National Insurance

• TALLAHASSEE, Fla., March 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A new measure to protect Florida consumers against dishonest towers was signed into law recently by Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
• It was sponsored by Representative Melony Bell (R-Fort Meade) in the Florida House of Representatives.
• A companion bill was sponsored by Senator Keith Perry (R-Gainesville) in the Florida Senate.
• "This law would implement important measures that protect consumers and promote accountability within the towing industry."

• OAK BROOK, Ill., Feb. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), the insurance industry's association dedicated to predicting, preventing, and prosecuting insurance crime, announces Edward Tobin as the organization's new Vice President, Strategy, Policy, and Government Affairs, effective Tuesday, Feb. 27.
• "His strong relationships and experience serving in both the public and private sectors will help NICB to achieve its mission."
• Mr. Tobin was a partner at WilmerHale, an international law firm in Washington, DC, and Boston, MA, where he served as vice chair of the public policy and strategy practice.
• He also completed Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government's Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government.

• AgentSync announces the launch of its first commercially available ProducerSync API for carriers, MGAs, and agencies.
• The ProducerSync application programming interface (API) acts as a menu, allowing insurance businesses to draw from a selection of National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) data on licensing, appointing, and personal information for producers.
• By streaming accurate and comprehensive data to our customers' existing systems, ProducerSync API drives better business decisions," said Jenn Knight, Co-Founder and CTO of AgentSync.
• Insurance runs on data, but maintaining the accuracy and quality of producer data across ecosystems is, historically, a challenge for all stripes of insurance organizations.

• Around 50 Conservative MPs called for inheritance tax to be abolished after the Telegraph launched a campaign urging the government to scrap the tax in summer 2023.
• Inheritance tax is applied at 40% to transfers of wealth on or close to death, above a minimum threshold – currently £325,000.
• One factor holding this number down is that there is no inheritance tax payable on wealth left to a spouse or civil partner.
• The main reason why few people pay inheritance tax is that the effective threshold at which they (or their spouse or civil partner) would begin paying the tax is typically much higher than £325,000.

Potential effects

• Around half of the gains from abolishing inheritance tax would go to the wealthiest 1% at death, whose estates would see an average tax cut of £1 million.
• More than 90% of people don’t have inheritance tax paid on their or their partner’s death and so wouldn’t benefit from abolition.

• Only around 20% of people called inheritance tax “fair” in a 2023 YouGov poll, compared to around 60% for National Insurance contributions.
• However, research from Demos shows most people wouldn’t prioritise inheritance tax for cuts, but would prefer to spend the money that abolishing inheritance tax would cost in other ways.

Reforming inheritance tax

• Pension pots are totally exempt from inheritance tax, as they are not counted as part of a deceased person’s estate.
• A cap on such reliefs could allow those passing on small farms or businesses to be taken out of inheritance tax, if desired, while preventing agricultural and business investments from being used simply to avoid inheritance tax.
• This could fund a cut in the rate of inheritance tax from 40% to 25% or an increase in the threshold after which inheritance tax is charged to £525,000.
• There are arguments for and against abolishing inheritance tax, but addressing problems in the current system is increasingly important and would raise revenues.

David Sturrock receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust. Bee Boileau receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust.