Newsletter RSS

Mealey's Reinsurance

  • December 05, 2025

    IRS To File Administrative Record In Tax Firm’s Captive Final Rule Challenge

    DALLAS — A Texas federal judge denied as moot a tax firm’s motion to compel the Internal Revenue Service to file the administrative record in the firm’s challenge to an IRS final rule on microcaptive insurance arrangement after the agency informed the court that it is “in agreement with plaintiff” regarding the motion to compel and “plans on filing the administrative record on or before December 12, 2025.”

  • December 04, 2025

    Parties Dispute Scope Of Arbitration In Reinsurance Legionnaires’ Suit

    DETROIT — Following a motion hearing, a reinsured entity and the defendants in a lawsuit over claims related to Legionnaires’ disease filed supplemental briefs in a Michigan federal court addressing the defendants’ motion to dismiss, with the defendants asserting that the reinsured entity’s claims arise out of a governing arbitration clause and must be stayed under federal law, and the reinsured entity countering that the dispute falls outside that provision because the assignee is not a party to the operative reinsurance agreement.

  • December 04, 2025

    Summary Judgment Denied, Trust Withdrawal Claim Dismissed In Reinsurance Dispute

    NEW YORK — In a pair of rulings, a New York justice denied a successor insurer and captive reinsurer’s motion for summary judgment, granted a fronting carrier’s summary judgment cross-motion, dismissed one breach of contract claim for lack of a proper plaintiff, dismissed a second breach of contract claim as unenforceable and denied the successor insurer’s request to amend its pleadings in a dispute arising under a quota share reinsurance agreement (QSRA).

  • December 04, 2025

    California High Court Declines Review Of Ruling That Upheld Rehabilitation Plan

    SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court denied a petition for review filed by an insurer after a lower appellate court upheld a nonconsensual rehabilitation plan for a workers’ compensation insurance carrier approved as part of conservation proceedings brought by California’s insurance regulator  to resolve dozens of reinsurance participation agreement (RPA) lawsuits.

  • December 03, 2025

    Discovery Inadequacy Prompts Partial Grant Of Motion To Compel In $250M Asset Suit

    WILMINGTON, Del. — The Delaware Chancery Court partially granted a motion to compel in a dispute over a complex asset-swap arrangement referred to as the “Agera transactions” that the plaintiffs allege resulted in the “dissipation of at least $250 million,” finding that the plaintiffs’ discovery responses, which include untimely and inadequate privilege logs, are deficient under Delaware law and warrant multiple waivers and compelled production.

  • December 02, 2025

    Delaware Chancery Court Approves Claims Procedure In Reinsurer Liquidation

    WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware Chancery Court vice chancellor approved the contested proposed claims procedures filed by the receiver for the liquidation of Scottish Re (U.S.) Inc., holding that the proposal does not constitute an abuse of discretion because the receiver identified statutory authority, articulated rationales consistent with the statute’s objectives and supported those rationales with evidence.

  • December 01, 2025

    PHL Rehabilitator Reports 6 Offers Are Under Consideration After Initial Bids

    WATERBURY, Conn. — The rehabilitator of PHL Variable Insurance Co. and its reinsurance subsidiaries told a Connecticut state court in a third accounting and status report that six bidders remain under consideration for offers to acquire or reinsure all or portions of the insurer’s business after an initial round of eight entities submitted preliminary offers.

  • November 21, 2025

    COMMENTARY: Testing The Boundaries Of Product Liability For AI Products: How To Hold An Insurance Company Liable For AI Errors

    By Jamie O’Neill and Abigail Damsky

  • November 24, 2025

    N.Y. Appellate Court Affirms Order Requiring Production Of Reinsurance Agreement

    NEW YORK — The First Department New York Supreme Court Appellate Division unanimously affirmed a prior order requiring an insurer to produce copies of its reinsurance agreements in the Archdiocese of New York’s coverage dispute arising from nearly 1,700 underlying sexual abuse lawsuits, holding that the state’s discovery rule governing insurance agreements extends to reinsurance contracts and that recent legislative amendments do not limit disclosure.

  • November 24, 2025

    Reconsideration Of Denied Dismissal Motion Sought In Captive Tax Shelter Dispute

    PITTSBURGH — A Pittsburgh-based corporation asks a Pennsylvania federal court to reconsider the denial of its motion to dismiss and for summary judgment in a dispute over penalties tied to the corporation’s alleged promotion of a tax shelter through a purported captive insurance program, arguing that the judge misapprehended its filings and failed to address its claim that requiring prepayment of part of the IRS promoter penalty before a jury trial violates the Seventh Amendment.

  • November 24, 2025

    Employee Accused Of Sharing Captive Insurance Trade Info Files Fraud Counterclaim

    PHOENIX — An ex-employee of an insurance brokerage firm filed an answer and counterclaim in response to the firm’s verified amended complaint alleging that he misappropriated trade secrets and breached his contract by transferring captive insurance client information to a competitor, asserting a claim for fraud and that the firm induced his continued employment through fictitious equity unit awards while concealing a forthcoming corporate acquisition that would render them worthless.

  • November 21, 2025

    Judge Grants Abstention In Insurance Dispute Involving Arbitration, $524M Judgment

    TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida federal judge on Nov. 20 granted a Puerto Rico insurer’s motion to abstain regarding the insurer’s request to dismiss a petition to compel arbitration filed by insurance mogul Greg Lindberg, the former owner of now-insolvent insurers, seeking to compel arbitration related to a dispute with the insurer involving a $524 million judgment pursuant to a personal guaranty for a reinsurance agreement.

  • November 20, 2025

    Judge Opens Door For 2nd Circuit To Weigh In On PRT Standing Split

    NEW YORK — The question of whether alleging that a pension risk transfer (PRT) increased the risk of not receiving full benefits gives retirees standing to challenge the transaction could be addressed by two U.S. circuit courts after a New York federal judge certified for interlocutory appeal her decision that the plaintiffs in one such putative class action have standing.

  • November 19, 2025

    Farmer Alleges Crop Insurer Wrongly Terminated Policy, Causing $396K In Losses

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A farmer filed an amended complaint in an Alabama federal court, alleging that a crop insurance provider wrongfully terminated her 2022 crop year policy and unduly reported her to a federal ineligibility database; the crop insurer seeks dismissal of the suit on the grounds that the dispute is subject to mandatory arbitration under the Federal Crop Insurance Act (FCIA).

  • November 19, 2025

    Captive Insurance Manager Opposes IRS Request To Uphold Disputed Final Rule

    KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — In opposing the Internal Revenue Service’s cross-motion for summary judgment, a captive insurance manager argues that a challenged final rule governing small captive insurance arrangements exceeds the agency’s statutory authority, lacks evidentiary support in the administrative record on the IRS’s claim that small captive insurance arrangements are abusive and relies on impermissible factors, and is therefore arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

  • November 18, 2025

    Record Update Ordered, IRS Dismissal Bid Partly Granted In Captive Rule Dispute

    DALLAS — In a text-only docket entry, a Texas federal judge directed the U.S. government to file a status report by Dec. 5, stating whether it intends to withhold the administrative record in connection with a tax firm’s pending motion to compel less; the order was issued less than two weeks after the judge dismissed with prejudice the firm’s claims that an Internal Revenue Service final rule on microcaptive insurance arrangements exceeded the agency’s statutory authority and was contrary to law but denied the government’s motion to dismiss the firm’s remaining claim that the rule is arbitrary and capricious.

  • November 17, 2025

    Farmers Contest FCIC Crop Insurance Rule Interpretation In Texas Federal Court

    LUBBOCK, Texas — More than 200 individual, trust, partnership and corporate plaintiffs engaged in farming across 11 counties in Texas seek judicial review and declaratory relief from the Federal Crop Insurance Corp. (FCIC) and the Risk Management Agency (RMA), alleging that an agency policy interpretation unduly restricts their right to receive full indemnity for their failed cotton crops and subsequent annual forage crops under the Federal Crop Insurance Act (FCIA).

  • November 14, 2025

    Tax Judge Upholds Microcaptive Penalties Under Economic Substance Doctrine

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Holding that the economic substance doctrine requires a threshold relevancy determination, a U.S. Tax Court judge found the doctrine applicable to accuracy-related penalties arising from purported microcaptive insurance arrangements that were determined to lack genuine risk transfer or substantive business purpose, ruling that the resulting underpayments of tax were subject to nondisclosure penalties.

  • November 13, 2025

    Split Summary Judgment Issued In Indemnification Dispute Over Asbestos Cases

    MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge issued a split summary judgment order in an indemnity dispute centered on the continuity of insurance and reinsurance agreements executed between 1983 and 1995, denying a paper manufacturer’s request for declaratory relief, allowing its breach of contract claim against an insurer to proceed and granting summary judgment in favor of the manufacturer on the insurer’s two counterclaims.

  • November 13, 2025

    Insurers’ Objections To Discovery Orders Substantially Overruled In COVID-19 Suit

    NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York substantially overruled insurers’ objections to discovery orders that granted in part and denied in part a holding company for the U.S. interests in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s motion to compel the insurers to produce certain documents they have withheld as privileged in a coronavirus coverage dispute.

  • November 13, 2025

    Oral Argument Calendared In Appeal Of Dismissed Claim Tied To Vesttoo Collapse

    NEW ORLEANS — Oral argument is tentatively scheduled for the week of Jan. 5, 2026, in a homeowners insurer’s appeal to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals concerning the dismissal of its breach of contract claim stemming from the collapse of Vesttoo Ltd.

  • November 10, 2025

    COMMENTARY: Uh-EUO: How Examinations Under Oath Impact Claims

    By Rachel E. Hudgins, Kevin V. Small and Charlotte E. Leszinske

  • November 11, 2025

    6th Circuit Affirms Collateral Estoppel Ruling In Dispute Over Defense Costs

    CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling that an insurer was collaterally estopped from relitigating whether defense costs were payable outside defined policy limits, holding that the issue was fully adjudicated in prior arbitration and that the absence of mutuality did not preclude application of collateral estoppel.

  • November 10, 2025

    Broker Claims Ex-Employee Disclosed Captive Insurance Trade Secrets To New Firm

    PHOENIX — An insurance brokerage firm filed a verified amended complaint in an Arizona federal court alleging that a former employee misappropriated trade secrets and breached a contract by transferring captive insurance client information to his new employer in violation of an agreement barring disclosure of confidential data and solicitation of former clients.

  • November 06, 2025

    Stable Value Funds Are Focus Of ERISA Suits Over Alleged Imprudence

    Often echoing arguments seen in recent pension risk transfer litigation concerning reinsurance arrangements and the risk of insolvency, a firm representing at least six different plaintiffs in various federal jurisdictions filed putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases challenging retirement plan use of certain guaranteed income funds (GIFs) and stable value funds (SVFs) that the plaintiffs claim no prudent fiduciary would have selected and retained.