American Standard Life (OK)
Nicholas Files Motion for a Rehearing
On May 15, David Nicholas, the principal stockholder of American Standard Life, filed a pro se motion with the Oklahoma Supreme Court seeking a rehearing on his appeal of the receivership court's order approving an early access agreement between the receiver and affected guaranty associations. The Oklahoma Supreme Court had previously dismissed Nicholas's appeal because of his failure to complete the record on appeal in a timely fashion. In support of his motion for rehearing, Nicholas alleges that he was unaware of the need to complete the record because his counsel withdrew from the case; he never received court notices on the matter because he was out of state for several months; and he has had difficulty locating the necessary documents to complete the record, and needs an additional 30 days to do so.
In addition to his appeal of the order approving the early access agreement, Nicholas has appealed five other receivership court orders in this case. These include orders: 1) placing ASL in liquidation; 2) approving the sale of the Colorado ranch property; 3) denying Nicholas's motion to modify/vacate/dismiss the ASL liquidation order; 4) denying Nicholas's motion to intervene in ASL's receivership proceeding; and 5) denying Nicholas's motion to reconsider the entry of a $6 million judgment against him in favor of ASL.
Assuming the Oklahoma Supreme Court denies Nicholas's motion for rehearing on the early access agreement. The only outstanding Nicholas appeal is with respect to his intervention motion.
Task Force Chair -Andrea Bowers; Staff Contact - Bill O'Sullivan Executive Life (CA)Defeasance Reports Mailed
This week, the ELIC Task Force distributed Arthur Andersen's Report on Aurora's Defeasance Schedule for 2001. After adjustments described in the schedule, this year's total defeasance amount is $750 million. The report noted several recurring issues which were discussed with Aurora, and these were deemed to present no significant problem. This year's defeasance amount is approximately $25 million more than last year's, and a cover memo by the Task Force accompanying the Arthur Andersen report explains the increase, which arises principally because of the steep decline over the past year in interest rates used in the discounting of future cash flows, and because of the impact of the timing of such cash flows.
Task Force Chair - Art Dummer; Staff Contact - American Chambers Life (OH)Life Policies Reminder
As a reminder, please contact Meg Melusen at 703.787.4130 by Wednesday, May 30th, regarding individual American Chambers life policies you wish to reinsure with Madison National. Please provide number and type of policies to be reinsured as well as their face amounts.
Task Force Chair - Chuck Gullickson; Staff Contact -Legal Seminar Brochures Mailed
This week NOLHGA distributed the brochures for its 10th Annual Legal Seminar. This year's seminar features presentations on optional federal charter proposals, recent developments in financial services modernization, the Japanese insurer insolvency system, asset recovery, and other timely issues of interest to the insurer insolvency system. In addition to outlining the agenda, the brochure provides registration, hotel and airline information. As previously reported, the seminar will be held this year at New York's Marriott Marquis on July 12-13th. Attendees are encouraged to sign up quickly. The deadline for seminar registration and hotel reservations is June 15th. Meg Melusen or Aimee Frye of NOLHGA can be contacted for further information.
Staff Contact -Membership Directory Updates
During the second week in March, NOLHGA distributed an updated Membership Directory to all guaranty association administrators, with a plan to send out replacement pages every quarter. NOLHGA will be distributing those replacement pages in the next several weeks. As many associations have recently held their annual meetings since the Directories were distributed, they may now have changes to their Boards of Directors. Please take a moment to review your directory page and forward changes to Karen Early via fax at 703.481.5209, or by e-mail to [email protected] before Friday, June 1.
Staff Contact -ETC.
Memorial Day
In observance of Memorial Day, the NOLHGA offices will be closed on Monday, May 28. NOLHGA will reopen on Tuesday.