House approves life insurance, annuities amendments to require cover-page disclosures and longer record retention

House Bill 201, sponsored by Representative Dunnigan, cleared the House after the body adopted an amendment to reflect committee changes and voted for final passage.

Dunnigan said the bill makes a currently mandatory rulemaking requirement for the insurance commissioner permissive — "the commissioner may do it if rules are needed, but he doesn't have to if we don't need any rules" — and requires each life insurance policy and annuity contract to carry on its cover page a brief description of the product, including whether it is participating, significant coverage limitations and significant features.

The measure also requires insurers to retain records that affect a policy or annuity's legal effect for the length of the policy term plus five years. Dunnigan described the problem the change addresses: after mergers or company exits, beneficiaries have had difficulty locating records needed to secure benefits.

The bill further clarifies employer-group and creditor-group categories in the code and addresses conversion-notice requirements for certain small-group coverage, removing meaningless notices where no conversion rights exist.

After the sponsor waived summation, the House opened and closed the vote; Speaker announced HB 201 had received 70 yes votes and no no votes. The bill was referred to the Senate for further consideration.

The change will be transmitted to the Senate as the House's action; the transcript records no additional fiscal note discussion on the floor.