PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — An exception to South Dakota’s public-record legal guidelines permits the state Division of Insurance coverage to maintain confidential the data that captive-insurance corporations present to the division, in accordance with the South Dakota Supreme Court docket.
In a latest unanimous opinion, the state’s highest courtroom upheld decrease selections that Division of Insurance coverage officers have been proper to disclaim a public-records request from Jason M. Schupp of Frederick, Maryland. A state regulation particularly permits these information to be confidential, Justice Mark Salter wrote.
The identical regulation additionally limits what the captive-insurance firm can do with these information: “In no way could a captive insurance coverage firm disclose a report or any supporting documentation to anybody, apart from administrators and officers of the captive insurance coverage firm or anybody performing in a fiduciary capability for the captive insurance coverage firm, with out written permission from the director.”
Based on the Nationwide Affiliation of Insurance coverage Commissioners, “In its easiest kind, a captive is a completely owned subsidiary created to supply insurance coverage to its non-insurance guardian firm (or corporations). Captives are primarily a type of self-insurance whereby the insurer is owned wholly by the insured.”
Wrote Justice Salter, “Below an elementary studying of SDCL 58-46-31’s plain and unambiguous phrases, an applicant’s identify and deal with should be filed with the DOI and are confidential. Consequently, disclosure of the names and addresses contained in a certificates of authority, to a member of the general public, like Schupp, is prohibited.”