Last week we reported that Prudential Financial, Inc. and one of its subsidiaries, Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company, has sued State Street & Trust Corp. and State Street Global Advisors over losses allegedly suffered by Prudential clients in two bond funds managed by State Street  (see here). 


Read More Alaska and Idaho Reportedly Investigate State Street Over Mortgage Investments as States Increase Scrutiny of the Mortgage Crisis

At the request of Governor Culver in June of this year, the Iowa Division of Insurance conducted a three-month review of issues relating to long-term care insurance.  The Governor’s request grew out of concerns at both the state and national level regarding long-term care insurance policies and increasing complaints about pricing, rate increases, denial of claims and questionable market practices. 


Read More Iowa Seeks Reforms to Long-Term Care Insurance

New York Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo announced last week that the State is considering a new regulation requiring that all property insurers writing policies covering damage from hurricanes and other natural disasters establish on their books a catastrophe reserve.  If adopted, this regulation would be the first of its kind in the United States. 
Read More New York Proposes Mandatory Requirement for Property Insurers to Maintain Catastrophe Reserves

Louisiana has begun accepting applications from property and casualty insurance companies for grants under the Insure Louisiana Incentive Program.  According to Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon, the program is designed to “attract more property and casualty providers to [Louisiana] and to increase the private market capacity by 15%.” 
Read More Louisiana Launches $100 Million Property & Casualty Incentive Program

This blog serves as an update to our June 7 and September 12 postings. 
 
Last week, we attended the Fall NAIC meeting in Washington D.C.  During the meeting, the Reinsurance (E) Task Force discussed a proposal to modernize current reinsurance regulation. 


Read More NAIC Reinsurance Task Force Considers Modernizing Reinsurance Regulation

Senator Grassley, the top republican on the senate finance committee, sent a letter to the nation’s largest providers of long-term care insurance requesting information on claim processing. 


Read More U.S. Senator Seeks Information From Long-Term Care Insurance Providers Regarding Claims Processing

Industry analysts have proclaimed that the Free Trade Agreement (“FTA”) between the United States and South Korea  represents one of the most commercially significant expansions of the U.S. insurance market in recent history .  The FTA was executed on June 30, 2007 and is presently awaiting congressional approval. 


Read More Pending U.S.-Korea Treaty Could Expand U.S. Insurance Market

Following a Rhode Island jury’s verdict in 2006 that three manufacturers of lead paint created a public nuisance when they manufactured and sold the paint, the state’s Attorney General, Patrick C. Lynch, has filed a plan to abate lead in houses and buildings in Rhode Island. 


Read More Rhode Island Proposes That Paint Makers Fund a $2.4 Billion Lead Abatement Plan

On September 18, 2007, a broad coalition of large institutional investors, state officials and environmental groups filed a petition for interpretive guidance with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission titled Request for interpretive guidance on Climate Risk Disclosure, No. 4-547.


Read More Investors Representing $1.5 Trillion in Assets Call upon the SEC to Require Full Corporate Climate Risk Disclosure

Last week, the House of Representatives voted 263-146 to approve the Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007 (H.R. 3121), which, among other things, would allow homeowners to purchase windstorm coverage from the National Flood Insurance Program (“NFIP”). 


Read More House of Representatives Passes Bill to Amend NFIP