In the latest entry in our Commissioner Spotlight series, we are focusing on the head of the Puerto Rico Office of the Commissioner of Insurance, Commissioner Alexander S. Adams Vega. Commissioner Adams has been serving in the Puerto Rico Office of the Commissioner of Insurance for more than 10 years, first as a legal adviser and …
Continue reading Commissioner Spotlight: Puerto Rico Commissioner Alexander S. Adams Vega
Data breaches have increasingly affected every industry that collects consumer nonpublic personal information (NPI). Insurance consumers’ data has been subjected to breaches, too, even though sensitive health information is specially protected by safeguards set forth in the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA), and other insurance data is protected by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) of 1999. Insurance agents and brokers …
Continue reading PIA Asks NAIC to Revise Consumer Privacy Model to Address Independent Agent Needs
Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that would ban the use of non-compete provisions and non-compete agreements between employers and workers. The NPRM invited members of the public to comment during a 60-day period, which ended on March 20. Independent agency owners are among millions of insurance-related businesses that rely …
Continue reading PIA to FTC: Independent Agencies Need Non-Competes
Recently the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) held its Spring National Meeting in the city in which it is headquartered: Kansas City, Missouri. PIA was represented at both the Board of Directors meeting of the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) and elsewhere during the NAIC meeting. During the NIPR meeting, the Board took advantage …
Last month, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) held its Fall National Meeting. Here is a synopsis of the most notable aspects of the meeting. Creation of New “Letter” Committee First, some background on the NAIC’s structure may be helpful. The NAIC places its committees at the top, with subgroups, working groups, and task …
The Federal Insurance Office (FIO), created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank), is an ongoing threat to the state insurance regulatory system. Back in 2016, PIA was the first national insurance association to advocate for the full repeal of the FIO. In pursuit of that work, PIA led the …
Continue reading Biden Administration Gives Federal Insurance Office New Responsibilities
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Executive Committee has adopted language that would allow for some types of “rebates” to be offered to consumers, unanimously approving amendments to Section 4(H) (“Rebating”) of the NAIC Unfair Trade Practices Act (Model #880) (UTPA). The revised language permits insurers or producers to “[o]ffer or give non-cash gifts, …
Continue reading NAIC Adopts Rebating Changes to Unfair Trade Practices Model
In the latest entry in our Commissioner Spotlight series, we are focusing on the head of the South Carolina Department of Insurance (SCDOI), Director Ray Farmer. Dir. Farmer served as vice president of the American Insurance Association (AIA, now APCIA), a trade association for insurance carriers. He spent the early part of his regulatory career as …
Continue reading Commissioner Spotlight: South Carolina Director Ray Farmer
State interpretation and application of anti-rebating laws varies, and, about a year ago, those variations prompted the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Innovation and Technology Task Force, led by Commissioner Jon Godfread (ND), to further investigate the section of the Unfair Trade Practices Act (Model #880) that addresses rebating. Prompted by that investigation, the Task Force tasked a …
The statutory creation of the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers (NARAB) was included in the 2015 law reauthorizing the terrorism risk insurance program (the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015, which became P.L. 114-1). (More recently, you may remember that the terrorism risk insurance program was reauthorized again in December of …
PIA Advocacy Blog 