Insurance

Insurance organizations face a number of industry-specific regulations and issues. Therefore, it’s critical to work with a legal team that understands the industry and its unique business challenges and practices.

Dickinson Wright has long been a preferred provider of sophisticated, cost-effective legal services to organizations in the life, health, disability, property, casualty, and alternative insurance (self-insured programs, risk pools, and captives) fields. Dickinson Wright’s insurance team represents health care companies, stock and mutual insurers, guaranty associations,
governmental entities, captive insurers and assigned-risk pools.

Some of the insurance practice’s areas of expertise include:

• Representation of state regulators, insurers, health care corporations, HMOs, creditors, and suppliers in informal and formal receivership proceedings. 

• Regulatory issues, including: the demutualization of insurers, securing initial or expanded certificates of authority; change of control proceedings, representation of domestic, foreign and alien insurers in regulatory approvals related to financing transactions; declaratory ruling requests and withdrawals from markets. 

• Drafting, securing approvals for, and implementation of various insurance products, including policy forms and contracts effectuating affiliate transactions. 

• Business structure issues, including: acquisitions and dispositions of insurers and HMOs; mergers of insurers, HMOs and holding companies; public and private placements of stock and debt instruments.

• Negotiation, documentation, and implementation of fronting, reinsurance and general agency and MGA programs. 

• Labor and employment issues, including: employee class action litigation, EEOC and comparable state proceedings, wrongful discharge and discrimination representation and wage and hour claims. 

• Preventive counseling on labor and employment issues, including: development of personnel policies and handbooks, employment contracts, workforce reorganization plans, non-compete and related agreements, affirmative action policies and supervisor training. 

• Benefits, including all aspects of employee benefit and retirement plans; HIPAA-related issues and ERISA-related matters.