© 2012, 2016 National Association of Insurance Commissioners Page 8
CHAPTER TWO
The Filing Process
The insurance filing process is a cooperative effort between the filer and the regulator. In this process, the proposed product
is presented by the filer to the regulator for review and/or approval. The product must comply with state laws and/or
regulations. The contract language should be clear and, within regulatory judgment and/or law, “readable” as required. The
pricing and wordage of the product, therefore, must be consistent with statutory and regulatory requirements.
The Filing
What is a “filing?” Webster’s New World Dictionary defines “filing” broadly; i.e., “a collection of information arranged in
order.” In general, however, an insurance filing—whether submitted electronically or through other means—may be said to
be a mechanism for an entity to use in seeking to meet certain requirements of a regulatory authority to obtain eligibility, or
some other form of status or approval. In particular, an insurance filing might require the submission and evaluation of large
amounts of complex information. This information is central to the regulatory process. For the best answer to this question,
however, you should become familiar with how the term “filing” is defined in your state.
Insurance filings are made by several kinds of entities. Filings are made by, for, or on behalf of, risk-bearing entities; i.e.,
insurance companies. Filings can be made individually by each insurer or insurer-group—either by its own staff or by a
contracted third-party filer. Advisory organizations such as the American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS),
Insurance Services Office (ISO), National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), and Surety and Fidelity Association
of America (SFAA) are entities authorized under each jurisdiction’s laws to make insurance filings on behalf of their
members and subscribers; e.g., insurance companies.
What is to be filed? Different state filing requirements may be applicable to each product category (i.e., rates, rating rules,
policy forms, underwriting rules, etc.) and to different categories of filers (i.e., advisory organization filings may be subject to
different rules from that of insurer filings). For example, a filing might be as simple as submittal of an insurers range selected
from statutorily approved criteria (e.g., flex rating), in which case the filing might simply be approved when received by the
regulatory authority. However, other filings might be quite complex, especially for some new programs, such as those
requesting approval to write new commercial package policies. Such complex filings might entail actuarial analysis of its
rating plans and even legal review of proposed contract language.
While filings are made when a company develops and implements a new program, most filings are modifications to existing
programs, and thus will not contain all the elements of an insurance program. The origins of such filings can be diverse,
including responses to newly enacted legislation, regulations or court cases, market research, or a desire to simplify or
enhance an existing program. Such revisions can range from short, simple, straightforward submissions, to complex
documents as previously mentioned. In addition, some filings will pertain to an insurer’s response to material filed on its
behalf by the company’s advisory organization.
Rate filings are generally made by insurers on a regular basis in response to updated experience, as discussed in later
chapters. Rate revisions might be filed in response to legislation, regulation, court cases, or other changes in the underlying
program. Rate filings might also be precipitated by a loss cost filing made by an insurer’s advisory organization.
While in most states member and subscriber insurers may authorize their advisory organization to make filings in their
behalf, some advisory organization customers may not give their advisory organization filing authority. These insurers may
file to adopt the advisory organization material at another time, either with or without modifications, or not adopt a specific
revision at all. Insurers that have given their advisory organization “file on behalf” authority may, however, choose at any
time to make a simple filing notifying the regulator of their non-adoption of the advisory organization’s filing. Similarly, they
may make simple filings that merely change the effective date of the material that has been filed on their behalf by their
advisory organization.
For property/casualty lines of business, loss cost filings are a subset of rate filings and are made only by advisory
organizations. These entities do not file final rates or effective dates for their loss costs. Rather, they file advisory prospective
loss costs, which are defined as all the loss-related elements of a rate. Please refer to Chapter Three to gain a basic
understanding of how the loss cost filing process works.