Senate Bill S4410

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S4410

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the insurance law, in relation to
certain life insurance policies and annuities contracts

 PURPOSE :

To require insurers to specify either calendar days or business days
in certain policies.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 of this bill amends subsection (a) of section 3203 of the
insurance law by adding a new paragraph 18, which states that any
insurer who issues a replacement life insurance policy or annuity
contract shall provide to the policy or contract owner the right to
return the policy or contract within sixty days from the date of
delivery of such policy or contract and receive an unconditional full
refund of all premiums or considerations paid on it. It further states
that the insurer shall specify whether the term "days" refers to
calendar days as defined in section 19 of the general construction law
and as computed by section 20 of the general construction law or
business days and where such term is not specified, the term "days"
shall mean business days, Monday through Friday of any given week.

Section 2 of this bill states that the superintendent of financial
              

services shall promulgate any and all rules or regulations and take
any other measures necessary to implement this act on its effective
date on or before such date.

Section 3 of this bill states that this act shall take effect on the
one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become law and shall
apply to all insurance policies, contracts and plans, issued, renewed,
modified, altered or amended on or after such effective date.

 JUSTIFICATION :

Currently an insurer must provide notice to contract or policy owners
that he or she has 60 days to return a replacement life insurance
policy or annuity contract. However, in that notice there is no
specification of whether the 60 days are calculated as calendar days
or business days. This has led to confusion for consumers of such
policies, causing them to miss deadlines. To avoid confusion in the
future, these notices should be explicitly clear on how that 60-day
period will be calculated. For notices that do not state such
information, the longer period (i.e. business days) should be assumed.

This bill would require insurers to specify to contract or policy
owners whether the 60 days will be calculated by calendar or business
days, and where not specified, business days shall be used.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

New Bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it
shall have become law and shall apply to all insurance policies,
contracts and plans, issued, renewed, modified, altered or amended on
or after such effective date.