AUTO PRODUCER REASSIGNMENTS DELAYED:

Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Julianne Bowler has asked that a plan for reassignment of auto insurance producers doing business with the state’s residual market, Commonwealth Auto Reinsurers, be delayed in response to criticism by several insurers of the proposed formula for redistributing Exclusive Representative Producers. Bowler did not say whether she agreed with the criticisms but called upon CAR to provide specifics of its plan for her consideration. The CAR plan is in response to Bowler’s Sept. 30 directive that CAR make reassignments to more evenly and fairly spread the quality and quantity of ERP exposures among servicing carriers. Bowler acknowledged criticisms of the plan by Plymouth Rock Assurance Company and One Beacon Insurance Company that the plan fails to consider the impact of the redistribution on consumers and ERPs and that it allegedly fails to account for any of the successes that a company may have earned through its fraud fighting efforts and its effective management of its ERP business.