HCS/SB 620 - This act amends Section 376.010 to allow life insurers licensed in Missouri to write limited amounts of non-life business outside of the United States, subject to specified limitations. Primarily, a Missouri domestic life insurance company may only write or assume such business if it is written outside of the United States. Additionally, such exposure may only be written or assumed as a rider attached to a base life insurance policy. Finally, the domestic insurance company's exposure to such business is capped based upon the insurance company's annual premium, which shall be not more than 3% of the prior year's capital and surplus (Section 376.010). The act also permits a Missouri-domiciled insurance company to write or assume involuntary unemployment insurance in connection with group life insurance business as well as credit insurance business, but only to the extent that such business is written or assumed outside of the United States (Section 376.015). The act also "cleans-up" an insurance investment statute by inserting a number of commas in Section 376.307 which were inadvertently omitted in a bill passed in 2007 (Section 376.307).
Current Missouri law allows insurers and others to share information related to insurance fraud investigations without being subject to civil liability for libel. This act expands the immunity afforded to insurers and others for filing reports and furnishing other information related to an insurance fraud investigation so that the insurer will not be subject to civil liability of any kind, including libel and slander.
Additionally, the act provides that no civil cause of action of any nature shall arise against a person for furnishing or receiving information related to suspected or anticipated fraudulent insurance acts to or from:
(1) Law enforcement officials, agents and employees;
(2) Persons subject to Section 375.991;
(3) Federal and state agencies, the NAIC, the National Insurance Crime Bureau, or any other organization established to detect and prevent fraudulent insurance acts.
This portion of the act is identical to SCS/SB 697 and SCS/HCS/HB 1495 (2012).
STEPHEN WITTE