Transparency and Readability of Consumer Information (C) Working Group

Property and Casualty Insurance (C) Committee

The Transparency and Readability (C) Working Group is appointed by the Property and Casualty Insurance (C) Committee for 2012 to:

1. Study and evaluate actions that will improve the capacity of consumers to comparison shop on the basis of differences in coverage provided by different insurance carriers offering personal lines products.
2. Review the three NAIC property/casualty policy simplification models (#730, #731 and #732) for currency and recommend changes, if appropriate.
3. Examine current industry practices and state laws and regulations relevant to this topic, then develop findings and/or recommended action items to the Committee.
4. Examine approaches to:
   1. systematize and improve pre-sale disclosures of coverage;
   2. increase consumer accessibility to different carriers' policy forms on a pre-sale basis; and
   3. facilitate consumers' capacity to understand the content of insurance policies and assess differences in insurers' policy forms.
5. In examining the second of these issues, the Working Group should consider all possible avenues of accessibility, including state insurance department websites, the NAIC, insurance companies and the possibility of pre-sale provision of complete policy language.
6. In examining the third of these issues, the Working Group should consider a) implementing new readability rules as suggested by the Consumer Connections (D) Working Group of the Market Regulation and Consumer Affairs (D) Committee; b) promoting consistent, clear and logical formatting and organization of all policies; and c) any other measures that would improve the intellectual accessibility of policy forms.—Important
7. The Working Group will also develop best practices for the design and implementation of Web-based consumer premium comparison guides for personal auto and homeowners insurance by the 2012 Fall National Meeting. —Essential