PIANY Hails Removal of Onerous items in Executive Budget proposal

GLENMONT, N.Y.—The Pro-fessional Insurance Agents of New York State is pleased to have defeated a proposal to enact massive and unwarranted penalty increases for violating the state’s Insurance Law, while protecting insurance consumers against insurance adjusters who are convicted of felonies, both of which were proposed originally in the executive budget.

The budget proposal for a 900 percent increase in Insurance Law penalties—from $1,000 per offense to $10,000 was dropped when lawmakers finalized New York’s $168 billion spending plan for 2018-19 on Saturday. The final budget does not include any increase or change in the current penalties under the Insurance Law. The final budget also left out licensing for insurance adjusters who have been convicted of a felony, which PIANY had opposed.

“For the second consecutive year, the New York State Department of Financial Services tried to increase fines by an unnecessarily large amount,” said PIANY President Fred Holender, CPCU, CLU, ChFC, MSFS. “Changing the fines from $1,000 to $10,000 could be detrimental to smaller insurance agencies. PIANY is working to protect the insurance producers and the insurance-buying community, and we are pleased that lawmakers recognized the burden of the fees and the danger of licensing adjusters convicted of felonies.”

Eliminating the state budget fee increase was one of the items on PIANY’s 2018 legislative agenda (pia.org/IRC/qs/qs_other/QS31003.pdf). The association also has worked toward: producer licensing reform; eliminating bait-and-switch practices; scaffold law/tort reform; cybersecurity regulations; eliminating the 30-day rule for the New York State Insurance Fund and permitting commission payments through the NYSIF; and standardizing hurricane deductible triggers for coastal home insurance policies.