11 States Proceed with E&S Tax Group

Eleven states that have formed a cooperative to streamline collection and allocation of surplus lines taxes are moving ahead with its organization.

Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney will serve as chairman of the governing committee of the newly formed Non-Admitted Insurance Multi-State Agreement (NIMA). The group is comprised of 11 member states and one territory – Mississippi, Alaska, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

NIMA plans to provide its member states with uniform procedures for the collection and allocation of surplus lines premium taxes where a policy covers risk in more than one state. The rules will be consistent with the Non-admitted and Reinsurance Reform Act (NRRA), part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform legislation passed last year that allows only the home state of the insured to require premium tax payments for non-admitted insurance in the absence of an agreement among states.

NIMA’s vice chairman will be South Dakota’s Director of Insurance Merle Scheiber, while Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty will serve as secretary.

States have been scrambling to comply with NRRA, which went into effect July 21. But they are not all in agreement on how to do so. While the NIMA organization represents one option, another group of states has signed onto the Surplus Lines Insurance Multi-State Compliance Compact (SLIMPACT) approach that is supported by the National Conference of Insurance Legislators and several industry groups. The NIMA approach is supported by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Topics Excess Surplus