Insurance Department Outlines North Dakota Insurance Legislation

North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread said that since taking office at the beginning of this year he has focused on ensuring the agency he runs is available and responsive to insurance consumers, producers and companies alike. As part of that initiative, the North Dakota Insurance Department recently released an outline of legislation passed this year by the state’s legislative assembly.

Following is a summary of some of the insurance-related legislation passed by the 65th Legislative Assembly in 2017:

HB 1010, the department’s appropriation bill for the 2017-2019 biennium, reduced the number of full-time equivalent positions from 49.5 to 46 and reduced the overall appropriation for salaries, benefits operating expenses and capital assets from $11,545,139 to $10,729,344, for an overall reduction of 7.06 percent.

It became law on July 1, 2017.

HB 1112 addresses producer licensing and conduct, and protects the commissioner’s ability to censure individuals who are not fit to conduct insurance businesses and deny them licenses. The legislation defines “breach of trust” and “dishonesty,” and clarifies the types of crimes that are considered felonies involving dishonesty or breach of trust. It requires the insurance commissioner to deny, revoke or refuse to renew an insurance producer license where an applicant or licensee has been convicted of such a felony, or if a license applicant is found not to be competent, trustworthy, financially responsible and of good personal and business reputation. It applies to both applications for an insurance producer license and an application to renew an existing license.

It went into effect in March 2017.

HB 1147 allows county mutual insurance companies to insure non-commercial structures within the platted limits of incorporated cities.

HB 1198 clarifies that binders are allowed to be used for commercial lines of insurance.

HB 1247 clarifies that an insurance company or an insured may terminate an initial insurance policy when an insured has subsequently purchased a policy that provides duplicate coverage. Termination of the initial policy is considered effective on the effective date of the replacement policy. The insured is entitled to a refund of premium back to the effective date.

SB 2103 eliminates the $10 fee checks the department collects and processes, and increases fees collected from companies in three other areas: the annual renewal fee for a company’s Certificate of Authority increases from $50 to $100; the fee for filing an annual report for a fraternal benefit society and for issuing a license or permit to the society, and for each renewal thereof, increases from $25 to $100; the fee for issuing a certificate to a domestic insurance company showing a compliance with the compulsory reserve provisions of the insurance code and the maintenance of proper security deposits, along with the fee for any renewal of this certificate, increases from $10 to $25.

SB 2103 became law on July 1, 2017.

SB 2105 exempts a producer’s home address from the state’s open records laws and expands the definition of “personal, financial, or health information.”

SB 2140 allows an insurance producer, subject to limitations, to give certain gifts to customers or prospective customers of up to $100 per person per year.

More information on insurance legislation passed in North Dakota in 2017 may be found on the legislative assembly’s website, www.legis.nd.gov, and the North Dakota Insurance Department website, www.nd.gov/ndins.