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Jan. 29, 2013
Summer Conference & Golf Outing - June 26-27, 2013 - Foxwoods Resort
Annual Dinner & Awards Ceremony - November 6, 2013 - Battery Gardens
Many thanks to our Company Partners for all of their support in PIWA's advocacy, services and events; all of which makes membership in PIWA more valuable than ever!
ELANY
Western World Insurance Group
Cowles & Connell
LoVullo Associates, Inc.
General Reinsurance Corp.
Atlantic Casualty Insurance Co.
Burlington Insurance/Guilford Specialty
Endurance Specialty Underwriters
Russell Bond & Co., Inc.
H.R. Keller & Co. Inc.
Markel Northeast Region
Penn-America Group
Tower Group Companies
United States Liability Insurance Grp.
JimCor
RPS-CESI
By Robert S. Pastel
The last open seat from November's election has been resolved; Senator Cecilia Tkaczyk (D) narrowly beat Assemblyman George Amedore (R) by 18 votes to win the seat. The Senate continues to be led by a coalition government; in which co-leader Republican Senator Skelos, and co-leader Independent Democratic Caucus Leader Klein are presiding over the Senate. Senator Seward remains the Senate Insurance Chairman.
Democrat Speaker Silver leads the Assembly, now with a commanding 106 seat majority in the 150 seat house. Assemblyman Morelle, former Assembly Insurance Committee Chair was appointed Majority Leader. Assemblyman Kevin Cahill (D-Kingston), former chair of the Assembly Energy Committee, has accepted the chairmanship of the Insurance committee.
We expect significant legislative activity in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. Already, the Governor's 2100 commission has made recommendations affecting the insurance industry which include:
1. Protect New York, which promotes state-level risk management; considers options to pre-fund disaster recovery and transfer catastrophe risk to capital markets.
2. Protect consumers and businesses: promote investment in risk mitigation, improve consumer awareness and education; prevent underinsurance for flood risk and certain covered perils, expand coverage for business interruption, promote a comprehensive insurance emergency measures act (CIEMA), and provide catastrophe response services.
Also, there have been several bills introduced to govern insurance company activity following a disaster, as well as a call by the Assembly Speaker for hearings regarding insurance company claim practices.
On the regulatory front, the moratorium on cancellation and non-renewals continues for many zip codes in the NYC and Long Island at least until January 30, 2013. Also, the Department has imposed, by emergency regulation, new standards for claim dispositions.
PIWA is currently reviewing a rewrite of the domestic excess lines legislation that it supported and which passed last year in the NYS Senate and reviewing proposals to address the issue of responsibility of tax on uncollected audits. PIWA has established a Premium Finance Sub-committee that is reviewing the provisions regarding notice, or the lack thereof, of premium financed policies.