(a) Certification of compliance.

1. (1) Every filing submitted, pursuant to this optional procedure, must be accompanied with the appropriate completed and signed compliance certificate or certificates as required by the pilot state.

2. (2) Pilot states are free to develop certification language consistent with their respective regulatory frameworks, however, the following best practices should be applied:

   1. (A) Certification of compliance should be with respect to applicable laws, rules, bulletins, and other information contained on the State Insurance Department website and/or contained in applicable checklists;
   2. (B) Certification must be by a duly authorized officer as evidenced by the authorized officer’s signature;
   3. (C) Certification should contain a statement to confirm the filer’s understanding that the insurance department will rely on the certification and that if it is materially false or misleading, corrective action will be taken as authorized; and
   4. (D) Published in the rule are sample state self-certification forms that meet rule requirements and are currently in use.

(b) Property and Casualty Transmittal Document.

1. (1)

   1. (A) Submit the Property and Casualty Transmittal Document.
   2. (B) Identify on the transmittal document under “Filing Type: Other” by providing as description “STMSCP”.
   3. (C) The transmittal document should also be used to provide filing information in the “Filing Description” area to identify the checklist or checklists relied upon (title or form number) and edition date.

2. (2)

   1. (A) If a filer has a provision in a filing that is new, such as an expansion of an exclusion or another new provision for which the filer is uncertain of whether it will meet product standards in the pilot state, the transmittal document should be used to highlight those provisions and to self-certify the rest.
   2. (B) In that way the department can focus its review on the noncertified provisions.
   3. (C) By narrowing the scope of review, the industry filer should achieve greater speed to market overall for such a filing referred to in this program as a hybrid pilot filing.
   4. (D) Tip for filers: concepts or issues that are controversial or in need of extended analysis, for example “mold exclusions”, should be filed separately under the regular state process.

(c) Product Requirements Locator.

1. (1) An STMSCP submission should be developed using the Product Requirements Locator, found either through the department’s website or the Insurance Commissioner will prescribe use of the National Association of Insurance Commissioner’s website.

2. (2)

   1. (A) The transmittal document “Filing Description” must indicate whether the Product Requirements Locator was used to obtain the filing requirements.
   2. (B) If the Product Requirements Locator is not used when data is available, or if the filing does not fully comply with the filing requirements reflected in it, a thorough review of the filing will be performed and a warning issued.

(d) Verifying the reliability of certified filings.

1. (1) The key to making the self-certification process work is in finding the right balance between giving the company the benefits of self-certification and assuring the reliability of the filings being received.
2. (2) If a filing is received with a certification by an officer, department review will be expedited and staff will collect all information needed to capture and develop the statistical data for the pilot program.

(e) Penalties.

1. (1) STMSCP submissions are afforded the privilege of an expedited review and are given priority over other filings.
2. (2) Insurers that repeatedly submit incorrect or incomplete STMSCP filings may have their privilege suspended or revoked.