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House committee sends MNIGA affidavit bill to General Register after bipartisan support
Summary
The House Commerce, Finance and Policy Committee advanced House File 1014, a bill that would allow the Minnesota Insurance Guarantee Association to assume a policyholder exceeds the high-net-worth threshold if the policyholder does not return a requested affidavit within 60 days.
House File 1014, a proposal to change how the Minnesota Insurance Guarantee Association (MNIGA) determines whether a policyholder meets a $25 million “high net worth” exclusion, was re‑referred to the General Register after a voice vote by the House Commerce, Finance and Policy Committee on Feb. 20.
The bill would permit MNIGA to treat a policyholder as exceeding the net‑worth threshold if the policyholder fails to return a requested affidavit within 60 days. The change is intended to prevent high‑net‑worth policyholders from withholding financial information and receiving payments that are intended for smaller policyholders after an insurer is liquidated.
The change responds to an operational problem MNIGA described in testimony: the association often receives no response to net‑worth requests and must either keep claims open while researching public records or pay claims by default. Jeff Christiansen, executive director of the Minnesota Insurance Guarantee Association, testified that “the process now when we are requesting net worth affidavits from various insureds is about 90% of the time we do not get any type of response from them whatsoever.” He and authors said the bill adds a consequence — the 60‑day assumption — to address that gap.
Representative Reyer, the bill sponsor, said the bill “adds a consequence” for failing to return the affidavit; Representative Keith Allen, a co‑author, described MNIGA as “essentially the FDIC of the banking world for insurance.” Representative Davids asked when an insurer last became insolvent; Mr. Christiansen said 2022.
Committee members voiced bipartisan support. Representative Reyer renewed the motion to re‑refer the bill to the General Register; the committee approved the motion by voice vote.
The bill text would change MNIGA practice; the committee did not adopt further amendments at the hearing. The committee did not record a roll‑call tally; the transcript records a voice vote with the chair announcing the motion prevailed.
