AN ACT RELATIVE TO CERTAIN EXEMPTIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE PLANS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows:
SECTION 1. The second paragraph of subsection (A) of section 113H of chapter 175, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following 2 sentences:- Notwithstanding any law, rule, regulation, order, ruling or decision to the contrary, on and after January 1, 2011 every insurance company writing private passenger auto insurance in the commonwealth shall accept assignments of risks and any apportionment of premiums, losses or expenses, pursuant to the plan, and no exemption from those assignments, or from the apportionment of premiums, losses or expenses, shall thereafter be permitted; provided, however, that any exemption from the assignment of risks previously afforded any such insurance company shall be allowed to continue to be used until its expiration, but in no event shall the exemption continue beyond December 31, 2012. Assignments of risks and the apportionment of premiums, losses and expenses shall equal the proportion that each company’s voluntary business bears to all companies’ voluntary business and as adjusted for any credits calculated by the plan.
SECTION 2. Subsection (B) of said section 113H of said chapter 175, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out the first paragraph and inserting in place thereof the following paragraph:-
(b) The plan shall be prepared and administered by a governing committee appointed by the commissioner for terms of 6 years, consisting of 6 members from insurance companies participating in the plan and 1 additional representative from a domestic insurer in the commonwealth whose annual motor vehicle policy premiums amount to less than 2 and one-half per cent of the private passenger insurance market and unaffiliated with any other insurance company represented on the governing committee, and 6 members from associations of insurance producers, 2 of whom shall be producers who are assigned risk producers who write private passenger automobile insurance exclusively through the Massachusetts automobile assigned risk plan pursuant to the provisions of the plan approved under this section. Effective as of July 1, 1982, the governing committee shall consist of 3 members from insurance companies participating in the plan and 2 members from associations of insurance producers appointed for terms of 6 years, 2 members from insurance companies participating in the plan, 2 members from associations of insurance producers appointed for terms of 4 years, 2 members from insurance companies participating in the plan and 2 members from associations of insurance producers for terms of 2 years. This section shall not be construed to alter or amend the terms of the present governing members. The governing committee shall be responsible for the hiring of the employees of the plan.
SECTION 3. Subsection (D) of said section 113H of said chapter 175, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting after the first paragraph the following paragraph:-
A duly licensed insurance producer, certified to place business in the plan, shall own and have an exclusive right, as the insured's producer of record, to use certain insurance information of the insured embodying the records of the insurance agency which shall include, but not be limited to, the name of the insured, the policy inception date, the amount of insurance coverage, the policy number and the terms of insurance. If a policyholder, insured through the plan with an assigned risk carrier, is offered voluntary coverage by that carrier and the policyholder accepts the offer, the insured's producer of record shall continue to represent the insured written or renewed in the voluntary market, and the policy shall be continued to be serviced through the producer of record, unless: (1) the producer is decertified or suspended by the plan or the commissioner; (2) at the insured's request, the insured terminates the producer as its producer of record; or (3) the producer of record is precluded from dealing with other insurance companies pursuant to an exclusive agency contract; provided, however, that if a policy is written or renewed on a voluntary basis, the assigned risk carrier shall pay the insured's producer of record the commission rate as set forth in the first paragraph, regardless of whether the producer of record has an agency agreement with that assigned risk carrier.
SECTION 4. The first paragraph of chapter 271 of the acts of 2008 is hereby amended by striking out the figure “2010”, each time it appears, and inserting in place thereof, in each instance, the following figure:- 2015.
SECTION 5. The second paragraph of said chapter 271 is hereby amended by striking out the figure “2011” and inserting in place thereof the following figure:- 2014.
Approved August 4, 2010