Photo by Sveta K on Pexels.com Last week, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs held a hearing examining the value of disaster mitigation as a means of strengthening the American insurance markets. Witnesses included representatives of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA); the Center for Industrial Progress, and the Insurance Institute …
Continue reading Senate Banking Hearing Homes in on Disaster Mitigation
Without Congressional action, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) will expire after March 14. With the deadline quickly approaching, your legislators need to hear from you, the members of the independent agent community, that the NFIP urgently needs to be reauthorized. The history of NFIP extensions has been messy. In 2017, the NFIP’s last five-year …
PIA has navigated a rush of flood-related activity over the past several weeks. Please read on for some highlights of PIA’s recent work on flood insurance. Proposed New NFIP Endorsements Late last year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) proposed significant regulatory changes to the documents governing the Standard Flood Insurance Policy (SFIP) issued to …
Continue reading PIA’s Flood Insurance Advocacy: NFIP & Related Updates
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently implemented a plan to require every National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policy—both new and renewing—to include both an agent and an agency National Producer Number (NPN). The new requirement is applicable to all NFIP policies with an effective date on or after January 1, 2024. The announcement was made in …
Continue reading FEMA’s NPN Mandate for NFIP Policies Presents New Challenge in Five States
Congress avoided a partial government shutdown this week by passing a short-term spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), through both the House and the Senate. In a departure from precedent, lawmakers had been confronting not one but two government shutdown threats—on January 19 and February 2. Congress last passed a CR in November; the …
Continue reading Congress Passes Short-Term Spending Bill with NFIP Extension to Avert Shutdown
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently announced plans to require every new and renewing National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) policy to include both an agent and an agency National Producer Number (NPN) with a policy effective date on or after January 1, 2024. The announcement was made in FEMA’s Bulletin W-23005. During PIA’s most …
Continue reading FEMA Will Require Both Agent and Agency NPNs on NFIP Policies Beginning Jan. 1
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently published a report on the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) entitled FLOOD INSURANCE: FEMA’s New Rate-Setting Methodology Improves Actuarial Soundness but Highlights Need for Broader Program Reform. Among other issues, the report addresses: the actuarial soundness of the NFIP’s new Risk Rating 2.0 (RR2) methodology, how premiums are changing for …
Continue reading GAO Report on Risk Rating 2.0 Validates PIA Agent Concerns
On August 29, PIA sent a letter to congressional leaders asking that they reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) beyond its current September 30 expiration date and for as long a period as possible. The history of NFIP extensions has been messy. The program was extended 17 times between 2008 and 2012, when the …
Continue reading PIA Urges NFIP Extension in Letter to Congressional Leaders
As you may know, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has been working to modernize its consumer privacy protection regulatory framework, which forms the foundation of all states’ insurance consumer protection regimes. The NAIC’s Privacy Protections Working Group (PPWG) is in the process of drafting a single new model, the Insurance Consumer Privacy Protection …
Continue reading NAIC Consumer Privacy Protection Model Development Faces New Obstacles
This week, Sens. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced bipartisan legislation that would reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for five years and make several changes to the program. The National Flood Insurance Program Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2023 has a House companion bill, which is sponsored by Reps. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) …
