Sunshine State May Adopt Stricter Travel Underwriting Standard

By Jim Connolly

October 04, 2007 at 01:17 PM

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Florida has come up with its own proposal for regulating how life insurers can use information about applicants' travel plans in underwriting.

Kevin McCarty, Florida's insurance commissioner, said here at the fall meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., that the NAIC may need to offer states a choice between a looser travel underwriting model and stricter version because there is a "philosophical difference" between regulators in different states that is not going to change.

McCarty discussed Florida's travel underwriting proposal during a session of the NAIC's Life & Annuities Committee.

The Florida proposal would prohibit unfair discrimination between individuals of the same actuarially supportable class and equal expectation of life.

The proposal also would prohibit insurers from refusing to sell life insurance, or refusing to continue in-force policies, "in whole or in part" based on "an individual's past lawful travel experiences," and the proposal would limit underwriting based on future travel plans.

The American Council of Life Insurers, Washington, says it supports an earlier, narrower draft, in part because the Florida proposal includes market conduct requirements.

Tom Considine, a vice president at Met Life Inc., New York, said during the session that letting states choose between 2 different travel underwriting guidelines would disrupt NAIC efforts to create a uniform regulatory environment.

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