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Multistate nonadmitted insurer group to dissolve

Posted On: May. 3, 2016 12:00 AM CST

The Board of Directors of the Non-Admitted Insurance Multi-State Association Inc. has voted to dissolve the organization.

NIMA was created after the passage of the Nonadmitted Reinsurance and Reform Act of 2010, which sought to clarify that the only rules governing the placement of a surplus lines policy, including collecting premium taxes, are those of the home state of the insured. But some states chose to create interstate compacts to allocate premium taxes among compact members. Although NIMA was developed through the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the NAIC had no involvement in its operation.

One such arrangement, the Surplus Lines Insurance Multi-State Compliance Compact, never came into operation because it did not get 10 states to enter in an agreement. NIMA, which does not require a minimum number of states to join, was activated with an initial membership of 11 states plus Puerto Rico.

States, however, began withdrawing from the group, with Florida announcing its intention to leave last month. That would leave South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming and Puerto Rico as members, with Tennessee as an associate member.

“Following Florida's decision in early April to withdraw from NIMA, the corporation agreed to dissolve as a whole and adopted a timeline for an orderly conclusion to its operations by December 2017,” said NIMA in a statement issued after the unanimous April 28 vote to dissolve.

The statement said that NIMA's remaining members will be issuing “guidance to brokers on multi-state filing requirements as they transition to taxation on a home state basis.”