BILL NUMBER: S9403
SPONSOR: BAILEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the insurance law, in relation to removing the require-
ment for advertisements referring to an insurer to include the insurer's
full name and principal office and making technical corrections related
thereto
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The bill would amend the insurance law by deleting the requirement for
advertisements referring to an insurer to include the insurer's full
name and principle office.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill deletes the requirement in Section 2122(b) of the
Insurance Law for agents and brokers to display the insurer's full name
and the name of the city, town or village of its principal office in
advertisements that refer to an insurer.
Section 2 is the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
The bill modernizes the Insurance Law by removing outdated, burdensome,
and unnecessary requirements related to advertisements by insurance
producers.
Section 1 removes an outdated provision of the Insurance Law requiring
that when producers use advertisements that refer to an insurer, the
advertisement must display the insurer's full name and the name of the
city, town or village of the insurer's principal office. This outdated
law serves no public policy purpose in today's modern society and is
unnecessarily burdensome upon producers who must clutter advertisements
and Internet web pages with meaningless text. The law may have been
helpful to consumers in the days before widespread advertising on tele-
vision, the Internet and social media. Today, the vast majority of
consumers can identify insurers from company logos and other common
names or abbreviations that may not necessarily encompass the insurer's
full name. There is also no particular reason for advertisements to
display the location of an insurer's principal office. Consumers are
more concerned with the location of the company representative who will
provide them with service.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
This is a new bill.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.

Statutes affected:
S9403: 1101 insurance law, 1101(b) insurance law, 2117 insurance law, 2117(i) insurance law