Thursday, October 16, 2008

Draft Circular Letter Re Direct DJ/Late Notice Bill

Just got my hands on a draft circular letter the New York State Insurance Department will be issuing later this month on the Direct DJ/Late Notice Bill you've been reading so much about. Section 8 of that bill mandated that "that effective immediately, the addition, amendment and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized and directed to be made and completed by the superintendent of insurance on or before such effective date." Guess this circular letter will be the Department's first step in that direction.

Click the image to the right for a complete copy of the draft circular letter.

Comments or questions regarding this draft circular letter should be directed to your company's legislative/regulatory liaison or directly to the NYSID. Or send them to me and I'll relay them to the appropriate person(s). I plan on submitting my comments to the Department.

The draft circular letter reminds insurers doing business in New York:
Please note that the Department expects to receive a large volume of policy form filings to review and approve. In order to ensure timely compliance with the statute, all affected insurers and rate service organizations are advised to submit, as soon as possible, revised policy forms to the Insurance Department for the Superintendent's review and approval.
We're 93 days from implementation/effective date. Has anyone seen any new forms yet?

[See my post of January 16, 2009 for a summary of Chapter 388's changes to the New York Insurance Law.]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

May I be so bold as to suggest a new standard "notice" language for liability policies, that will reflect the intent of the new law? Insurance Department, how about this:

"In the event something really bad happens to anyone that you think will result in a lawsuit, try to tell us about it as soon as you get a chance. If you don't get around to it right away, that's cool. We don't want you to rush. We know you're busy and have other stuff to do. But really, we'd love to hear about it. It would help us out a lot. Is that too much to ask? Please. But whatever you do, we won't be able to do anything about it, so be a pal, ok?"

Anonymous said...

On a more serious note, I'll bet that if every liability policy had a big red notice on it that said IF YOU REPORT AN ACCIDENT TO US WITHIN 24 HOURS OF ITS OCCURRENCE, WE'LL GIVE YOU $100!, then people would be more apt to give prompt notice. Problem solved!

Hugh Fustercluck, President
Fustercluck Risk Management Consultants LLC