NOLHGA's 2006 Annual Meeting Site Finalized

NOLHGA's 23rd Annual Meeting, which had been tentatively scheduled to be held in Palo Alto, Calif., will be held October 10-11, 2006, at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa in Dana Point, Calif. The resort is located on the coast between Los Angeles and San Diego and is easily accessible from the Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange County (John Wayne) airports. An MPC meeting will be held on October 9.

More information on the meeting will appear in future issues of the NOLHGA Wire and other NOLHGA publications and on the NOLHGA Web site. For more information about the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa, please visit the resort's Web page.

  Staff Contact - Sean McKenna

MPC Meeting Web Page Now Available

The Web page for the upcoming MPC meeting, which will be held February 20-22, 2006, in Phoenix, Ariz., can be accessed here. The meeting page offers online registration as well as hotel information and other meeting details. A preliminary schedule of events will soon be available in PDF format in the "Meeting Resources" section.

The cut-off date for hotel reservations is January 30, 2006. We encourage you to make your reservations and register for the meeting as soon as possible.

If you have any trouble accessing the meeting Web page, please contact Dan Hicks at [email protected] or 703.787.4112. Questions concerning the MPC meeting should be directed to Sean McKenna at [email protected] or 703.787.4106.

  Staff Contact - Sean McKenna States General Life Insurance Company (Tex.)

Reinsurance Agreement Closes

On January 2, 2006, NOLHGA and New Era Life Insurance Company closed an assumption reinsurance agreement pursuant to which New Era assumed multiple lines of States General's in-force major medical business (about 5,200 policies). This transaction follows an earlier assumption transfer to New Era of States General's Medicare Select business, which closed on July 1, 2005. With the closing of these assumption reinsurance agreements, all in-force lines of States General business have been transferred, and the service agreements with each of the third-party administrators have been terminated subject to provisions for limited post-closing/transition support requested on behalf of the affected guaranty associations.

Task Force Chair - James Rhodes;   Staff Contact - Joni Forsythe

NAIC to Consider New Receivership Standards for State Accreditation

In December 2005, the NAIC adopted a new model receivership act designated as the Insurer's Receivership Model Act (IRMA). At this time, the Law and Intergovernmental Working Group, a subgroup of the NAIC's Receivership and Insolvency Task Force, is working to develop recommendations as to which portions of the new model should be included as part of new state accreditation standards. The working group has requested written comments and recommendations regarding accreditation and has extended the deadline for submitting comments to January 30, 2006. NOLHGA expects to submit comments to the NAIC on this issue. We also expect that the ACLI and other trade groups and industry representatives will submit comments.

All written comments should be submitted to Karen Schutter at [email protected]. In addition, a call has been scheduled for February 9 to discuss the comments and recommendations received and to develop final working group recommendations for submission to the NAIC's Financial Regulation Standards and Accreditation (F) Committee in conjunction with the March NAIC meeting. A notice with details concerning the February 9 call will be sent out by NAIC staff in the near future. To request a copy of that notice, contact Karen Schutter at the e-mail address noted above.

  Staff Contact - Joni Forsythe

Colpean Joins MPC Executive Committee, Femal Steps Down

John Colpean, administrator and general counsel of the Michigan Life & Health Insurance Guaranty Association, has been appointed to the MPC Executive Committee by MPC Chair Jack Falkenbach (Delaware). Mark Femal, executive director of the Wisconsin Insurance Security Fund, recently stepped down from the committee after serving for a number of years.

  Staff Contact -