New York targets insurance agents, adjusters and auto premiums in three new bills & more related News Here

The most important of the three is Senate Bill 10017, which Senator Bailey filed on April 22. It targets Section 4228 of the Insurance Act, the provision that sets rules for how life insurance and annuity companies pay their agents and brokers. Under current law, the Superintendent is required to periodically adjust the training allowance subsidy limit, but the statute does not set a specific schedule. The bill would replace that open-ended timeline with a mandatory annual adjustment on January 1 of each year, increasing the state’s minimum wage by the same percentage as the previous year’s threshold labor law. The Superintendent will also have the right to approve training allowance subsidy in excess of that limit at any time. A similar indexing mechanism will apply to the range of awards and rewards that companies can offer to agents and brokers. Currently the limit is five hundred dollars per single award and two thousand dollars per agent per calendar year, with companies also allowed to pay monthly awards of up to fifty dollars. Beginning January 1, 2027, awards and award limits will increase by the same minimum salary percentage adjustment each year.