As executive director of SLA, one of my most important jobs is building
relationships with key partners in the industry. Recently, this effort to build
bridges bore fruit when we learned that a bill introduced in Hawaii, House Bill
2048, would impose onerous regulatory burdens on California surplus line
brokers trying to insure interests in the Aloha State. The bill, if enacted,
would have made it virtually impossible to write certain types of nonadmitted
business there, by applying upwards of 50 statutory provisions to surplus line
policies that previously had not been applied, in recognition of the
fundamental difference between admitted and surplus line policies.
While SLA has no direct stake in the legislative process in Honolulu, a
number of our brokers do place policies in Hawaii. Therefore, we provided
advisory support to the National Association of Professional Surplus Line
Offices (NAPSLO) and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America
(PCI), both of which testified against the legislation, in order to help look
out for its members’ interests. Within days, the bill was postponed
indefinitely. SLA will continue to monitor this legislation and will be ready
to lend all necessary support to its industry allies in the event that Hawaii
legislators decide to take it up again.
It is our job here at SLA to look out for our members’ interests
wherever they may be. My staff and I will continue to build bridges with other
leading insurance organizations so that we can be in a position to work for our
members even in places where we do not have a seat at the table.
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