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July 22, 2019 at 12:39 PM
A life insurer says life underwriters need to know about an insured’s sex at birth, not just the applicant’s current gender identity.
Pacific Life Insurance Company says any revised versions of life policy overview summary regulations should refer to the insured’s sex, not to the insured’s gender.
(Related: A Look at the Future of Life Insurance Policy Illustrations)
“‘Gender; is a fluid concept while ‘Sex’ refers to genetic sex at birth,” Pacific Life says in a comment letter sent to an arm of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). “Using ‘Sex’ enables insurers to apply traditional underwriting practices that are based on the insured’s or proposed insured’s genetic sex at birth.”
Pacific Life sent the letter to the NAIC’s Life Insurance Illustration Issues Working Group.
The Background
The NAIC is a group for state insurance regulators. It develops “models,” or examples of what state insurance laws or regulations could look like, to help states share legal and policymaking expertise, and to help states make their insurance rules more like other states’ insurance rules.
The Life Insurance Illustration Issues Working Group is exploring the idea of improving the narrative policy summary required by a section of the NAIC’s existing Life Insurance Illustrations Model Regulation.
The working group is also reviewing the policy overview required the NAIC’s Life Insurance Disclosure Model Regulation.
The working group recently asked the public for comments on the Life Insurance Disclosure Model Regulation policy overview requirements. The working group is preparing to discuss the comments July 30, during a conference call meeting.
Pacific Life Definitions Comments
Pacific Life talks about the distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ in comments on the definitions section in a proposed draft update of the policy overview model.
The update drafters have referred to the “gender of the insured or insureds” in a description of “information about the insured” that ought to be included in a life insurance policy overview.
