Procedures Manual
Table of Contents
Section III - ASSOCIATION FILING PROCEDURES
A. Types of Documents Submitted
Within forty-five (45) days after a policy is procured, the member shall submit copies of the Declarations Page or Cover Note of every policy procured under his or her license to the Excess Line Association for recording and stamping. In the event that no Declarations Page or Cover Note is available to the member within forty-five (45) days after the policy is procured, the member shall submit copies of a binder or confirmation of placement of coverage to the Excess Line Association in lieu of such Declarations Page or Cover Note. In the event that a binder is submitted to the Association, the member shall submit copies of the Declarations Page or Cover Note to the Association for stamping promptly upon receipt.
Every insurance document submitted to the Excess Line Association shall set forth:
the name and address of the insured;
the gross premium charged;
the name(s) of the unauthorized insurer(s);
the kind of insurance procured;
the inception and expiration dates of coverage;
must bear the disclosure legend in 10-point bold print (further described herein)
All subsequent premium bearing endorsements and/or documents that affect the premium charged shall also be submitted to the Association for recording and stamping. Endorsements which do not affect the premium charged are exempt from stamping.
B. Affidavits
The submission of insurance documents to the Association shall be accompanied by statements subscribed and affirmed by the licensee or sublicensee (affidavit by Excess Line Broker-Part A) as true under the penalties of perjury that after diligent effort, the full amount of insurance required could not be procured, from insurers authorized to write coverages of the kind requested, and further showing that the amount of insurance procured from an unauthorized insurer is only the excess over the amount procurable from an authorized insurer. The licensee, however, shall be excused from affirming that a diligent effort, as defined above, was made to procure the coverage from authorized insurers if:
the licensee's affidavit is accompanied by the affidavit of another broker (affidavit by Producing Broker-Part C) involved in the placement affirming as true under the penalties of perjury that after diligent effort by the affirming broker, the required insurance could not be procured from an authorized insurer;
the insured qualifies as an "Exempt Commercial Purchaser" (ECP); or (3) the type of risk is on the export list.
ONLY the most current form of each affidavit is acceptable.
All affidavits must be properly completed and provide all necessary details consistent with the insurance document(s) submitted for stamping, in order to be processed and stamped by the Association.
In the case of manual affidavits, all Part A affidavits must bear original (wet) signatures of the affiant to be processed. Signatures which are not original or appear to be facsimile or copied signatures will be rejected by the Association. The Department of Financial Services (DFS) has approved the acceptance of faxed Part C affidavits which have been signed by the affiant.
Members who use ELANY's fully electronic affidavit filing system will create affidavits on-line. To register to use the electronic filing system, contact elanyhelpdesk@elany.org.
Producing brokers, who use ELANY's online affidavit system to create Part C affidavits, are permitted to use a .jpeg formatted image signature of the licensee or sublicensee. (Click here to sign up.)
The DFS approved the use of additional types of acceptable electronic signatures on Part C affidavits.
Such authenticated electronic signatures must meet all of the legal requirements of state (Electronic Signature and Records Act "ESRA") and federal (Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act "ESIGN") statutes.
Additionally, the licensee or sublicensee, whose electronic signature will be affixed to the Part C affidavit, must establish adequate internal controls that identify and limit the access and permission for the use of the electronic signature.
The use of a "rubber stamp" signature on affidavits (Part A and/or Part C) remains impermissible since it is not a legally recognized form of an electronic signature.
C. Statistical Coding Plan
The affidavit forms require insertion of a proper coverage code by the member.
D. Notice to Policyholder
New York State Insurance Regulation 41 mandates:
The affirming broker must give a written notice to each insured which describes the nature of an excess line placement. A copy of this letter must accompany the affidavit filing made with the Excess Line Association of New York.
Every policy or contract of insurance, binder and confirmation of coverage placed by a licensee with an unauthorized insurer shall bear across its face, in not less than 10-point bold type, the following legend:
"THE INSURER(S) NAMED HEREIN IS (ARE) NOT LICENSED BY THE STATE OF NEW YORK, NOT SUBJECT TO ITS SUPERVISION, AND IN THE EVENT OF THE INSOLVENCY OF THE INSURER(S), NOT PROTECTED BY THE NEW YORK STATE SECURITY FUNDS. THE POLICY MAY NOT BE SUBJECT TO ALL OF THE REGULATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES PERTAINING TO POLICY FORMS."
It is the responsibility of the licensee to obtain and affix the Notice to Policyholder legend on the document before submission to the Association.
E. Copies Submitted
Policy Declarations Page or Cover Note
Each member must submit for recording and stamping copies of the Policy Declarations Page or Cover Note within forty-five days after the coverage is procured.
Binders
In the event that no Declarations Page or Cover Note is available to the member within forty-five (45) days after the coverage is procured, the member shall submit a copy of the binder or confirmation of placement of coverage issued in lieu of said copy of the Policy Declarations Page or Cover Note.
Subsequent Endorsements
Each member must submit for recording and stamping copies of all subsequent premium bearing endorsement and/ or other documents that affect the premium charged.
In no event shall any endorsement or record thereof be submitted to the Association more than forty-five (45) days following the end of the calendar year in which said endorsement is effective.
A stamped copy of the document submitted will be returned by the Association to the member as soon as practicable.
Affidavits
Each member must submit the required affidavits [Excess Line Broker (Part A) and Producing Broker (Part C)], if applicable, which shall accompany copies of the policy Declarations Page, Cover Note or Binder as outlined above.
F. Batching
All excess line documents submitted to the Association shall be submitted in batch form with no more than twenty (20) documents per batch.
NOTE:
Do not mix documents from one calendar year with another calendar year in the same batch.
Each batch shall be submitted using a Batch Filing Report which is created by the electronic filing system.
On the Batch Filing Report, the member shall indicate the policy number, affidavit number, endorsement number and transaction code along with the corresponding premium for each document included in the batch. The affidavit number is assigned by the member in accordance with New York State Insurance Regulation No. 41. All subsequent premium bearing endorsements or documents must be reported with the original affidavit number assigned to the policy.
The member also calculates the total net premium for the entire batch at the bottom of the report. Any errors on the batch filing report will be noted on the copy returned to the member with the stamped documents.
G. Return Form
Should the Association find that the members documents lack vital information, the documents will be returned without stamping along with a Suspense Form, indicating the deficiency.
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Last Reviewed/Revised: February 19, 2021
