Two failures--to respond quickly to claims and to file appropriate information--are high on the list of insurer compliance misdeeds seen by regulators, according to a study.

The finding was made by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, which ranked the top 10 gripes of the nation's state insurance officials.

Wolters Kluwer--which describes itself as a provider of compliance, content, and technology solutions and services--said it reviewed last year's market conduct exams from across the country and arranged its list based on areas receiving the most criticisms.

The top 10 most common market conduct compliance criticisms for property-casualty insurers, according to the company, are:

o Failure to acknowledge, pay or deny claims within specified time frames.

o Failure to properly terminate a policy, including inadequate days' notice and omitted required language.

o Improper documentation of claim files.

o Using unapproved or unfiled rates and/or rating errors.

o Failure to provide required disclosures, such as reasons for denials and bill of rights in the claims process.

o Failure to provide notification of producer appointments or terminations.

o Improper documentation of underwriting and policy files.

o Failure to communicate a delay in the settlement of claims in writing.

o Using unapproved or unfiled forms.

o Failure to produce requested records for an examination.

Kathy Donovan, Wolters Kluwer manager of government relations for insurance compliance solution, said in an interview that many problems on the top 10 list could be mitigated by companies keeping better documentation of underwriting and claims files.

She said that keeping more complete records would also help companies more easily produce the appropriate documentation during insurance department exams.

"We've seen a lot of consistency across the states and across company exams where companies are unable to produce the required information," Ms. Donovan said.

The problem has more to do with records being incomplete, rather than inaccurate, Ms. Donovan noted. "I think a lot of what happens is that there is a claims file or an underwriting file that doesn't have everything in there," she said. "What's in there is probably accurate, but it's not complete, and it's that piece that the examiner's looking for that is just not there."

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