CA Insurance Brokers No Longer Required To Send Opt-Out Notices Prior To Policy Shopping At Renewal
Insurance broker-agents in California no longer are required to send customers annual privacy notice forms permitting them to opt-out of information sharing. Insurance broker-agents thus may now use customers’ nonpublic personal information to shop around for better policies at renewal.
On November 4, 2010, California’s Office of Administrative Law repealed California Code of Regulations(C.C.R.) § 2689.8(c)(3), upon the recommendation of the California Department of Insurance and Insurance Commissioner (and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate) Steve Poizner. The move finally harmonizes C.C.R. § 2689.8 with Financial Code § 4056.5(b), effective July 1, 2004, which expressly permits broker-agents to use nonpublic personal information without obtaining prior customer consent to shop for new policies on renewal, and should reduce the paperwork and expense broker-agents previously incurred in mailing annual opt-out notices to all customers.
