The National Association of Insurance Commissioners will step up its efforts to combat misleading or deceptive marketing of insurance products in 2024 as one of the NAIC’s five strategic priorities for the year.
The NAIC will coordinate with federal regulators and strengthen information-sharing among state insurance departments, it said in a statement. It will develop a tool hosted at NAIC.org for consumers to check insurance producers’ licenses, with additional information available on state insurance department websites, it said.
In addition, the NAIC said it will modify its model laws to grant regulatory power over health insurance lead generators.
Further, the NAIC said it will continue to call for Congress to restore states’ regulatory authority over Medicare Advantage plans to protect older Americans.
Along with seeking better oversight of insurance marketing, the NAIC also said strategic priorities for the year include: climate risks/natural catastrophes and resilience; insurer financial oversight and transparency; race, financial inclusion and protection gaps; and the use of artificial intelligence and cyberrisk.
“Built on the foundation of coordination, cooperation and collaboration, the state-based insurance regulatory system is well equipped to keep taking on the shared challenges and responsibilities of a world more interconnected than ever before,” said NAIC President and Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Andrew Mais in a statement. “The NAIC’s regulatory priorities for 2024 reflect our commitment to pursuing innovative and effective solutions to the most pressing issues affecting consumers, the insurance sector, and markets.”
Regarding the catastrophe priority, the NAIC said it will launch a comprehensive NAIC Climate Risk Dashboard to measure and evaluate protection gaps. The organization also will seek to create new resilience tools, advocate for pre-disaster mitigation funding, and develop scenario analysis resources for state regulators, it said.
Transparency will be enhanced through the NAIC “Framework for Insurer Investment Regulation,” which it said will reduce blind reliance on credit rating providers and modernize the role of the NAIC’s Securities Valuation Office.
In addition to the strategic priorities, the NAIC will continue its daily work of promoting model law and model bulletin adoption, work toward comparability for its Aggregation Method internationally and focus on enhanced member service through the State Connected strategic plan.
The International Association of Insurance Supervisors has entered the final phase of its study of the comparability of outcomes produced by the Aggregation Method, compared with the Insurance Capital Standard.