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Insurance

Sectors

Insurance

Morgan Lewis lawyers work closely with both foreign and domestic insurers, underwriters, agents, brokers and other participants in the insurance , insurtech, and insurance-related industries on a wide range of litigation, regulatory, and transactional matters affecting their operations. We handle the following service areas:

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All Things FinReg:
Your Go-To Source For Banking And Financial Regulatory Developments

Class action defense (consumer and provider litigation)
Member litigation defense (class action and single plaintiff)
Provider dispute litigation (out of network and contracted provider disputes)
Antitrust investigations and actions
Compliance counseling
General commercial litigation (non-coverage)
State administrative enforcement action

Mergers and acquisitions
- Insurance companies
- Agents and brokers
- HMOs and nonprofit hospital and professional health service plans
- Run-off transactions
Strategic equity investments
- Fintech investments
- Joint venture transactions
- Inbound US equity investments for non-US insurers
- US domestic and offshore captive insurance facilities (e.g., Bermuda, Cayman)
Demutualizations
Affinity marketing arrangements
Initial public offerings
Mutual company affiliations
Joint underwriting and marketing arrangements
Outsourcing transactions
Reinsurance
- Assumption
- Indemnity
- Stop loss
- Loss portfolio transfers
- Commutations
- Fronting facilities
- Financial reinsurance transactions
Secondary market transactions involving securitization of life insurance policies
Transaction review services for underwriters
Representation and warranty insurance
Other transactional risk insurance products

EDISCOVERY

Collections (full, targeted, and forensic)
Processing
Hosting
Technology assisted review/artificial intelligence
Managed review (onshore and offshore)
Production
Trial support

COUNSELING

Information governance, including:
- Electronically Stored Information (ESI) lifecycle management
- Cybersecurity
- Privacy
- Retention
- Disposition
Ediscovery Protocol/Playbook:
- Conduct assessments of current practices
- Develop/update practices
- Write/revise and implement discovery playbook
Discovery counsel:
- Discovery planning and strategy
- Negotiation of ESI protocols
- Litigation of discovery-related issues
- Take and defend 30(b)(6) depositions

ERISA class actions against insurance companies
Defined benefit and 401(k) plans
Proprietary fund claims
Risk mitigation/litigation avoidance issues
- In-house retirement and welfare benefit programs
- In-house fringe benefit and award programs
- Proprietary insurance and investment products
Executive compensation matters
- Plan design
- Deduction Issues
- Proxy reporting
Tax issues in M&A transactions
- Golden parachutes
- Deduction timing
- Section 162(m) deduction limits
Corporate-owned life insurance (COLI) purchases and taxation issues
Fiduciary committees and obligations
- Full-scale compliance audit of plans
- Independent Qualified Professional Asset Manager (QPAM) audits with respect to in-house plans
Payroll tax and information reporting
- Form W-2/1099/1042
- Federal and state levels
Penalty abatement requests for information reporting and deposit penalties (at Federal and state levels)

Public Health Service Act
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Mental health parity
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA)
High-deductible health plan (HDHP) and Health Savings Account (HSA) rules
Affordable Care Act

Insurance company investor groups
Public bond and note holder groups
Private placement financings
Front and back-end financing
Debt for equity exchanges
Covenant amendments
Creditor restructuring and bankruptcy work
Municipal bankruptcies
Insurance insolvencies

US immigration programs related to foreign national personnel
Recruitment and retention of foreign national personnel
Immigration-related matters
US Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
US Department of Labor (DOL)
H-1B visas
L-1 visas
Labor certifications
Green cards
Immigration matters at US consular posts abroad
Outbound immigration matters for personnel traveling or working abroad
Immigration-related compliance issues
Form I-9
E-Verify
Auditing of immigration compliance
Immigration defense investigations and discrimination charges

Insurance insolvency and restructuring
Rehabilitation, receivership, and liquidation
Large and complex cases
Representation of state insurance regulators in connection with distressed/troubled companies
Creditor and industry group representations in state liquidations and rehabilitations

Appeals of intellectual property decisions
Intellectual property licensing and joint development agreements
Patent litigation
Patent prosecution and counseling
Trade secret litigation
Trademark litigation
Trademark prosecution and counseling
US Patent and Trademark Office, Patent Trial, and Appeal Board Proceedings (including inter partes reexaminations)
US Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Trial, and Appeal Board Proceedings (including oppositions)

Variable annuities and variable life insurance as securities
- Registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
- Exemptions from SEC registration
- Privately-offered variable insurance products
- Insurance company separate accounts
- Insurance-dedicated fund governance, regulatory, and compliance matters
- Compliance with federal securities laws
  - Investment Company Act of 1940
  - Securities Act of 1933
- Variable insurance product structuring considerations
- Offering documents for publicly- and privately-offered variable insurance products
- Federal and state regulation of broker-dealers distributing variable insurance products
Taxation of variable insurance products
Insurance companies as asset managers
Insurance company general account investments in private investment funds
ERISA considerations in dealing with retirement plans
- ERISA plan asset and prohibited transaction considerations – general account and separate account investments
- ERISA Section 408(b)(2) disclosures
- Retirement annuities (403(a), 403(b), 408(a))
- Selling insurance products under the DOL Fiduciary Rule
- Insurance companies as retirement plan recordkeepers
- Insurance companies providing plan participant education
- Rollovers
Sales of insurance products and annuities by banks
Structured notes
Derivative transactions and regulation

Compensation plans and programs
Agent contracts and related materials
Agent policies and procedures
New York Insurance Law §4228 compliance
Employee and independent contractor classification issues
Statutory employee questions
Dual status employee issue

Class and collective actions (federal and state)
- Misclassification
- Failure to pay proper wages
- Unlawful deductions from commissions/wages
Single plaintiff litigation (federal and state)
Complaints and charges before administrative and regulatory agencies
Arbitration of claims before FINRA
Independent contractor model in courts and before state agencies
- Unemployment
- Workers Compensation
Intellectual property protection (including trade secret protection)
- Restrictive covenant limitations in employment agreements
Whistleblower actions

Financial statement reporting
Corporate governance
Merger and acquisition approvals
Affiliate transaction approvals
Restructurings
Financial and market conduct examinations
Evaluation of insurtech products and processes within US regulatory framework
State and federal investigations and enforcement actions
ERM reporting
Service and warranty contracts
Producer licensing
Risk financing vehicles, including on-shore and off-shore captives, and rent-a-captives
Reinsurance disputes and arbitration

Insurance

blogs

All Things FinReg:
Your Go-To Source For Banking And Financial Regulatory Developments

EDISCOVERY

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