Retailers today have grown increasingly sophisticated in how they collect and use sales data and price their merchandise to optimize sales, revenue, and profits, using that information in conjunction with digital marketing...more
As computing power grows exponentially, it has opened the actuarial modeling world to new and sophisticated forms of data collection and analysis, resulting in insurance companies seeking increased “predictiveness” of...more
2017 could be big for litigation over “Big Data” applications in insurance. This past year saw the filing of several “price optimization” class actions, and claims against a fraud detection tool, similar to the ones used by...more
On September 21, the United Kingdom's financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), released a "Feedback Statement" after completing a review of insurance industry responses to its November 2015 "Call for...more
Innovators are not only disrupting the financial industry but also financial regulation as regulators weigh how to monitor financial technology (fintech) innovators and their new products and services. As they begin to...more
In recent weeks, two courts ruled on motions to dismiss the first wave of class action lawsuits based on alleged price optimization of auto insurance rates. In both Stevenson v. Allstate Ins. Co., No. 15-cv-04788 (N.D. Cal....more
2015 saw approximately one-third of U.S. states join the first state, Maryland, in issuing guidance to property and casualty insurers with respect to price optimization; action by the National Association of Insurance...more
At the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Fall National Meeting, regulators and consumer representatives continued to seek transparency on insurers’ use of annuity captive reinsurance transactions (VA...more
On December 4, 2015, the Connecticut Insurance Department (the “CID”) issued Bulletin PC-81 banning the practice of price optimization, a pricing method whereby insurers use factors not specifically related to an insured’s...more
On November 16, 2015, Minnesota Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman issued Administrative Bulletin No. 2015-3, which ordered Property & Casualty Insurers doing business in the State of Minnesota to cease using “price...more
Nearly one-third of the U.S. states have now issued directives on the use of price optimization to determine insurance rates and, to date, most states have taken a skeptical view of the practice. Meanwhile, at the national...more
We wish to call attention to a disturbing trend, that even in the highly regulated field of personal lines coverage, homeowners and auto policies, the insurance industry is engaged in courses of conduct designed to write...more
Rhode Island’s Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation (“DBR”) has joined the growing list of state insurance regulators to issue a bulletin on the practice of price optimization. On September 18, 2015, the DBR issued...more
This is the final article of a three-part series about two recent decisions by federal courts in Connecticut and California: Viens v. America Empire Surplus Lines Ins. Co., No. 3:14cv952 (D. Conn. June 23, 2015), and Jones v....more
Regulatory activity on price optimization appears to be coming to a head. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Casualty Actuarial and Statistical (C) Task Force is continuing to gather input, with all...more
“Price optimization,” a practice that uses predictive modeling and data analytics in pricing insurance products, continues to draw the attention of state regulators, consumer advocates, and class action plaintiffs. ...more
The California Insurance Commissioner issued a notice on February 18, 2015 to more than 750 property and casualty insurers doing business in California, announcing that “any use of Price Optimization in the ratemaking/pricing...more
Yesterday California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones became the latest voice in a growing chorus of state insurance regulators who condemn the use of “Price Optimization” as a mechanism for adjusting property-casualty...more