New York adopts new regulations for insurance reserves

The New York Department of Insurance has adopted revised regulations governing the valuation of individual and group accident and health insurance reserves and emergency regulations governing the valuation of life insurance reserves. The complete re-writing of the reserve requirements relating to accident and health insurance was the first revision of the regulations in that area since 1971. The changes include a change from the use of the 1964 Commissioners' Disability Tables to the 1986 tables, and the adoption, for the first time, of regulations for group insurance. The emergency regulations for life insurance were adopted due to the Department becoming aware that “some insurers have designed certain life insurance products with the clear intent of circumventing existing reserve standards.”