INSURER ARSON REPORTING AND IMMUNITY LAWS COMPENDIUM UPDATED

The Insurance Committee for Arson Control (ICAC) a non-profit insurance industry organization dedicated to arson control, has brought a 20-year old compendium of state arson reporting laws into the digital age of hyperlinks and the World Wide Web. ICAC has updated the citations to the state laws that govern an insurer’s arson reporting responsibilities and provided a hyperlink to the applicable portion of the state code. The report summarizes the key trends among the state arson reporting laws. “Analysis yielded several recurring regulatory themes or patterns,” Ken Marshall, Industry Knowledge Manager for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, said. “Perhaps the most significant finding is that all states continue to provide immunity to insurers from any threat of prosecution related to their duty to report information about suspected cases of arson.” The analysis yielded other common regulatory themes or patterns. Among them are:

• 33 states require a regulator’s request to an insurer for information about suspected arson be in writing;

• 43 states specifically treat insurer-provided information in confidence, except as may be used in a civil/criminal proceeding;

• In 46 states, insurers who suspect arson must notify the appropriate state
authority such as the fire marshal or insurance commissioner;

• 28 states specify penalties if insurers fail to report suspected arson or do not abide by the laws covering arson reporting;

• 31 states permit insurers to request information from other state agencies when a regulator requests information from them. In Colorado and Oklahoma, however, the agency may decline the insurer’s request.

The complete, updated report and summary may be accessed at http://www.arsoncontrol.org/default.asptarget=/2002/reporting/highlights.htm.

Topics Carriers