• NAIC - 2023 - LIAC - My Question
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• NAIC - Market Analysis - NAIC - My Questions
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    • Transcript - Pic
• 2022 0908 - GOV (Senate) - Current Issues in Insurance, Sherrod Brown (D-OH)  ---  [BonkNote]
  • Private Equity Funds, Pension Risk Transfer, ERISA, Guaranty Funds, AIG Bailout, IAIS ICS / Aggregation Method, NARAB, FHLB
  • Sherrod Brown - your assessment differs from ours. - [Bonk: your = Birrane]
  • Jerry Moran (R-KS) - PE Firms - Fast turn around Buy / Sell. - no 
  • Kathleen A. Birrane - (Maryland Insurance Commissioner, on Behalf of the NAIC)
    • AIG - 2008 Financial Crisis
      • Kathleen A. Birrane (Maryland Insurance Commissioner, on Behalf of the NAIC) -  I think it was interesting, 'know as Senator Brown referred to AIG and I think that for those of us who lived through that period of time and, 'know,  the crash of the Capital Markets in 2008..
        • What we know is that the one set of companies that did extremely well were the insurance companies.
        • The P&C carriers that were regulated by the States. 
        • So, as AIG sought to recover it was those companies, those assets that they were able to sell in order to fund that recovery. 
        • So, the place where state regulation is in place I think we've demonstrated over time. 
    • Contract Law -
      • Kathleen A. Birrane (Maryland Insurance Commissioner, on Behalf of the NAIC) - Business Interruption Insurance - "Baked In" the contract, Consumers Not Aware
    • Solvency / Insolvency / Guarantee Funds
      • Kathleen A. Birrane (Maryland Insurance Commissioner, on Behalf of the NAIC) - We talk about Life Insurance Companies and we talk about the safety of Life Insurance Companies.
        • A. The Insolvency of a life insurance company is almost unhead of.
        • B. And the notion that policyholders in those rare instances where there have been an insolvency are not getting paid is also unhead of. 
      • [Bonk: Connect] - 1994 - SOA - Valuation Actuary - Symposium Proceedings - Session 1 - Introduction and Overview, Society of Actuaries - 110p
        • (p16) - Willis B. Howard, Jr. (NOLHGA - National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations): I'd like to respond briefly to my honorable friend, Commissioner Bartlett. Dwight, the guarantee association system works, and it works well.
        • Dwight K. Bartlett III (Maryland Insurance Commissioner): Are you going to tell me, Bill, in all honesty that you really believe that the policyholders of Executive Life and Mutual Benefit Life have been well-served?
          • For example, with Mutual Benefit, if you opted out of that rehabilitation plan you get, as I recall, 55 cents on the dollar of your account value.
          • If you opt into the plan, you agreed to subject yourself to a moratorium period, which means you do not get full access to the cash values of your policy until the next century.
          • Are you going to say that's meaningful coverage for those policyholders?
          • ⇒  I think that's ridiculous.

• Government Hearings
  • Life Insurance
    • 1993 - When will 
    • 2005 - Military
  • 2008 Financial Crisis
    • AIG - American International Group
      • 2008 1007 - GOV (House - Committee on Oversight and Government Reform) - The Causes and Effects of the AIG Bailout- AIG Bailout Oversight Hearing, Henry Waxman, (D-CA)  ---  [BonkNote]
      • 2010 0127 - GOV (House - Committee on Oversight and Government Reform) - The Federal Bailout AIG  ---  [BonkNote]
        • Tim Geithner, Hank Paulson
    • Monolines - MBIA, AMBAC, ~AIG
      • 2008 0214 - GOV (House) - The State of the Bond Insurance Industry  ---  [BonkNote]
        • Testimony - Eric Dinallo (NYSID, Elliot Spitzer, Bill Ackman
      • 2009 1117 - FCIC - Hearing - Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Closed Session - Geithner - Transcript - 50p
        • AUDIO - 2009-11-17 FCIC staff audio tape of interview with Timothy Geithner, Department of the Treasury.mp3
        • Commissioner Brookley Born:  Largely, because of a lack of transparency?
        • Secretary Tim Geithner:  I think part of it is that; but, again, derivatives -- if the monoline insurance companies and AIG were not allowed to -- were not able to write huge amounts of protection with no capital to back it up -- when I said about capital, I meant among the regulated in the areas -- if they had not been able to overwrite those commitments, it would have been a less serious crisis -- a much less serious crisis.
        • And that’s just a more simple thing.
        • It’s not about derivatives so much as being no capital to back a commitment.
        • It doesn’t need a fancy -- it’s not a fancy product or even so much oversight of derivatives.
        • It’s just the regulatory authority responsible for those institutions did not force them to hold capital against their commitments.
  • COP - Congressional Oversight Panel
    • 2009 1210 - COP - Hearing - Hearing With Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Congressional Oversight Panel  --- [BonkNote]
    • 2010 0526 - COP - Hearing - TARP and Other Government Assistance for AIG, Congressional Oversight Panel  ---  [BonkNote]
    • 2010 0610 - COP - Report - The AIG Rescue, Its Impact on Markets, and the Government’s Exit Strategy, Congressional Oversight Panel  ---  [BonkNote] 
  • FCIC - Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission
    • AIG - Securities Lending -

      2010-06-22 FCIC staff audiotape of interview with Mark Hutchings, American International Group, Inc.mp3

    • 2009 1117 - FCIC - Hearing - Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Closed Session - Tim Geithner - Transcript - 50p
      • AUDIO - 2009-11-17 FCIC staff audio tape of interview with Timothy Geithner, Department of the Treasury.mp3
  • FSOC - Financial Stability Oversight Council
    • MetLife
      • Explanation of the Basis of the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s Final Determination that Material Financial Distress at MetLife Could Pose a Threat to U.S. Financial Stability and that MetLife Should be Supervised by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Be Subject to Prudential Standards
        • Documents 85-2 and 85-3 - 2015 0930 - MetLife v FSOC - 15-CV-45 - Documents 85-2 and 85-3 - 387p
      • [LIRP / Life Insurance Policy as Investment / Retirement Plan] - (p172) - Many life insurance and annuity products are purchased not only to pay death benefits in the event of the death of the insured, but also as a long-term investment vehicle to accumulate assets for savings or retirement.
      • If policyholders were to lose confidence in the ability of MetLife’s insurers to satisfy their obligations, they may prefer to bear the costs of surrendering their policies instead of risking potentially larger losses.
      • (p171) - MetLife markets this “tax-free” withdrawal strategy across various insurance products that accumulate cash value.^{823
        823} - For example, MetLife marketing material states that cash value life insurance can “Provide a smart way to save through its cash value. This is money that can be used for college, emergencies or during retirement without tax implications.” See MetLife, “Life Insurance as an Asset,” (2012), - [Bonk: Add]
    • 1998 1231 - New Jersey Regulators, re: MetLife - Report of The Metropolitan Life Insurance Companies Located In New York, New York As Of December 31, 1998, By Examiners of The State of New Jersey Department of Banking And Insurance Division of Enforcement And Consumer Protection Market Conduct Examination Unit - 44p
      • Advertising, Sales and Training Material and Policy Forms Review
        • In its June 7, 1994 Consent Order #94-102, the NJDBI cited N.J.S.A. 17B:30-3 and N.J.A.C. 11:2-23.4 and subsequently fined MetLife $965,555 for MetLife’s practice of misrepresenting life insurance to be retirement or savings plans, particularly in advertisements sent to nurses and other professionals.
        • This action was taken based on the findings of a task force established by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
        • The Florida Department of Insurance conducted the investigation on behalf of the task force members

Legal Cases -

• MDL – Multidistrict Litigation – Legal Cases

  • Crown Life, Prudential, MetLife, Minnesota Mutual, Northwestern Mutual, Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York - MONY, Conseco, AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company
  • Sales Practices Litigation, Premium Litigation, Cost of Insurance Litigation,  Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation
• 1998 1119 - LC - Crown v Casteel - Texas Supreme Court - 98-0218 - Oral Argument - [link-mp3-audio]
• 2013 0905 - LC - Johnston & Johnston v Conseco - 5th Circuit Court of Appeals - 13-30010 ---  [BonkNote]  ---  [link-mp3-audio]
• 2008 - LC - Blumenthal v New York Life - Defendants Expert Report - Annual Summary Chart - p14 - 1p - (Dynamic, Minimum / Maximum Plan, NGE's)
  • Document 85-3 - Plaintiff Expert Witness - Deposition of David Sanderford - 65p - (Guaranteed Maturity Premium)
  • 2010 - LC - Maloof v. John Hancock Life Ins. Co. -  60 So. 3d 263 - Alabama Supreme Court Opinion  ---  [BonkNote]
  • 20xx-20xx - Walker v LSW

• Can't talk about things you don't know about - Walker v LSW
  • Grading, ULMR - Guaranteed Maturity Premium (Fund), R-Factor
  • GOV - Schwarcz, Vaughan, Weiss
• Complaints
• Plan of Insurance
• Premium
• Permanent
• 10-day
• Examples:
  • Metzenbaum - When Will...
  • GOV - Military - This used to happen in the 1970s, say it's a Retirement Plan, but it's really a life insurance policy.

• Wicka - What do Agents Say?
  • bonknote.com/q-what-do-agents-say-to-consumers/

• 1990-1A, NAIC Proceedings - NAIC /LIMRA - Focus Groups / Consumer Testing -Universal Life Disclosure Form, p464-473 - 10p
• 1994-3, NAIC Proceedings - Sample Policy Illustrations - Attachment Four-C, John Hancock, p547-563 - 17p

• 1993 0525 -  GOV (Senate) - When Will Policyholders Be Given The Truth About Life Insurance?, Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH)  ---  [BonkNote]
  • (p187) - Senator Chuck GRASSLEY (R-IA) Generally speaking, what has been the experience in the State of Iowa with regard to the problems of consumer disclosure of life insurance?
  • David Lyons - (NAIC / Iowa Insurance Commissioner).  If I can be generic, we have had two major problems.
    • The first is a very specific problem, and that is the changing in the interest rates.
    • We have seen a large upsweep in the number of complaints exactly on point to the testimony that we have heard here today relating to the change in dividends and interest structures.
    • So we have had a lot of work to do in the area of determining whether there were intentional misstatements.
      • In that case, there are civil and administrative actions taken by us and criminal prosecutions referred on.
      • If there is an unintentional, yet identifiable, misleading statement made to consumers, then there is administrative action taken to put the consumer into the position they should have been under the information that was disclosed to them. 
• 1996 0127- Los Angeles Times - Ex-Insider Offers Look at Seeds of Prudential Scandal, by William C. Rempel and Scot J. Paltrow - [link]
  • It was summer, 1982. John Cressman, a fast-rising young auditing executive--a Prudential man like his retired insurance agent father--was stopped in the hall by the consumer affairs chief at the insurance company’s Minneapolis regional office.
    • Could he look into a rash of complaints that some sales agents in Iowa were cheating customers, tricking them into mortgaging the value of their old, paid-up life insurance policies for new ones they couldn’t afford and didn’t need?
  • However, it was not until Cedar Rapids TV station KCRG ran a weeklong expose on “The Policy Raiders” that Prudential management announced plans to reimburse Iowa victims.  [Bonk: WishList - Policy Raiders Video] 
  • Pelligrino “Bill” Porraro, the senior Prudential vice president and top marketing official in Newark, went on the air to assure Iowa policyholders that they could have all their diminished policies restored to full value.

• 1992 - FRB-Minneapolis - SPDAs and GICs: Like Money in the Bank?, by Neil Wallace and Richard M. Todd, Federal Reserve of Minneapolis - 18p
• 1994 04 - CBO - The Economic Impact of a Solvency Crisis in the Insurance Industry, Congressional Budget Office  ---  [BonkNote]  ---  80p