STAND. COM. REP. NO.935-02

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: S.B. No. 2733

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, to which was referred S.B. No. 2733, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INSURANCE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to clarify and make consistent the State's new insurance producer licensing law and related insurance laws.

Testimony in support of this bill was received from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Hawaii Independent Insurance Agents Association, and National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.

Your Committee finds that the Producer Licensing Act (PLA) was enacted pursuant to Act 216, Session Laws of Hawaii, 2001, in response to the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999. PLA is effective on July 1, 2002, and replaces the various regulatory schemes governing general agents, subagents, and solicitors, with a single licensing scheme for insurance producers. PLA allows Hawaii to join with the more than 40 states that have adopted similar licensing statutes, and the uniformity and reciprocity thereby provided will help to modernize the nation's insurance industry.

Your Committee further finds that this measure reconciles inconsistencies between the Insurance Code and the Act. This measure also reauthorizes the licensing of managing general agents, which authority was inadvertently repealed by Act 216, SLH 2001.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of consistency, clarity, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2733, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2733, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce,

 

____________________________

KENNETH T. HIRAKI, Chair