Insurance and risk management is an enormous global industry. To operate effectively in today’s marketplace, industry members must respond quickly and decisively to continual change in the complex regulatory framework. They must also cope with increasingly tough competition as all major insurers look for new ways to respond to economic contraction and industry consolidation. To succeed, players need corporate counsel with a deep understanding of the history and future of the insurance business.
Cozen O’Connor has been a powerful advocate on behalf of the industry for more than 40 years. Our attorneys represent all segments of the industry, including property and casualty, life, health, surety, title, and financial guaranty companies; HMOs and health plan corporations; excess and surplus lines insurers; reinsurers; life settlement companies; agents and brokers; adjusters; and various regulatory agencies.
We provide practical strategic advice concerning regulatory compliance, corporate governance, major corporate transactions, and business organization. We do not simply provide a technical review of initiatives and transactions. We act as trusted partners to our insurance clients, helping them implement efficient compliance solutions, create new products and programs, grow their businesses, complete major financings and acquisitions, and provide faster and more streamlined service to policyholders.
Cozen O’Connor’s corporate and regulatory practice consists of attorneys who have been industry leaders for decades. It includes a former state insurance commissioner and attorneys who have worked as in-house counsel for insurance companies. Our attorneys currently serve, or have previously served, on the boards of insurance companies and insurance industry organizations and regularly present and publish articles on emerging issues in order to keep clients keep abreast of new developments.
One of the benefits of having such veteran corporate practitioners is that Cozen O’Connor is able to represent insurance companies at every stage in the corporate life cycle. We have extensive experience guiding insurers through formation, corporate organization, capital raising, reinsurance, product development, and the creation of distribution strategies. For established businesses, we provide counsel on mergers and acquisitions, broker and agent relations, compliance, and product and service innovation. We also offer a steady hand when insurers face potentially destabilizing challenges in the form of government investigations or insolvency. From start to finish, our team finds innovative business solutions for the insurance industry.
SERVICE AREAS
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Advise on corporate reorganization, including acquisitions, divestitures, and mergers; domestications and redomestications; demutualizations; purchases/sales of assets and books of business; restructurings and withdrawals from lines of business; and creation of new entities, including holding company structures
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Counsel clients about regulatory compliance, market surveillance, advertising, statutory reporting, investment restrictions, holding company requirements, premium tax, surplus notes, premium financing, statutory deposits, and antitrust/McCarren-Ferguson matters
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Handle corporate financial transactions, including initial and subsequent public offerings, private placements, credit facilities, and stock-to-mutual conversions
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Assist financially distressed insurers in matters involving releases of collateral, cut-through and set-off provisions, and acquisitions/divestitures
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Represent clients before insurance regulators in examinations, licensing inquiries, investigations, and administrative hearings, including with respect to product or rate disapprovals
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Advise clients on alternative risk mechanisms, including offshore and domestic captives, risk retention groups, and self-insurance plans
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Draft corporate governance policies, registrations, insurance contracts, collateral agreements, reinsurance agreements, and assumption agreements
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Assist clients in responding to data calls and regulatory inquiries and filings under the Insurance Holding Company Act
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Conduct internal investigations and due diligence