NU Online News Service, March 8, 11:19 a.m. EST

WASHINGTON—State legislators and regulators "have a ways to go" to ensure that the surplus lines reform law goes into effect as mandated by Congress in July, the head of the National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices (NAPSLO) said.

Richard Bouhan, NAPSLO executive director, made his comments as officials of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) gave a progress report on their efforts to implement the Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act.

This law, which modernizes and reforms regulation of the surplus lines and reinsurance industries, was incorporated into the Dodd-Frank financial services reform legislation. States are required to act to implement the law by July 21.

Mr. Bouhan said he believes NCOIL is "focused" on getting the interstate compact that is needed to facilitate implementation of the law, but noted that during the progress report, NCOIL officials said no state has passed legislation implementing the Surplus Lines Insurance Multistate Compliance Compact (SLIMPACT)—the compact the industry believes is most appropriate to implement the law.

The NCOIL version, often referred to as "SLIMPACT-Lite," is a slimmed-down version of the original SLIMPACT—a proposal for an interstate compact developed by 60 interested insurance professionals in 2007.

A National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) working group has proposed another compact, the Nonadmitted Insurance Multistate Agreement (NIMA), but this proposal only allows states to collect their share of taxes on insured's surplus lines policies.

NIMA has been criticized by the industry and NCOIL as well.

At the NCOIL meeting, its officials said SLIMPACT has been introduced in 12 states, and disclosed that New York is looking for sponsors for the legislation.

NCOIL and the National Conference of State Legislatures are also lobbying Congress to extend the implementation deadline a year.

Mr. Bouhan warned that the clearinghouse needed to ensure that the domicile state has the authority to allocate premiums to all other affected states does not go into effect under the law until 10 states establish the compact.

"Until that happens," he warned, "the domicile state under the law will not have the authority to allocate the appropriate share of the taxes to other states."

Under the law, he said, "the state of domicile has sole authority to collect the tax from the broker who sells the insurance."

Special Reports /

States Have Long Way To Go To Implement Surplus Lines Law

Related Stories

Recommended For You