Mississippi Code 1972 (2023) › Title 83 - INSURANCE (§§ 83-1-1 — 83-NEW-004) › Chapter 49 - LEGAL EXPENSE INSURANCE (§§ 83-49-1 — 83-49-49) › Section 83-49-27 - Retention of records; inspection and report; expenses

(1)
The commissioner shall require every sponsor of a prepaid legal services plan to retain at the address shown on its license the plan-related books, records, accounts and vouchers for a term of five (5) years beginning immediately after the completion of the transaction and kept in such manner that the commissioner or his authorized representatives may readily verify its annual statements and determine whether the plan and the sponsor are in compliance with the law.
(2)
The commissioner, or his designee, as often as the commissioner, in his sole discretion, deems appropriate but, at a minimum, at least every five (5) years shall visit each sponsor of a prepaid legal services plan and examine into such of its affairs as relate to the business of operating the plan. The commissioner shall have free access to all plan-related books, records, accounts and vouchers of the plan and may summon and examine under oath officers, trustees, agents and employees of the plan and any other persons regarding the affairs and condition of the plan. Provided, that no information, written or oral, need be supplied under this or any other subsection of this chapter in violation of the attorney-client privilege as it is construed by the courts of this state.
(3)
Every sponsor of a plan being examined, its officers, employees and agents shall produce and make freely accessible to the commissioner the accounts, records, documents and files in its possession or control relating to the subject of the examination. Such officers, employees and agents shall facilitate such examination and aid the examiners as far as it is in their power in making the examination.
(4)
(a)
The commissioner shall make a full written report of each examination made by him containing only facts ascertained from the accounts, records and documents examined and from the sworn testimony of witnesses.
(b)
The commissioner shall furnish a copy of the proposed report to the sponsor of the plan examined not less than twenty (20) days prior to filing the report. If such plan so requests in writing within such twenty-day period, or such longer period as the commissioner may grant, the commissioner shall grant a hearing with respect to the report, and shall not so file the report until after the hearing and such modifications have been made therein as the commissioner may deem proper.
(c)
The commissioner may withhold from public inspection the report of any examination or investigation for so long as he deems it to be in the public interest or necessary to protect the plan examined from unwarranted injury.
(d)
After the report has been filed, the commissioner may publish the report or the results thereof in one or more newspapers published in this state if he should deem it to be in the public interest.
(5)
The sponsor of the plan so examined shall pay, at the direction of the commissioner, all the actual travel and living expenses of such examination. When the examination is made by an examiner who is not a regular employee of the department, the sponsor examined shall pay the proper charges for the services of the examiner and his assistants in an amount approved by the commissioner. A consolidated account for the examination shall be filed by the examiner with the commissioner. No sponsor or other entity shall pay and no examiner shall accept any additional emolument on account of any examination. When the examination is conducted, in whole or in part, by regular salaried employees of the Department of Insurance, payment for such services and proper expenses shall be made by the sponsor examined to the commissioner, and such payment shall be deposited with the State Treasurer to the account of the Department of Insurance.
Laws, 1983, ch. 474, § 14; Laws, 1991, ch. 573, § 123; Laws, 2012, ch. 364, § 4, eff. 7/1/2012.