The Illinois Legislature has a bill pending in the House Rules Committee that would ban the use of price optimization by insurers. Price Optimization is the practice of setting premiums based on factors that are not tied to expected losses. House Bill 5719 was introduced on February 10, 2016, and

Read More Proposed Illinois Bill would Prohibit the Use of Price Optimization by Illinois Insurers

Beginning in March, Barbara Richardson will start her appointment as Commissioner of the Nevada Division of Insurance after the long recruitment to fill the vacancy following Scott Kipper’s resignation in July 2015.

For the past 11 years Richardson served as the Director of Operations and Fraud with the New Hampshire
Read More Barbara Richardson Appointed as Commissioner of the Nevada Division of Insurance

On February 9, 2016, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey appointed Leslie Hess as the Interim Director of the Arizona Department of Insurance. Hess has more than 25 years of experience in both public and private sectors of the insurance and financial service industries. Prior to being appointed as the Interim Director

Read More Leslie Hess Appointed as the Interim Director of the Arizona Department of Insurance

Locke Lord LLP recently represented a national platform client in connection with a unique internal reorganization and simplification of their Texas insurance company subsidiary organizational chart. The principal objective on this engagement was to eliminate a legacy Texas Lloyd’s Plan (“TLP”) entity. TLP entities are seen by some as historical
Read More Reorganization of Texas Lloyd’s Plan

On January 25 the California Insurance Commissioner issued a press release, and also sent email messages to insurers licensed in California, indicating that he is requesting all insurers doing business in California to refrain from making any new investments, refrain from renewing any existing investments, and to sell or withdraw

Read More California Insurance Commissioner Asks Insurers to Exit Thermal Coal Investments

New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today nominated Maria T. Vullo to serve as the Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services. Vullo is an experienced senior litigator and manager, with more than 25 years of practice in business litigation and investigations. She is of counsel at

Read More New York Governor Nominates Head of the Department of Financial Services

On December 4, 2015, President Obama signed the Highway Bill, dubbed Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (“FAST Act”), into law. Buried in the 490 page transportation law is a significant amendment to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act’s (“GLBA”) annual consumer privacy notice requirement. Specifically, section 75001 of the FAST Act, entitled “Eliminate

Read More GLBA Annual Privacy Notice Eliminated under Certain Circumstances: Buried in a Highway Bill!

On December 4, 2015, the Connecticut Insurance Department (the “CID”) issued Bulletin PC-81 banning the practice of price optimization, a pricing method whereby insurers use factors not specifically related to an insured’s expected losses and expenses in pricing coverage. Bulletin PC-81, which was issued to all insurers licensed to write

Read More Connecticut Bans Price Optimization

During the last few years, many states have undertaken aggressive efforts to collect sales tax on amounts paid for service contracts a/k/a extended warranties, which in most states are deemed not to be insurance products. A recent example of this effort is the South Carolina Administrative Law Court’s decision in
Read More SC Court Says Sales Tax Inapplicable to Cellphone Insurance Premiums

In light of the reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (“TRIA”) earlier this year, a growing focus within the industry has been on the collection of data on terrorism risk exposure from insurers to help assess company solvency and market trends in light of particular changes to TRIA. As
Read More TRIA Data Call In Development for 2016