SUBJECT:

PURPOSE:

This hearing will examine whether New York should join the Interstate Insurance Compact ("the Compact"), an initiative that purports to benefit state insurance regulators, consumers, and the insurance industry by streamlining the manner in which asset-based insurance products such as life insurance, annuities, disability income and long-term care insurance are filed, reviewed, and approved. The Compact also strives to promote uniformity through the application of nationalized standards. To help achieve this goal, the Compact has established the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Commission ("IIPRC"), which is a multi-state public entity that serves as an instrumentality of member states. So far, thirty-one states have joined the Compact, including Massachusetts and Texas. In order to join the Compact, New York would have to enact A.8068 (Titus), which is the Compact Model Statute required for membership.

Please see the list of subjects to which witnesses may direct their testimony.

Persons wishing to present pertinent testimony to the Committee at the above hearing should complete and return the enclosed reply form as soon as possible. It is important that the reply form be fully completed and returned so that persons may be notified in the event of emergency postponement or cancellation.

Oral testimony will be limited to 10 minutes in duration. In preparing the order of witnesses, the Committee will attempt to accommodate individual requests to speak at particular times in view of special circumstances. These requests should be made on the attached reply form or communicated to Committee staff as early as possible. In the absence of a request, witnesses will be scheduled in the order in which reply forms are postmarked.

Ten copies of any prepared testimony should be submitted at the hearing registration desk. The Committee would appreciate advance receipt of prepared statements.

In order to further publicize these hearings, please inform interested parties and organizations of the Committee's interest in hearing testimony from all sources.

In order to meet the needs of those who may have a disability, the Assembly, in accordance with its policy of non-discrimination on the basis of disability, as well as the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has made its facilities and services available to all individuals with disabilities. For individuals with disabilities, accommodations will be provided, upon reasonable request, to afford such individuals access and admission to Assembly facilities and activities.

SELECTED ISSUES TO WHICH WITNESSES MAY DIRECT THEIR TESTIMONY:

1. Should New York join the Compact? Why or why not?

2. How would New York be impacted if it joined the Compact?

3. What state oversight mechanisms exist?

4. How would joining the Compact enhance New York's existing consumer protections?

5. How has joining the Compact benefited or harmed the insurance industry and consumers in member states?

6. How does the role of the state's insurance regulators change when a state joins the Compact?

7. If New York joins the Compact, how will it effect the Partnership for Long-Term Care?

8. If a member state does not wish to enact a Uniform Standard proposed by the Compact, what steps must the state take to opt-out?

PUBLIC HEARING REPLY FORM

Persons wishing to present testimony at the public hearing on the Interstate Insurance Compact are requested to complete this reply form as soon as possible and mail it to:

Nichole Katz
Legislative Analyst
Assembly Committee on Insurance
Alfred E. Smith Bldg., 23rd Floor
80 So. Swan St.
Albany, New York 12248
E-mail: katzn@assembly.state.ny.us
Phone: (518) 455-4311
Fax: (518) 455-7095

I will address my remarks to the following subjects:

I will require assistance and/or handicapped accessibility information. Please specify the type of assistance required: