Insurance guaranty funds have been around since the 60s, but The National Conference of Insurance Guaranty Funds (NCIGF) wasn’t incorporated until 1989 and had its first meeting in St. Louis on February 20 of that year. While many things have changed in the past twenty years, our primary mission has not – we exist to assist our members in any way possible to fulfill their statutory duties to handle claims when insurance companies become insolvent and are ordered liquidated.

 

One thing that has become clear is that data is king. Our longest-tenured employee, Barbara Cox, reminds us that NCIGF staff used to “slave over a hot fax machine” to get materials out to our members in the early 1990s while today, this is done with several key strokes from a personal computer.

 

Barb has regaled us with stories of the file transfer exercise in Reliance – literally moving boxes of claim files from servicing TPAs to the various guaranty funds and then some of those files being “retransitioned” from one guaranty fund to another, sometimes by the truckload. Now we convert imaged file data from an insurance company database into a format usable by our member funds. And added to the longstanding UDS repertoire of A and C records are D records – replacing the FIQ forms as a means to report guaranty fund expenses - and F and G records – containing vital payment history information and adjustor notes. There is also some discussion of an “I” record for imaged file data.

 

Traditionally, the NCIGF was “under the radar” of the insurance media with perhaps an occasional mention in the trade press. That has all changed in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The insurance safety net and how it functions became mainline news in September 2008, with the NCIGF fielding calls from the New York Times and ABC news among others. This provided a unique opportunity to make the public aware of the consumer protection the guaranty funds provide. This system is under an unprecedented level of public scrutiny – making it more important than ever to provide its protection in a timely and efficient manner.

 

The 21^st century has also brought about increased concern regarding privacy of personally protected data – SUDS (Secure UDS) is now available to guaranty funds and liquidators of insolvent estates to exchange encrypted information. Another issue we have grappled with recently is the new reporting requirements for claims that may have Medicare or Medicaid involvement.

 

We have made use of our Web site, technical and accounting capabilities to deliver financial and assessment history data to those who seek it in an efficient and user friendly manner. Timely and accurate data is even more critical in this time of additional scrutiny to the system.

 

Discussions at the federal level have definitely caught our attention. We have responded to scores of inquiries from Washington, D.C. to explain to public policy makers that an insurance consumer safety net system exists with $24 billion in claims paid to its credit.

 

Twenty years after its creation, the NCIGF is still supporting the state-based property and casualty guaranty funds meet their statutory obligations to policyholders and claimants. We do so with a commitment to facilitating the system’s dependability, reliability and efficiency to drive home the point that it is “Built to Work” for America’s insurance consumers.