Posts by Bill Hoisington

REGULATORY DEVELOPMENTS Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act On July 21, President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Act into law.  We will be following the implementation of this Act and will report deadlines created by the Act for select regulatory milestones. Use of Credit Ratings in Regulatory Capital Guidelines.  On August 10, the federal…

REGULATORY DEVELOPMENTS Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act On July 21, President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Act into law.  Many of the Act’s provisions became effective the next day, and numerous implementation time lines are tied to the date of enactment.  The Dodd-Frank Act makes important changes to the structure of bank regulation…

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENTS Havenstrite v. Hartford In this matter, the plaintiff class sued Hartford for misappropriation of their personal information in connection with COLI/BOLI policies which were allegedly issued without employee notice or consent in the 1980s and 1990s.  On June 14th, the parties filed settlement documents for court approval.  The settlement would provide for a maximum…

REGULATORY DEVELOPMENTS Senate Reform Bill Passed; Next Step Conference Committee On May 20, the U.S. Senate passed S. 3217 entitled, “Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010.”  The House reform bill, “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,” passed on December 11, 2009.  There are significant differences between the House Bill and the Senate Bill,…

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENTS Fifth Third Bank v. Transamerica, Clark Consulting In April, the magistrate judge in this matter ruled on a number of discovery motions including motions regarding documents both Fifth Third and its regulators refused to disclose to Transamerica and Clark.  After applying a five factor analysis on privilege and finding only two of the…

LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENTS NY A10259 – Insurer Alternatives to NRSROs On March 15, at the request of the state insurance department, New York legislator Morelle introduced a bill (A10259) that would relieve insurance companies of having to rely exclusively on nationally recognized credit agencies (NRSROs) to determine capital requirements for their financial investments. The bill authorizes the…

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENTS BB&T v. Mass Mutual, Clark Consulting (Update) On January 26, the judge in this matter ruled on the defendants’ dismissal motions.  The order granted dismissal of Count I (breach of fiduciary duty); Count II (aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty); Count III (negligence); and Count VII (unfair and deceptive trade practices).  The…

LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENTS IA HB 620 A new Iowa bill focusing on employer-owned life insurance was introduced on January 25th.  The bill would create a new Code section 507B.4 which would establish as an unfair or deceptive act or practice for an insurance company to issue an employer-owned life insurance contract on the life of an…

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENTS Havenstrite v. Hartford (Update) In the ongoing COLI related identity misappropriation suit against Hartford, Hartford has yet to respond to the plaintiffs’ class certification motion which they were originally scheduled to file on October 16th.  In their December 11th extension filing, Hartford noted for the first time that the parties were in continued…

TAX DEVELOPMENTS 2009-2010 Priority Guidance Plan On November 24th, the IRS released its 2009 – 2010 Priority Guidance Plan which contains 315 projects set to be completed over a twelve-month period.  The most significant BOLI/COLI related project included in the plan is a revenue ruling regarding the tax-free exchange of life insurance contracts subject to IRC…