9 million fine against a marketer of hole-in-one golf contests for engaging in the business of insurance without a license, falsely representing that it is authorized to engage in the business of insurance, and engaging in various unfair insurance practices. …
Read More Hole-in-One Golf Marketer Fined $5.9 Million for Operating an Insurance Company Illegally

The Boston Globe has reported that the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Martha Coakley, has launched an investigation into Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Partners HealthCare.  Partners HealthCare owns several Massachusetts hospitals, including Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. …
Read More Massachusetts Attorney General Investigates Health Insurer and Provider

Tackling poor sales practices in respect of payment protection insurance is a continuing priority for the FSA, as is evident from the its ongoing work and the regulatory action taken against 20 PPI providers in 2008 (see our most recent post here). The FSA has welcomed the decision by Alliance & Leicester, Barclays, The Co-Operative Bank, Lloyds Banking Group (including Lloyds TSB, Halifax and the Bank of Scotland), and RBS/Natwest to stop selling single premium PPI with unsecured personal loans by the end of January 2009. 

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Read More UK: FSA Issues Update on the Sale of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI)

The European Captive Insurance and Reinsurance Owners’ Association (ECIROA) has recently published its comments on CEIOPS’ Issues Paper on Implementing Measures on System of Governance. …
Read More EU: European Captive Insurance and Reinsurance Owners’ Association Comments on System of Governance Issues Paper

Under prior law (Law No. 17418, Article 162), Argentina treated reinsurance as an international undertaking and permitted the ceding company and the reinsurer to choose the appropriate law and jurisdiction in their contract.  Recent Resolution 33.320/2008, however, provides that all new reinsurance contracts involving local insurers, whether treaty or facultative, must stipulate that the contract is subject to Argentinean law and jurisdiction. …
Read More Argentina: New Resolution Requires That Reinsurance Contracts Conform To Argentinean Law and Jurisdiction