California Approves Insurance Reg Amendments

The California Office of Administrative Law has approved Department of Insurance plans to repeal portions of its privacy regulations, Insurance Journal reports. Effective immediately, agents and brokers will no longer be required to mail privacy policies to customers annually nor must they provide customers with an opt-out form to prevent broker-agents from shopping on renewal, the report states. “The department had no legal authority to enforce opt-out notification, but so long as the requirement was on the books, many broker-agents incurred very substantial expense attempting to meet those requirements,” said Steve Young, general counsel of the Insurance Brokers and Agents of the West, the group that requested the change.