Effective July 1, 2014, the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) has joined the Nonadmitted Insurance Multi-State Agreement, Inc. (NIMA) as an Associate Member for a one-year period. During that period, OCI will assess the advantages and disadvantages of becoming a full tax-sharing member of NIMA. This change is for evaluation purposes only, and any modification to the process of collecting surplus lines taxes will require legislative approval.
During the trial period, surplus lines agents, direct placement policyholders and risk retention groups shall continue to follow existing Wisconsin Statutes and Administrative Code for both single-state and multistate policies, where the policyholder's home state is Wisconsin, including:
- collection of surplus lines taxes;
- maintenance of tax records;
- filing a Wisconsin Surplus Lines Tax Report (or Directly Placed Unauthorized Tax Report), which includes all single-state and multistate policies sold (or purchased) during the calendar year; and
- payment of surplus lines taxes to this office.
The Wisconsin surplus lines tax rate of 3.0% will continue to apply to all single-state and multistate surplus lines policies where the "home state" is Wisconsin.
Wisconsin's Associate Membership in NIMA provides that multistate surplus lines policies, where Wisconsin is the home state of the policyholder, should also be reported to the Surplus Lines Clearinghouse. NO PAYMENT OF TAXES OR FEES SHALL BE MADE TO THE CLEARINGHOUSE DURING THE TRIAL PERIOD.
All multistate policies issued or renewed on or after
July 1, 2014, and any subsequent endorsements to those policies, in which Wisconsin is deemed the home state of the insured should be filed with the Surplus Lines Clearinghouse. Surplus lines agents, direct placement policyholders and risk retention groups may begin filing transactions with the Clearinghouse on July 1, 2014. Endorsements on multistate policies with an effective date prior to July 1, 2014, should not be reported to the Surplus Lines Clearinghouse.
Surplus lines agents, direct placement policyholders and risk retention groups should be aware of the policy data elements that will be required to make these filings with the Surplus Lines Clearinghouse as they may differ from the information currently required to be collected for each policy. A listing of the required policy data elements is posted at
http://slclearinghouse.com/PolicyFilers/dataelements.aspx.
Additionally, licensed surplus lines agents will be required to provide their National Producer Number (NPN) upon registration with the Surplus Lines Clearinghouse. This number is assigned by the National Insurance Producer Registry and is unique to each producing entity. To find your NPN number, please visit:
https://pdb.nipr.com/html/PacNpnSearch.html.
Filers can submit policy data to the Clearinghouse using two different methods: SLIP or XML batch filing. XML batch filing allows surplus lines agents to submit multiple transactions in a single upload. For copies of the batch filing manual, schema, and sample files, please contact James Farmer with the Surplus Lines Clearinghouse at (877) 267-9855 x116.
Additional information regarding the new filing procedures for nonadmitted multistate policies, educational tools and training opportunities for Clearinghouse customers will be forthcoming. Please visit the Surplus Lines Clearinghouse Web site at
www.slclearinghouse.com and sign up on the home page to receive e mail updates for up-to-date information on webinars, registration and other training opportunities. For additional information, you may also contact the Surplus Lines Clearinghouse staff at 877.267.9855, option 1, or by e-mail at
info@slclearinghouse.com.
Please contact Yvonne Sherry at (608) 266-0091 or Julie Wipperfurth at (608) 261-8284 or e-mail
ocifinancial@wisconsin.gov if you have any additional questions.