Wyoming Dept. of Insurance Earns NAIC Accreditation

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Wyoming Department of Insurance Earns NAIC

Accreditation

CHEYENNE, WY —The Wyoming Department of Insurance has again earned

accreditation by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

Accreditation demonstrates a state's excellence in monitoring the financial solvency

of Wyoming-domiciled insurance companies. Wyoming was first accredited in 1993

and has been continuously accredited since that time.

“Earning accreditation reflects the hard work and dedication of our financial

examiners. Accreditation is the backbone of insurance regulations. It tells the world

that Wyoming is going it right and other states can rely upon our work” said

Insurance Commissioner Jeff Rude.

Accreditation assures states are regulating their domestic multistate insurers

according to national standards agreed to by the NAIC. For the insurance industry,

accreditation means insurers will not require additional independent exams from the

other states in which the insurers do business.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has articulated the following:

The NAIC Financial Regulation Standards and Accreditation Program

(Accreditation Program) serves as the backbone of the U.S. national system of state-
based regulation. The Accreditation Program defines baseline standards deemed

essential for effective solvency regulation in each state. In June 1989, the NAIC

adopted the Financial Regulation Standards (Standards) to guide state legislatures

and state insurance departments in the development of effective solvency regulation.

In June 1990, the NAIC adopted a formal certification program to provide guidance

to the states regarding the Standards, as well as an incentive to put them in place.

The Accreditation Program provides the impetus for states to adopt in a consistent

manner the NAIC model laws, regulations and requirements that make up the U.S.

insurance financial solvency framework. It is designed to ensure state insurance

departments perform adequate and timely financial analysis and examinations,

maintain appropriate organizational and personnel practices, and have sufficient

resources and statutory authority to carry out their duties. Accreditation, granted to

those states in line with the Standards, fosters accountability and uniformity, and

allows regulators of multi-state insurers to rely on the domiciliary state’s solvency

regulation to avoid duplication of effort and expense. Each accredited state’s laws

or regulations contain a provision that all licensed companies are to be examined

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periodically. In lieu of performing its own examination, a state may accept the

examination report prepared by an insurance department that was accredited at the

time of examination. This inter-state reliance ultimately saves insurance companies,

and by extension consumers, millions of dollars in duplicative examination costs.

The process for a model law to become an accreditation standard is extensive and

involves input and feedback from numerous parties, including state legislators and

consumer and industry representatives. This is in addition to the extensive model

law/regulation process at the NAIC where state insurance regulators consider

comments and receive input from all insurance sector stakeholders. Only after

several years and extensive feedback from the industry and consumers are model

laws developed and become accreditation standards. Even then, once a model is

adopted as an accreditation standard, states are given a two year timeframe to

implement new standards before they take effect.

(pictured: left to right) Rich Ryan (Senior Financial Examiner), Jeff Rude

(Commissioner), Tracy McEwen (Senior Financial Examiner), front Daisy McEwen

(future financial examiner), Doug Melvin (Chief Financial Examiner), Tana Howard

(Deputy Commissioner).