This is the 29th year that the NAIC has published its annual Insurance Department Resources Report
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”) has released its annual Insurance Department Resources Report (IDRR). The Report, released in two separate volumes each year, has been published annually for the past 29 years. The first of the two-volume report focuses on the resources and regulatory activities of the 56 NAIC-member jurisdictions. This includes the 50 states plus U.S. Territories like Guam and Puerto Rico. The second volume of the report, compiled through an extensive survey of each of the NAIC member states, focuses on “… premium data [as well as providing]…ratios that demonstrate the relationships between the budget, revenue and premium data.
Overall statistics from this year’s report
According to this year’s report, premiums increased by 8.0% over the past year to $2.1 trillion. In comparison, budget levels for state insurance departments in fiscal year 2017 are expected to decrease by 1.7% from 2016 amounts. As for revenues, overall revenues collected by the insurance industry in 2015 totaled $22.6 billion, representing an increase of 3.43%. Total taxes collected also increased over the last 12 months by 4.7%.
Premiums
Massachusetts continues to rank outside the top ten states with the most written premium. The following charts takes a look at aggregate premium volume in the U.S. over the last nine years.
The next chart provides a breakdown of premium volume by line of business in 2015. Property/Casualty provides approximately 26.4% of all written premium volume as measured by lines of business. Both Health (41.1%) and Life/Annuities (31.4%), however, actually provide more premium volume than Property/Casualty.
The top ten states with the most premium written
The NAIC Report notes that premiums across the states have increased by 8.0% to $2.1 trillion since 2014. The top five states with the most written premiums, however, accounted for 39.9% of all insurance premiums in the United States.
California which reported the largest 2016 budget in Volume I of the NAIC Report, also claimed the top spot as the state with most written premiums in all lines. Rounding out the remaining four of the top five states in 2015 were the same ones as in 2014: New York, Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania.
Where Massachusetts ranks…
In the Commonwealth, Massachusetts had total premium revenue of $52,118,356,523 in 2015. Of that total premium, $20,135,533,917 was written in the Life/Annuities line of business, $13,230,200,233 in the Property/Casualty line of business, and $18,287,523,126 in Health. While Massachusetts continues to have no captive insurers, its does have a healthy Excess and Surplus market with a total of $903,690,382 in premium volume for 2015. Of that $663,708,437 in premium was U.S.-based while the remaining $239,981,945 represented Alien Excess and Surplus insurers.
As for total premium volume, Massachusetts logged $52,118,356,523 last year, an increase of $3,194,816,069 dollars from the total premium volume of 2014. As had occurred in most states, the total premium levels in Massachusetts have continued to increase over the past four years, from 2012 to 2015. The following is a look at those numbers:
- 2012: $46,899,364,809
- 2013: $48,237,987,566
- 2014: $48,923,540,454
- 2015: $52,118,356,523
While Massachusetts continues to be a major insurance marketplace, it continues to rank just outside the top ten U.S. insurance markets based on total premiums written in all lines of business ranking as the 11th largest market in the nation.
A look at the Massachusetts Division of Insurance
As the 11th largest insurance marketplace in the nation, the Division of Insurance is funded 100 percent via a combination of fees and assessments. The Divisions expenses breakdown with 80% for Administration and Regulation expenses and the remaining 20% covering Operational expenses.
The Division’s Revenues for 2015 were as follows:
- Total Revenues: $493,215,672
- Total Taxes: $362,160,000
- Fees & Assessments Collected: $130,730,251
- Fines and Penalties: $325,421
Regulated Entities in the Division are represented by 84 Domestic Insurers in the Commonwealth, 1,288 Licensed Foreign Insurers, 25 Domiciled Self-Insured Groups or Pools, and 7 Domiciled Purchasing Groups. Of the 84 Domestic Insurers in the states, 17 represent Life/Annuities, 50 are Property/Casualty, 15 are Health, with the remaining two representing Fraternal insurers.
There were a total of 118,891 Individual Licensed Producers in Massachusetts in 2015. Of that number, 31,008 comprised Resident Producers while 87,883 were Non-Resident Producers. As for Business Entities, Massachusetts had 6,903 licensed producers last year, with 2,489 consisted of Licensed Producers and 4,414 representing Non-Resident Producers. As for actions the Division took against Licensed Producers in 2015, Massachusetts imposed one suspension, 12 License Revocations, and 31 Cease & Desist Violations over the course of the past year. Of the 43 actions against Producers, the Division collected a total of $60,500 in Fines for the year.
The NAIC also noted that Massachusetts also only had 832 Consumer Complaints for 2015, a small number as compared to other states like New York which logged 40,491 complaints during the same time period.