Disaster, accounting, questions about the climate of the NAI

Copyright: h Best Company, Inc.
Source: BestWire
Wordcount: 515

Insurers are paying attention to a variety of issues, including catastrophe modeling and accounting, they expect to see raised at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners holds its spring meeting in San Diego from March 15 to March 18 .

The spring meeting is often a staging-conference as a new committee chairpeople prepare their agendas for the year, "said Tammy Velasquez, Vice President and Director of State affairs for the American Insurance Association . The meeting in March is also the first for new commissioners appointed and elected.

The composition of the NAIC has changed significantly across the line, "she says.

Velasquez is concerned about the long-again, off-again white paper on the creation of a national disaster, calling it "the wrong direction at the wrong time." The document describes a general framework for the responsibilities of individuals, insurers and governments at all levels. It offers federal support for catastrophic coverage, the option of all political dangers for consumers of insurance and mandatory coverage of natural disasters, under certain conditions (BestWire, March 31, 2008).

The document of May to receive a vote before the Committee IARD. A related initiative, a "proof of concept" study on the adoption of the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation and Public Hurricane Risk of loss in a national model multiperil model administered by the NAIC, is the order of the day for a working group of the Executive Committee (BestWire, Dec. 10, 2008).

Life insurers and property / casualty companies will be monitoring the action potential on the deferred tax assets. This issue has been among a set of proposals and the surplus capital for which the American Council of Life Insurers searched in vain for urgent action by the NAIC. States have since taken steps to provide relief to companies domiciled in the current rules (BestWire, Feb. 23, 2009).

"Although it would have been preferable to allow the liberalization of the treatment of deferred tax assets by the end of 2008, it is useful now for the Statutory Accounting Principles Working Group to consider this project for 2009" said Bill Boyd, director of financial regulation for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies.

The full NAIC membership is expected to vote on a study of climate risks for insurers. Climate Change and Global Warming Task Force has recently approved a new disclosure of climate risks for insurance companies, with support from some key industry players as well as environmental advocates (BestWire, Feb. 27, 2009).

But Task Force Chairman and Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Sean Dilweg are not present for the vote. Dilweg is among a dozen insurance commissioners who plan to skip the meeting because of a boycott on the owners of the hôtel''California 'support of the ban on gay marriage (BestWire, Feb. 27 , 2009).

Doug Manchester, owner of the Manchester Grand Hyatt, $ 125,000 contributed to the success of this campaign, Proposition 8 bans gay marriage in California last November, elections according to state records. Gay-rights groups, the union Unite Here and other organizations launched a boycott of the hotel in response. The Hyatt is the hotel hosting the meeting and is where most sessions will take place.

(By Sean P. Carr, senior editor, BestWeek: Sean.Carr @ ambest.com)



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