• 

  News and Publications

  • Media Room
  • News: Federal
  • News: State
  • Publications
  • Subscriptions

• 

  Seminars and Services

  • Convention
  • Event Calendar
  • Services

• 

  Government Affairs

  • Advocacy
  • Compliance
  • Issue Resources
  • Legislative Reports
  • Public Policy
  • Political Action

• 

  About NAMIC

  • Membership
  • History
  • Member Directory
  • Employment
  • Affiliates
  • Contact

Read	E-mail Print

Blanks Item for Disclosure of Contingent-Fee Data Goes Beyond Need

INDIANAPOLIS (Dec. 2, 2004)--A proposal to require the comprehensive disclosure of contingent commissions for all species of insurance business, not just the commercial business being investigated by New York Attorney General Elliott Spitzer, seeks more data from the industry than is needed, asserts the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC).

Alabama's insurance department has submitted the proposal to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Blanks Working Group, the committee that determines content of the several Annual Statement Blanks, citing need based on Spitzer's Marsh & McLennan investigations of contingent fees and broker-carrier conspiracies. The proposal is to be discussed preliminarily during the NAIC winter meeting in New Orleans.

"There is clear need for revision of this blanks proposal," said William Boyd, NAMIC's financial regulation manager. "What is fully in question is whether such an interrogatory should be directed toward personal lines at all. Further, several elements of the proposal appear redundant. If this blanks item is to be viable, it needs to be addressed to where any wrongdoing occurred."

He added, "Working Group procedure involves a comment period following the introduction of such a blanks item. We will address the content of the proposal and, at very least, assert need for simplification and how better to address the item in terms of insurance markets."

"Initial reactions to the proposal," Boyd said, "have included suggestions that proprietary information may be involved in the broad sweep of the proposed interrogatory. NAMIC will discuss this problem with its committees and comment to the Working Group accordingly. We encourage companies, especially smaller ones, to let us know their reservations with this proposal."

In addition to paid and incurred contingent commissions, the proposal seeks identification of producers, and their premium volume, non-contingent commissions and total commissions.

---

For further information contact:
Robert Detlefsen at rdetlefsen@namic.org
or (317) 875-5250