Senate Bill No. 416

(By Senators Bowman, McKenzie, Kessler and Rowe)

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[Introduced February 2, 2004; referred to the Committee on Banking and Insurance.]

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A BILL to amend the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §33-12-23a, relating to insurance; and requiring agents of automobile and health insurers to disclose to their insureds the amount of the commission he or she receives from each premium payment remitted by each insured.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §33-12-23a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 12. INSURANCE PRODUCERS AND SOLICITORS.
§33-12-23a. Commissions received by agents of certain insurers to be disclosed to their insureds.

Every agent for an automobile or health insurance company is required, as to each policy, to disclose to his or her insured or insureds with the dollar amount or percentage of premium he or she receives as a commission from each premium payment. This requirement will be considered satisfied if the insurer should provide the insured or insureds with that information by appropriately displaying it on the insureds' premium statement.


NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require auto and health insurance agents to fully disclose to their insureds the cost to the insureds of the agent's services.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.