KWS Wants to Ease Insurance Co Reserve Requirements
Redwaterlily has the details and good questions:
During her campaign, from what I recall, Karen Weldin Stewart often told the audience about the fact that the insurance market is very stable and that the insurance companies are solvent because of strong regulations. If that is the case, how is loosening those regulations in the best interest of the consumers?
Go over there and read the whole thing. And Redwaterlily has a really good point here and I’ll ask why she thinks that these companies need to have their reserve requirements reduced. Insurance companies are losing money like the rest of us on their bond and other instrument holdings. They wanted to access TARP funds to make themselves seem healthier, but didn’t get it. So now they are asking for this relief state by state. Watching what as been going on with banks, I don’t see any real reason to trust this — do you?
Tags: Karen Weldin Stewart
‘Bulo doesn’t trust this policy or KWS either.
IESHO, Delaware has a very serious situation w/an at-best clueless and at worst malevolent IC.
Memo to KWS: They tried deregulation. It failed. Except for the greedy folks who were in on the scam. Are YOU one of those folks? If not, then why are you pursuing discredited policies?
In El Somnambulo’s opinion, the only thing protecting the interests of Delawareans at this point are the career people in the IC’s office. They need to know that somebody’s got their back.
I am trying to give KWS the benefit of the doubt on this one. Seeing as though a bunch of states are doing it, maybe it is an emergency thing requested by Washington to help with the whole Credit Default Swap bull.
I don’t like it. The reason all these banks are in trouble is because they didn’t keep enough cash reserves, and weren’t forced to by regulation. Why would we want to make the same mistake with insurance companies?
I am trying to give KWS the benefit of the doubt on this one. Seeing as though a bunch of states are doing it,
That is how Delaware got energy deregulation.
Reserves should not be reduced. Has not KWS learned anything over the last eight years.
The reserves are calculated based on what the insurance companies potentially owe the people who have insurance policies. Saying to the actuaries and others who calculate reserves, “Never mind, we’re going to do the calculation with a bunch of legislators who may or may not have passed high school math” is just a teensy bit scary.
I smell lobbyists.
This all sounds very McDowellian.
Comment away Reis. You are off probation.
Thank you Sir! Thank you very much!
Just because other states are doing it doesn’t make it all that smart. If this needs to be done on a emergency basis to help out insurance companies (and I think that the extent of helping insurance companies ought to be limited to paying your premiums), then KWS should have proposed a sunset to this provision. A year or two to get through the economic crisis and then they have to go back to demonstrating adequate reserves.
If you oppose this, make sure you respond to the individual who is taking Public Opinion on this.
don’t forget the annuities many insurance companies have where they have guaranteed 5-6-7% interest for income. meaning as all the new blue hairs retire and turn on those income streams HUGE sums of money will need to be paid out very soon.
I urge everyone who can see the deregulation of insurance companies on the wall….alla KWS to make voice your heard. The contact email to get this idiocy stopped is: mitch.craine@state.de.us. Please send him an email.
Insurance companies found their “contact to assure it happens when they met KWS”, a woman who was sooo bent on election, she would sell out the people of this country”. I doubt she is even aware of how her actions will affect the people. What a travesty! Anyone thinking once these insurance companies were able to use her for this….just wait there will be more. She has proven she is on the take, and will take and take again to stay in office.
What I meant was that it was probably a phone call from Washington that pressured her do it. *ahem*Biden*ahem*
Pure speculation.
Ummm…doesn’t this smack of the predicament, we all know (baby boomers at least) we’re heading for under that little goody of aging, known as Social Security?
ahem, more like a republican Chamber call backed up by the campaign coffer filling bonanza.
El Somnambulo has it right. No need to mince words here. KWS isn’t as much malevolent (she’s too stupid to even know what the word means) as she is out for personal gain. Don’t think she or her backers didn’t benefit from this, and it’s not limited to them getting her into office, including bringing her mouthpiece Jacobson up from DC to speak and write for her since she’s incapable of either herself, and to be the de facto commissioner who acts totally against the interests of Delawareans and for those to whom he and KWS are indebted.
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Elliott Jacobson
March 12, 200 (302) 674-7303
(202) 294-3266 cell
Michael Gould
(302) 674-7305
STATEMENT
KAREN WELDIN STEWART, CIR-ML
EMERGENCY RESERVING RELIEF FOR LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES
(6-MONTH SUNSET)
On November 11, 2008, the Capital and Surplus Relief Working Group was formed by the NAIC Executive Committee to review a request received from the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) for near-term relief within the life insurance industry. Before year-end, many NAIC technical working groups formed by the state regulators, including actuaries, accountants and attorneys, had researched the requests and responded with positive recommendations to six (6) of the nine (9) items requested. The technical groups re-worked some of the requests and added disclosures so that should the relief be provided by any of the insurance departments in the United States, it would be done so in a responsible fashion and in a way that still protected the interests of the policyholders. A public hearing was held in Washington D.C. on January 27, 2009, and at the end of an open meeting, the Working Group favorably recommended those six items. These changes were primarily actuarial in nature and would reduce some redundant life reserving rules, many of which were slated to change in the next couple of years. There was also a recommendation to increase the admissibility of deferred tax assets. On January 29, 2009, the Executive Committee of the NAIC decided to withhold their support of this relief on a national, uniform basis for the 2008 year-end preliminary annual statement filings that are due March 1st due to the inadequate time to perform the necessary evaluation. Nationwide, each state’s regulators are currently discussing these changes for the annual statement for 2009. However, each state regulator may adopt the working group’s findings for the 2008 reporting if sufficient time is given to each company to perform the appropriate analysis and submit it to their state’s regulator. The individual states were encouraged to determine the need within their states for this relief and then provide it through permitted practices or otherwise for 2008 filings.
The Delaware Department of Insurance issued a Bulletin on February 11, 2009 stating that the Department would consider permitted practice requests from individual companies. The Department later approved permitted practice requests from three (3) life insurance companies regarding a small increase in the admissibility of deferred tax assets for one year only. A complete listing of the states granting and the companies receiving approval to use this permitted practice, including the amounts approved, can be found at the NAIC’s website (www.naic.org).
On February 17, 2009, in order to allow a permitted practice for each individual life insurance company, I signed two (2) emergency orders amending Delaware Regulations 1212 and 1215 relating to reporting reserves for life insurance companies. These amendments provided changes to minimum reserving standards where there were redundant reserves confirmed by the NAIC Working Group. The change to Regulation 1215 allows a life insurer to use a mortality table, which has already been approved for use with policies issued for 2007, to be used for policies issued on or after January 1, 2004, with prior Department approval. The Department permitted this change for one (1) life reinsurance company for the 2008 year-end. (There are no direct policyholders.) The change to Regulation 1212 makes an adjustment to a deficiency reserve calculation. The required actuarial certifications, experience reporting requirements, asset adequacy testing will ensure that reserves are adequate. Both of these changes will protect the interests of consumers and the general public by enabling the industry to retain capacity to write insurance products needed by consumers and to reduce life insurance costs that impact pricing. These Emergency Orders will be effective until September 1, 2009 or until the amendments are adopted pursuant to the Delaware Administrative Procedures Act, whichever shall occur first.
I posted a statement from the Insurnce Commissioner on three blogs including this blog. It was not published. Tomorrow the statement will be posted on the Insurance Department web site.
The link to it is http://delawareinsurance.gov/
Elliott,
It’s Insur*a*nce Commissioner.
Did you try e-mailing the statement? Faxing? Or do you only communicate through comment functions?
And why wasn’t it posted on the IC’s web site the day of the decision?
Sorry, Elliott, I frankly dont want to hear from YOU! You are not the Insurance Commissioner, she needs to FINALLY SPEAK FOR HERSELF.!
Get it. If she is too stupid to understand what she has done, have you communicated to her how dumb this is or are you under the influence of the insurance companies too?
This from TNJ: “Stewart did not return several calls seeking comment on her decision.”
This from Elliott at DWA: “I returned calls to the NewsJournal and spoke to Mr. Ruth twice and called the business editor several times. The quote in the paper that said the Commissioner did not respond to several calls was written because I was the one who returned the calls and made the calls on behalf of the Commissioner who was ready to do the interview.”
Okay, so what the heck does that mean? If you returned calls on her behalf as her spokesman, I think TNJ would have reported that, unless you’re calling them liars.
Did she do the interview or didn’t she?
Appears they reported the truth….they didnt hear from the Commissioner…they heard from Elliot….Elliot who?
KWS has a brag page on the insurance dept.’s home page. Her swearing-in was posted ad nauseam, as was the reduction in Workers Comp. premiums. This piece of crap move LAST MONTH was not posted, nor does it appear in any of the industry journals as did every other move she ever made, including her unheard-of “transition team”. Stealth screwing of the Delaware people is apparently high on KWS’s agenda.
Oh…and Elliott….Nice job writing the statement supposedly by KWS. It clearly comes straight from your pen. KWS will barely be able to read it, let alone understand it, and we all know it. So you can stop pretending about who’s the de facto commissioner here. It’s certainly not KWS.
I might disagree that Elliot is de facto Commissioner until we start smelling McDowell’s stinky hand in this.
McDowell put KWS on the PSA board and made her his “assistant” (what exactly did she assist him with???) for a reason. Some people have mentioned that he may be using her as a front for running the IC’s office according to his own agenda.
And what’s up with this “CIR-ML” thing behind her name? KWS bestowed it on herself by starting some receiver’s social organization no one’s ever heard of in the 90’s with a friend of hers. She treats it like the real college degree she never got. I don’t see John Brady or Matt Denn parading around their bachelors and J.D. (Juris Doctor) degrees even though they’re a hell of a lot more meaningful.
CIR stands for “Conscience In Receivership”.
‘Bulo will get back to you on ‘ML’.
ML stands for “More or Less”
CIR-ML: “Car Is Ready, M’Lady”
Sounds reasonable and fitting to me. You guys are a hoot!
anon, thats hysterical. I see KWS still hasnt made a comment on her latest dumb ass positions. Elliot, please tell m’lady her public is calling!
Elliot aka KWS…please identify who the “Working Group” was in DC. by name, and State.
What is the e-mail address I can send releases, advisories and statements?
Now why would Commissioner Stewart respond to the malevolently vicious, galactically ignorant, woefully dishonest and badly written posts on this and some of the other blogs?
What is particularly odd about these posts is that there is no comment on the content of the Workers’ Comp order, the statement that we issued on the reserving and the other decisions made by the Commissioner. The web site is in the process of being completely redesigned and the statement we issued on reserving should have been issued on the day the two orders were signed. That was a staff mistake.
Thanks for you inattention
Elliott:
You’re the one who’s inattentive, so lose the sarcasm. How many times do you have to be told? Read our lips – we don’t want to hear from you, we don’t want a “statement” that you or someone else wrote. We want to hear and see this commissioner explain herself. With her hiding like this, where has she been keeping herself, New York as usual? Tell her to get her skinny ass on the radio or TV and tell the people of Delaware why she did what she did. Period, end of story.
I don’t work here, but I know the contact information, because it’s over in the left-hand column. Very easy to spot. There’s also the “tip” function at the very top of the page.
CONTACT
If you wish to contact Delaware Liberal, you can do it two ways. The first is to click the Got A Tip link at the top of the page. Or, if you would like to contact a DL contributor directly, just send an email to the contributors name (Cassandra_M, DelawareDem, Donviti, Jason330, LiberalGeek, Nemski or Pandora) followed by @delawareliberal.net.
Elliott said:
“…the statement we issued on reserving should have been issued on the day the two orders were signed. That was a staff mistake.”
Wasn’t the reserve order signed back in February? It’s now March. One heck of a “mistake.”
Tons of other state agencies have already redesigned their websites since the transition. Governor Markell had his new site ready to go from day one. That’s a piss-poor excuse. Do you not have any web-savvy people in the IC’s office?
And you never answered one key question from above: Did Commissioner Stewart do the interview with TNJ or not? Did they intentionally leave out the fact that you called them back and tried to set up an interview?
Elliot,this:
What is particularly odd about these posts is that there is no comment on the content of the Workers’ Comp order, the statement that we issued on the reserving and the other decisions made by the Commissioner.
is just not true. Starting with the original post that I linked to at rewaterlibly’s blog, and including my commentary above and comments 1 through 6, 10, 11, 12 pretty clearly comment on the reserving issue. Many others are commenting on the sorry state of the IC’s website. You are speaking to a group of fairly web-savvy people, who understand the work to get up a website. And who have noted that other DE government websites have been coming together at a pretty good pace since Inauguration activities. 2 months is a long time for a website to be under construction.
“That was a staff mistake.”
And what constitutes a staff mistake vs. a mistake by the Commissioner?
If the IC makes a huge glaring error, will Ms. Stewart simply blame it on a “staff mistake,” or will she step up and take responsibility for HER OFFICE?