$32 MILLION IN CONSUMER RECOVERIES HIGHLIGHTED IN REPORT

Insurance companies paid New York consumers $32 million and offered to reinstate 116,000 policies that had been improperly cancelled or non-renewed, according to the New York State Insurance Department.

That information is among the highlights in the Insurance Department’s Annual Report for 2009, released today by Superintendent James Wrynn.

The report notes that the consumer recoveries and offers of policy reinstatements occurred as the result of investigations conducted by the Department’s Consumer Services Bureau after it looked into cases for consumers who complained that insurers had treated them unfairly.

Other highlights of the report:

• Investigations by the Department’s Frauds Bureau led to 738 arrests for insurance fraud and related crimes and court-ordered restitution totaling $5.1 million.
  
  
• There were 394 disciplinary actions against insurance agents or brokers leading to the surrender of 39 licenses, 53 license revocations and the collection of $1.2 million in fines.
  
  
• A total of 117,497 licenses were issued by the Department to insurance adjusters, agents and brokers, as well as consultants, reinsurance intermediaries and service contract registrants.

The report shows that insurance is big business in New York State. Life insurance companies hold approximately $2.3 trillion in assets, property/casualty insurers write about $313 billion in premiums and accident and health insurers write about $14.3 billion in premiums.

The report can be found at the following location on the Insurance Dept’s website, www.ins.state.ny.us/acrobat/annrpt09.pdf.

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