Keeping our clients covered.
Our Insurance Regulatory legal team serves as strategic advisors and provides full legal support to large-scale national insurance companies and other insurance regulated entities.
We offer support and resources for all types of compliance requirements and governance related to the insurance industry. With a deep bench of specialized insurance regulatory attorneys, Husch Blackwell provides full-service guidance on corporate transactions involving the purchase, sale, or merger of insurance-regulated entities, as well as evaluating proposed transactions.
We regularly represent clients in the formation and licensure of numerous entity types, including brokers and producers, captive insurers, managing general agents, reciprocal insurance exchanges, traditional stock and surplus lines carriers, service contract providers, and other similarly regulated entities.
Our team also counsels insurers who are considering expansion into new geographic markets or writing new lines of business in existing markets on strategic considerations and state-specific risks and compliance requirements. We provide guidance to insurers on their coverage forms, from ideation and drafting to addressing regulator objections. Our experience includes drafting coverage forms for specialized liability insurance products and counseling on revisions to a wide variety of forms and endorsements, ranging from common ISO to manuscript forms and endorsements. When regulators object to form filings and time is of the essence in responding, we address objections promptly so that new and updated forms that have been months or years in planning can take effect as scheduled.
The team also represents insurers through the market conduct exam process, as well as in their responses to regulatory inquiries and complaints.
Husch Blackwell plays an active role in significant insurance industry associations, including the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), giving our attorneys a front-row view of industry trends. We regularly represent some of the leading insurance carriers in the world, with clients in all fifty states, DC, and Puerto Rico.
As key members of the broader Insurance team, Husch Blackwell’s Insurance Regulatory team collaborates with colleagues across the firm to bring industry specific experience to bear on nuanced issues. This includes working closely with nationally ranked teams and Husch Blackwell attorneys in the areas of insurance coverage, litigation, class action defense, reinsurance, receiverships, and healthcare.
Our guidance to clients in the insurance industry includes:
Insurer Formation and Licensing
We represent traditional (i.e., non-captive) insurers and insurance-related business entities in the formation and licensing of new companies, including obtaining approval of corporate amendments applications. Our team has extensive experience with licensing issues relating to support services for insurance carriers including third-party administrators, managing general agents, and producer licenses.
Captive Insurers
We represent captive insurers in connection with formation, licensing, re-domestication, conversion, and dissolution. We regularly assist these clients with ongoing legal needs, including regulatory compliance, examinations, corporate filings, board and stockholder meetings, coverage issues, contract drafting, reinsurance, and administrative proceedings.
Insurance Regulators and Insurance Receiverships
Our regulatory practice extends beyond the representation of insurance carriers. Our insurance lawyers represent insurance regulators as well, particularly in their oversight of financially unstable insurance companies. We have extensive experience representing regulators through the rehabilitation, liquidation, and receivership processes, with firm attorneys serving as special deputy receivers and administering the winding down of troubled insurance companies. As a result, Husch Blackwell has built relationships with regulators and state insurance departments across the country, which means we know whom to call to solve client problems quickly and efficiently.