(A) An insurer or the insurance group of which the insurer is a member must submit to the director a Corporate Governance Annual Disclosure (CGAD) that contains the information required pursuant to the provisions of this article no later than June first of each calendar year. Notwithstanding a request from the director, if the insurer is a member of an insurance group, the insurer shall submit the report to the director of the lead state for the insurance group in accordance with the laws of the lead state, as determined by the procedures outlined in the most recent Financial Analysis Handbook adopted by the NAIC.

(B) The CGAD must include a signature of the insurer’s or insurance group’s chief executive officer or corporate secretary attesting to the best of that individual’s belief and knowledge that the insurer has implemented the corporate governance practices and that a copy of the disclosure has been provided to the insurer’s board of directors of the appropriate committee thereof.

Terms Used In South Carolina Code 38-13-1020

  • Department: means the Department of Insurance of South Carolina. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
  • Director: means the person who is appointed by the Governor upon the advice and consent of the Senate and who is responsible for the operation and management of the department. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
  • insurance: includes annuities. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
  • Insurer: includes a corporation, fraternal organization, burial association, other association, partnership, society, order, individual, or aggregation of individuals engaging or proposing or attempting to engage as principals in any kind of insurance or surety business, including the exchanging of reciprocal or interinsurance contracts between individuals, partnerships, and corporations. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20

(C) An insurer not required to submit a CGAD under this section shall do so upon the director’s request.

(D) For purposes of completing the CGAD, the insurer or insurance group may provide information regarding corporate governance at the ultimate controlling parent level, an intermediate holding company level and the individual legal entity level, depending upon how the insurer or insurance group has structured its system of corporate governance. The insurer or insurance group is encouraged to make the CGAD disclosures at the level at which the insurer’s or insurance group’s risk appetite is determined, or at the level at which the earnings, capital, liquidity, operations, and reputation of the insurer are overseen collectively and at which the supervision of those factors are coordinated and exercised, or the level at which legal liability for failure of general corporate governance duties would be placed. If the insurer or insurance group determines the level of reporting based on these criteria, it shall indicate which of the three criteria was used to determine the level of reporting and explain any subsequent changes in the level of reporting.

(E) The review of the CGAD and any additional requests for information must be made through the lead state as determined by the procedures within the most recent Financial Analysis Handbook.

(F) Insurers providing information substantially similar to the information required by this article in other documents provided to the director, including proxy statements filed in conjunction with Form B requirements or other state or federal filings provided to this department, are not required to duplicate that information in the CGAD, but are required to cross reference the document in which the information is included.