Minnesota Rep. Paulsen Named NAMIC Federal Legislator of the Year

The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies named Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., as the association’s Federal Legislator of the Year for his work to win passage of the Small Mutual Inflation Update.

Paulsen was recognized for his work to include the Small Mutual Inflation Update in omnibus spending legislation last year, ensuring that small, community-based mutual insurers in often underserved rural areas will be better able to serve their policyholders.

The provision, originally enacted as part of the 1986 tax overhaul, allowed property/casualty insurers with direct written annual premiums not exceeding $1.2 million to elect to be taxed on their net investment incomes.

However, the threshold for this tax election was not indexed to inflation and had remained static for the past 30 years. Paulsen’s work updated the provision to reflect three decades of inflation and prevents future problems by indexing the threshold to the inflation rate going forward.

Each year, NAMIC selects a federal lawmaker who has been a leader on the issues of great importance to the insurance industry as Legislator of the Year. The award bears the likeness of Ben Franklin, one of the nation’s founding fathers who in 1752 established a mutual insurance company that continues to serve policyholders to this day and is a NAMIC member.

Source: NAMIC