Since the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 nearly two years ago, corporate policyholders and industry insiders alike have anticipated its impact on the insurance industry.  Among other measures, the unprecedented financial reform law mandated significant federal regulation of insurance, created generous incentives for whistleblowers that provide quality information regarding potential securities violations, imposed aggressive pe ...

By Kara Altenbaumer-Price

For forty years, the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) has allowed defendants to settle SEC matters and pay monetary penalties and disgorgement while “neither admitting, nor denying” the truth of the allegations against them. This practice allowed the SEC to avoid overt denials of wrongdoing, while also allowing defendants avoid creating admissions that could be used against them in separate civil proceedings—or by D&O insurance carriers seeking to prove underlying facts necessary to exclude coverage under certain conduct-based exclusions.