SouthDakota Insurance Director Merle Scheiber has signed anagreement to join NIMA. With the addition of South Dakota, NIMAstates now represent 19.6 percent of the surplus lines market,according to 2009 data. South Dakota collected nearly $29 millionin excess and surplus lines premium in 2009.

NIMA is an agreement that provides a mechanism to report,collect, allocate and distribute surplus lines tax revenuesconsistent with the Non-Admitted and Reinsurance Reform Act (NRRA).The NRRA became part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reformlegislation passed in 2010 that allows only the home state torequire premium tax payments for non-admitted insurance. Withoutthis agreement, several states could potentially lose surplus linestax revenues; the lack of an agreement could create distortions inthe marketplace.

The participating states now include Florida, Mississippi,Hawaii, Connecticut, Louisiana and South Dakota. Severalstates have passed legislation and expressed interest in joiningNIMA, but are prohibited from officially joining until the July 21deadline established in the federal legislation. NIMA member statesplan to wait until after the July 21 deadline to elect officers andselect a clearinghouse to administer the funds. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulationhas agreed to temporarily house the NIMA website,which will contain the signature documents from member states.