Regulators Eye IIPRC Use

By Jim Connolly

December 10, 2008 at 07:00 PM

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Concerns about the expiration of a product standards rule may be holding down the number of products filed with the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Compact.

Questions about the IIPRC came up here at the winter meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., at a meeting of the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Commission, Washington.

Regulators asked members of an insurance industry panel why they are not filing more products with the IIPRC.

Panelists told regulators that insurers have concerns about a sunset provision affecting their ability to "mix and match" product standards.

The "mix and match" concept permits insurers to use both state standards and IIPRC standards when the IIPRC does not have a complete set of standards available for a specific product.

When companies bring out a new type of product, they often bring it out in a piecemeal fashion, which is why being able to mix state and IIPRC filings is important, said Dennis Hershel, a representative for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, Springfield, Mass.

Brendan Bridgeland, executive director of the Center for Insurance Research, Cambridge, Mass., who receives NAIC funding to speak for consumers in NAIC proceedings, said that a temporary mix-and-match approach is all right but that a permanent use of a mix-and-match approach would not be all right.

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