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Mealey's Reinsurance

  • January 21, 2025

    10th Circuit Tosses Appeal Of Tax Court Ruling On Purported Microcaptive

    DENVER — In an unpublished order citing the lack of a “final decision to review,” a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel dismissed an appeal filed by appellants who unsuccessfully sued the commissioner of Internal Revenue in U.S. Tax Court over purported microcaptive insurance.

  • January 17, 2025

    Declaratory Judgment Suit Focuses On Reinsurance, Legionnaires’ Disease Claims

    DETROIT — Alleging breach of a reinsurance agreement and seeking declaratory judgment, a captive insurer filed a lawsuit in Michigan federal court over claims concerning Legionnaires’ disease.

  • January 17, 2025

    Argument Set For Hawaii Supreme Court Case On Wildfire Settlement Subrogation

    HONOLULU — An amicus curiae group called the “Consolidated Class Plaintiffs” will take part in Feb. 6 oral argument after the Hawaii Supreme Court expanded the time allotted in the case concerning reserved questions on how the subrogation rights of property and casualty insurance carriers bear on a proposed global settlement of claims related to the August 2023 Maui wildfires; additionally, a pending opposed motion seeks to stay a lower court’s allocation proceeding.

  • January 17, 2025

    Bid To Pursue Resolution With Vesttoo Affiliate In Israel Draws Opposition

    WILMINGTON, Del. — Israeli investors’ request for a Delaware federal bankruptcy court to grant relief from the injunction in the Chapter 11 liquidation of Vesttoo Ltd. and dozens of affiliates so they can pursue arbitration and/or liquidation proceedings in Israel has drawn objections that the investors argue should be rejected.

  • January 16, 2025

    N.J. High Court Decision Is Cited In Discovery Ruling On Reinsurance Info

    TRENTON, N.J. — Declining to compel production of information concerning a reinsurance policy, a New Jersey federal magistrate judge concluded that Statewide Ins. Fund v. Star Ins. Co. and the state statute that authorized a joint insurance fund (JIF) rendered the discovery requests at issue “not relevant and not proportional to the needs of the case.”

  • January 16, 2025

    South Carolina Orders Insurer, Captive Reinsurer To Stop Writing New Business

    COLUMBIA, S.C. — Documents that South Carolina regulators have made publicly available show that Atlantic Coast Life Insurance Co. (ACL) and ACL’s captive reinsurer Southern Atlantic Re Inc. (SAR) were confidentially put into administrative supervision in April 2024 and then ordered to stop writing new business by the end of 2024.

  • January 15, 2025

    Tax Consultant Sues To Vacate New Microcaptive Rule Under APA

    DALLAS — Invoking the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), a self-described “global tax consulting firm” filed a same-day challenge to a final rule in which the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Treasury Department require reports for certain purported microcaptive insurance arrangements.

  • January 14, 2025

    IRS And Treasury Department Issue Final Rule On Microcaptive Transactions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Some microcaptive transactions are “listed transactions” and others are “transactions of interest” and both have to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service under a final rule issued by the IRS and U.S. Treasury Department that is effective Jan. 14.

  • January 13, 2025

    Bid For Review Of 9th Circuit Crop Insurance Ruling Under Loper Bright Fails

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its Jan. 13 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a certiorari petition in which a farm argued that Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo should have prevented the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals from deferring to a regulatory interpretation of the Federal Crop Insurance Corp. (FCIC) in a crop insurance case.

  • January 09, 2025

    Partial Dismissal Granted In Suit Over Financing With Now-Insolvent Insurer

    NEW YORK — A New York state court justice granted in part an investment placement agent’s and related entity’s motion to dismiss in an aiding and abetting fraud and negligent misrepresentation suit over the agent’s alleged failure to disclose the creditworthiness of certain entities in a financing transaction, including a now-liquidated insurer, finding in part that the lender plaintiffs failed to sufficiently state a claim for negligent misrepresentation.

  • January 09, 2025

    Vice Chancellor Addresses Privilege Claims In DUFTA Case Discovery Dispute

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware Chancery Court vice chancellor ordered plaintiffs to produce some documents they had argued were privileged and to pay for additional depositions in a putative class suit over an alleged scheme to strip capital from an insurance subsidiary on which many policyholders depend for long-term care (LTC) disability benefits.

  • January 08, 2025

    Liquidation, Injunction Orders Entered For 2 Special Purpose Captive Insurers

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware Chancery Court vice chancellor on Jan. 7 entered liquidation and injunction orders regarding two special purpose captive insurance companies — American Casualty Reinsurance of Delaware LLC (ACRE) and American Equine Insurance Company LLC (AEIC) — that the Delaware Department of Insurance seized in June 2024 under confidential orders.

  • January 07, 2025

    Judge Sets Aside Deadlines During Discovery In Breach Suit Against Ex-Underwriter

    MIAMI — After an insurer asked to extend deadlines for reasons including that recent discovery “has revealed the broad scope of [its former underwriter]’s years-long, transnational scheme” that allegedly exposed it “to over $100 million in claims,” a Florida federal judge entered an order setting aside the deadlines while discovery continues.

  • January 06, 2025

    Some Defendants Reach Undisclosed Settlement In Jet Coverage Lawsuit

    SAN FRANCISCO — A few defendants have been dismissed with prejudice from an international aviation insurance coverage dispute involving Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pursuant to a confidential settlement approved by a California state court judge.

  • January 06, 2025

    Citing Wildfire Risks, California Issues Net Cost Of Reinsurance Regulation

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Department of Insurance has issued a Net Cost of Reinsurance (NCOR) in Ratemaking Regulationthat Commissioner Ricardo Lara says was prompted by insurers pulling back from the state’s property insurance market in light of the growing risk of wildfires. 

  • January 03, 2025

    Settlement, Recapture Proposed Involving Reinsurer That Is In Liquidation

    WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware Chancery Court has been asked to approve a deal involving settlement and recapture agreements under which stock reinsurance company Scottish Re (U.S.) Inc. (SRUS), which is in liquidation, would receive a recapture payment of $86,210,609.56.

  • January 02, 2025

    Intervention Sought Over Setoff Rights In Connecticut Rehabilitation Proceeding

    HARTFORD, Conn. — Policy owners’ setoff rights are the focus of an intervention motion that three investment managers filed in Connecticut state court regarding the rehabilitation of life insurer PHL Variable Insurance Co. and the subsidiaries that reinsure its liabilities.

  • January 02, 2025

    Dismissal Bid Fails In Reinsurer’s Breach Of Contract Lawsuit Because Of Term

    TAMPA, Fla. — Saying in part that the key contractual term “is arguably facially ambiguous,” an Illinois federal judge denied a motion to dismiss a reinsurer’s breach of contract suit and then stayed the case through Feb. 3 at the parties’ request “to permit them to try to resolve the case by agreement.”

  • January 02, 2025

    Pension Risk Transfer To Prudential Is Focus Of ERISA Lawsuit

    NEW YORK — The wave of Employee Retirement Income Security Act suits challenging pension risk transfers (PRTs) has taken a turn with the filing of a complaint in New York federal court that focuses on transfers to Prudential Insurance Company of America (PICA) and RGA Reinsurance Company (RGA).

  • January 02, 2025

    Crop Insurance Case Over Regulatory Actions Is Tossed For Lack Of Jurisdiction

    SAVANNAH, Ga. — Saying that arguing that a flawed arbitration decision likely isn’t enough to meet the plaintiff’s burden in the crop insurance case, a Georgia federal judge concluded that a farm hasn’t shown that it has standing or that its claims are ripe; he therefore overruled the farm’s objections and dismissed the case.

  • December 31, 2024

    IRS Asks 5th Circuit To Affirm Tax Court Ruling In Row Over Purported Microcaptives

    NEW ORLEANS — Urging the Fifth Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm a ruling that certain purported microcaptive insurance arrangements were not entitled to federal tax benefits, the U.S. commissioner of Internal Revenue argues in part that the “Taxpayer can hardly claim reversible error or fault the Tax Court for applying a legal framework that Taxpayer himself advocated.”

  • December 30, 2024

    Exchange Act’s Antifraud Provisions Applied In Suit Against Former Brazilian Exec

    NEW YORK — Ruling that a July 2010 amendment to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) means that the act’s “antifraud provisions apply to extraterritorial conduct that is the subject of an enforcement action” by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a New York federal judge denied a motion to dismiss an enforcement action against the former senior executive of a Brazilian reinsurance company.

  • December 30, 2024

    5th Circuit Argument Set In Reinsurer’s Appeal Involving Timely Notice

    NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has set oral argument for Feb. 5 in a reinsurer’s appeal of a $2,866,423.97 judgment that includes attorney fees; a key issue in the case is whether the reinsurer was given timely notice.

  • December 24, 2024

    Tax Court Briefing On Economic Substance Doctrine Continues In Microcaptive Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In their latest filings in a U.S. Tax Court dispute over the “economic substance doctrine” in consolidated cases involving purported microcaptive insurance companies, the commissioner of Internal Revenue argues that a “threshold” determination of relevance is not required and the petitioners contend that the bulk of the amicus curiae briefs support their contrary position, among other things.

  • December 19, 2024

    5th Circuit Appeal Seeks Revival Of Untimely Crop Insurance Case

    NEW ORLEANS — Briefing has concluded in an appeal concerning federally reinsured crop insurance, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), statutes of limitations, tolling and estoppel, and the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has tentatively calendared oral argument for the week of Feb. 3.