NAIFA Tells Treasury Department Views on Insurance Regulatory Reform | Advocacy Updates | NAIFA

Advocacy Update: December 10, 2007

NAIFA Tells Treasury Department Views on Insurance Regulatory Reform

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The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case in which a viatical settlement company had claimed that the Virginia Viatical Settlements Act was unenforceable because of the burden it placed on interstate commerce. Earlier in the year the Fourth Circuit’s Court of Appeals had denied the challenge to the statute made by Life Partners Inc., ruling that the state statute was a state law that regulated the business of insurance within the scope of the McCarran-Ferguson Act. As such, the state law did not violate the Constitution’s Commerce Clause. The Supreme Court’s decision not to take up this issue means that the Fourth Circuit’s decision will stand and that the Virginia Viatical Settlements Act will remain in force and enforceable.

The Fourth Circuit’s decision on the merits and the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the appeal should provide support for the enforceability of other state viatical settlement laws.