Texas AG: Residential Underwriting Guidelines Not Confidential

The Office of the Attorney General of Texas (OAG) has issued an open records ruling indicating that residential property underwriting guidelines are not made confidential by Insurance Code, Section 38.002, the Texas Department of Insurance announced in Commissioner’s Bulletin #B-0021-15 dated Sept. 11.

If a company marks underwriting guidelines for personal automobile and residential property policies as confidential at the time of filing, TDI will continue to refer them to the OAG for a ruling. The filing company will then have an opportunity to submit arguments to the OAG as to why its information should not be released.

The OAG’s ruling was in response to query by TDI after the agency received a request for the underwriting guidelines for the residential property policy of Acceptance Casualty Insurance Company (Acceptance). Acceptance claimed its underwriting guidelines are confidential under subsection (d) of Section 38.002 in the Insurance Code.

However, the AG’s office ruling states: “Section 38.002 of the Insurance Code does not expressly provide for the confidentiality of the requested underwriting guidelines or any other information.”

It further asserts: “Acceptance’s underwriting guidelines are not themselves implicitly confidential, for the purposes of section 552.101, merely because section 38.002(d) provides for the release of a de-identified summary of the guidelines.”

The AOG’s ruling orders TDI to release the requested guidelines.