By Mr. Coughlin of Dedham, petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 932) of Robert K. Coughlin for legislation to establish a special commission to study investor initiated life insurance.  Financial Services.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PETITION OF:

Robert K. Coughlin

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In the Year Two Thousand and Seven.

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An Act to establish a special commission to study investor initiated life insurance.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. There shall be a nine member special commission to study the effect of Investor Initiated Life Insurance and its impact on the citizens of Massachusetts. The Commissioner of Insurance, or a designee, shall chair the Commission. The Co-Chairs of the Joint Committee on Financial Services, or their designees, shall serve as members. The Secretary of the Commonwealth, or a designee, shall also serve as a member. The Commissioner of Insurance shall appoint the five additional members including:

a representative from the Life Insurance Association of Massachusetts,

a representative from the secondary market for life insurance,

a representative from a consumer organization with experience and

expertise on life insurance and financial services issues,

a representative from an organization representing interests of senior

citizens of the Commonwealth, and 

an attorney licensed in the Commonwealth with a specialty in trusts and

estates

The commission shall study the effect of investor-initiated life insurance and its impact on the on the citizens of Massachusetts, report on the laws establishing and protecting consumers of life insurance, including prohibitions against wagering in life insurance, insurable interest laws, and viatical and life settlement laws, and also the underlying property rights of life insurance, including consumer protections found in unfair trade practices and unlawful discrimination laws. The Commission will develop recommendations on regulatory and legislative actions to protect consumers against investor-initiated life insurance.  For the purposes of this study, investor-initiated life insurance is defined as the illegal manufacturing of life insurance by persons or entities lacking a lawful insurable interest in the insured, which persons or entities expect to receive the greater part of the benefit of the policy.

The commission shall file its study, along with any legislation, with the clerks of the Senate and the House of Representatives on or before June 30, 2008.