Notice of Consolidated Proposed Consensus Rulemaking to Correct Out-of-Date Hyperlinks and References as a Result of the Consolidation of the New York State Insurance and Banking Departments Into a New Department of Financial Services

How could I have missed it with a title so clear and succinct?

Since October 3rd of last year, when the New York State Banking and Insurance Departments consolidated into a single Department of Financial Services, I've been waiting for the DFS to announce the corrected verbiage for the "Should you wish to take this up with..." consumer advisory paragraph required by Regulation 64.  You know, the one that instructs insureds and claimants how to skew your company's consumer complaint ratio.  I blogged about that paragraph -- and in what letters it belongs and doesn't belong -- more than four years and four months ago.  If you work in claims for a personal property or auto insurer that does business in New York and don't recall reading that post, you should do so now by clicking here.

Well on July 18, 2012, the DFS proposed a consolidated consensus rulemaking that, among other things, replaces the old and outdated New York State Insurance Department references and hyperlink in the advisory paragraph with new and up-to-date references to the DFS.  The new advisory paragraph will thus read:

Should you wish to take this matter up with the New York State Department of Financial Services, you may file with the Department either on its website at http://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumer/fileacomplaint.htm or you may write to or visit the Consumer Assistance Unit, Financial Frauds and Consumer Protection Division, New York State Department of Financial Services, at: 25 Beaver Street, New York, NY 10004; One Commerce Plaza, Albany, NY 12257; 163B Mineola Boulevard, Mineola, NY 11501; or Walter J. Mahoney Office Building, 65 Court Street, Buffalo, NY 14202.

Although the 45-day public comment period for this new language expired on September 1, 2012, we still wait for our newly activated ChangeDetection.com subscription (see the immediately preceding post) to register the listing of the Twelfth Amendment to 11 NYCRR 216 (a/k/a Regulation 64) among the Department's final adoptions. 

I understand that some New York insurers, perhaps recognizing that this is a consensus rulemaking that is not expected to garner any objections, have already changed their letters and forms to comport with the new language, even though the proposed amendment technically has not yet taken effect.  This new paragraph becoming the required one is not an if, but a when.

Little known factoid:  the consumer advisory paragraph is also found on Page 2 of the prescribed NF-10 Denial of Claim Form for New York no-fault claims.  Once this consolidated rule goes into effect, including its Fourth Amendment to 11 NYCRR 65-3 (a/k/a Regulation 68-C), New York no-fault insurers will need to begin using the revised or "new" NYS Form NF-10.