2023 Colorado Revised Statutes › Title 10 - INSURANCE (§§ 10-1-101 — 10-23-110) › REGULATION OF INSURANCE COMPANIES (§§ 10-3-101 — 10-3.5-111) › Article 3 - REGULATION OF INSURANCE COMPANIES (§§ 10-3-101 — 10-3-1716) › Part 17 - DOMESTIC STOCK INSURER DIVISION (§§ 10-3-1701 — 10-3-1716) › Section 10-3-1708 - Commissioner approval of plan of division

(1)
After a dividing insurer approves a plan of division pursuant to section
10-3-1707
, the dividing insurer shall file the plan of division with the commissioner. Within ten business days after filing the plan of division with the commissioner, the dividing insurer shall provide notice of the filing to each reinsurer that is a party to a reinsurance contract allocated in the plan of division.
(2)
A division may not become effective until it is approved by the commissioner in accordance with this section and a certificate of division is filed in accordance with section
10-3-1710
.
(3)
Before approving a plan of division, the commissioner shall:
(a)
Hold a public hearing in accordance with section
24-4-105
, except to the extent that the procedures set forth in section
24-4-105
conflict with the procedures set forth in this part 17;
(b)
Provide notice of the public hearing required pursuant to subsection (3)(a) of this section to state insurance regulators and appropriate state guaranty associations in states in which the dividing insurer is authorized to do business;
(c)
Confirm to the commissioner's satisfaction that the dividing insurer has made reasonable efforts to provide to all policyholders, contract holders, reinsurers, and other persons with an interest in the proposed plan of division at least thirty days' prior notice of the public hearing if the commissioner determines that it would be unreasonable or unfair to not provide such notice to such other persons. For the purposes of this subsection (3)(c), a notice must:
(I)
Provide information regarding the proposed division under consideration and the location, date, and time of the public hearing; and
(II)
If the dividing insurer has the last-known address or last-known e-mail address of the policyholder, contract holder, reinsurer, or other person on file, either be mailed to the last-known address of such person or sent via electronic means to the last-known e-mail address of such person.
(d)
Consider any simultaneous merger or acquisition of a resulting insurer as part of the plan of division;
(e)
In the case of a simultaneous merger, apply to the resulting insurer involved in the simultaneous merger the requirements of this part 17 that are applicable to the resulting insurer as merged into the surviving entity in the merger and not to the resulting insurer prior to the merger; and
(f)
Consider, among other things, all assets, liabilities, and cash flows, the nature and composition of the assets proposed to be transferred in support of the plan of division, and all proposed assets of the resulting insurers, which consideration must include:
(I)
An assessment of the risks and quality, including the liquidity and marketability, of the proposed portfolio of each resulting insurer;
(II)
Consideration of asset and liability matching; and
(III)
The treatment of the material elements of the portfolio based on statutory accounting practices.
(4)
After making the considerations described in subsections (3)(d), (3)(e), and (3)(f) of this section, the commissioner shall approve a plan of division if the commissioner finds that the following requirements are met:
(a)
The financial condition of a dividing insurer, a resulting insurer, or an acquiring party of a resulting insurer, if any, will not jeopardize the financial stability of the dividing insurer or prejudice the interests of its policyholders, contract holders, or reinsurers, in each case, in a manner that is unfair to its policyholders, contract holders, or reinsurers;
(b)
The terms of the plan of division are fair and reasonable to the dividing insurer's and any resulting insurer's policyholders, contract holders, and reinsurers, if any;
(c)
Neither a dividing insurer, a resulting insurer, nor an acquiring party of a resulting insurer, if any, has plans or proposals to:
(I)
Liquidate the dividing insurer or any resulting insurer;
(II)
Sell assets of the dividing insurer or of any resulting insurer;
(III)
Consolidate or merge the dividing insurer or any resulting insurer with a person; or
(IV)
Make any other material change in the dividing insurer's or any resulting insurer's business or corporate structure or management that is unfair or unreasonable to the dividing insurer's or resulting insurers' policyholders, contract holders, or reinsurers and not in the public interest;
(d)
The competence, experience, and integrity of the persons who would control the operation of a dividing insurer, if it survives the division, and any resulting insurer are such that permitting the division would be consistent with the interest of the dividing insurer's and any resulting insurers' policyholders, contract holders, and reinsurers, if any, and the general public;
(e)
The division is not likely to be hazardous or prejudicial to the insurance-buying public;
(f)
The interest of the policyholders of the dividing insurer that may become policyholders of a resulting insurer will be adequately protected by the resulting insurer or acquiring party of a resulting insurer, if any;
(g)
The dividing insurer, if it survives the division, and any resulting insurers will be solvent upon the consummation of the division;
(h)
The assets allocated to the dividing insurer, if it survives the division, and to resulting insurers will not, upon the consummation of the division, be unreasonably small in relation to the business and transactions in which the insurers were engaged or are about to engage;
(i)
The proposed division is not being made for the purpose of hindering, delaying, or defrauding any policyholders, contract holders, or reinsurers;
(j)
Each resulting insurer that will be a member insurer under the "Life and Health Insurance Protection Association Act", article
20
of this title 10, will be licensed in each line of business in each state where the dividing insurer was licensed with respect to the insurance policies or annuity contracts issued by the dividing insurer that are allocated to that resulting insurer as part of the plan of division; except that the resulting insurer need not be licensed with respect to any line of business in any state where, at the time of division:
(I)
The dividing insurer is not licensed with respect to that line of business; or
(II)
The state does not provide guaranty association coverage or similar coverage with respect to the allocated policies or contracts; and
(k)
If the plan of division allocates policies of long-term care insurance, as defined in section
10-19-103 (5)
, the liabilities associated with those allocated policies do not constitute more than a de minimus amount of the insurance liabilities allocated to the dividing insurer, if it survives the division, or to any resulting insurer.
(5)
A dividing insurer that files a plan of division shall pay all expenses incurred by the commissioner in connection with proceedings under this section, including expenses for attorneys, actuaries, accountants, and other experts not otherwise a part of the commissioner's staff as may be reasonably necessary to assist the commissioner in reviewing the proposed plan of division. A dividing insurer may allocate the expenses in the plan of division in the same manner as any other liability.
(6)
The commissioner shall select and retain an independent expert who shall review the plan of division and issue a report to the commissioner, which report addresses the following:
(a)
The business purposes of the proposed division;
(b)
Capital adequacy and risk-based capital, including consideration of the effects of asset quality, nonadmitted assets, and actuarial stresses to reserve assumptions;
(c)
Cash flow and reserve adequacy testing, including consideration of the effects of diversification on policy liabilities;
(d)
Business plans;
(e)
The impact, if any, of concentration of lines of business following the proposed division; and
(f)
Management's competence, experience, and integrity.
(7)
If the commissioner approves a plan of division, the commissioner shall issue:
(a)
An order that is accompanied by findings of fact and conclusions of law; and
(b)
A certificate of authority authorizing the resulting insurers to transact the business of insurance in this state; except that the commissioner may waive this requirement if a resulting insurer will not survive a merger simultaneous with the division in accordance with the plan of division.
(8)
The conditions in this section for freeing one or more of the resulting insurers from the liabilities of the dividing insurer and for allocating some or all of the liabilities of the dividing insurer are deemed to have been satisfied if the commissioner approves the plan of division in a final order.
Added by 2021 Ch. 144, § 1, eff. 9/7/2021.
2021 Ch. 144, was passed without a safety clause. See Colo. Const. art. V, § 1(3).