Upstream Life fights for annuity business amid ratings slide, Texas order
November 27, 2024 by John Hilton
A small Mississippi life insurer offering the highest annuity rates in the 5-year MYGA market is drawing concerns over its financial condition.
Upstream Life Insurance Co., based in Oxford, Miss., was fined $25,000 by the Texas Department of Insurance in August after regulators concluded that the insurer “misrepresented and filed false and misleading account statements and false quarterly and annual financial statements” with the state.
Upstream “was also operating in a hazardous financial condition,” Texas regulators wrote in an Aug. 5 consent order.
Click HERE to read the full story via Think Advisor
Wink’s Moore on the Market: Yet another case of questions surrounding AM Best‘s rationale…
Texas regulators wrote in an Aug. 5 consent order that Upstream Life ™ was…”operating in a hazardous financial condition.” Only a month later, Best assigned a Financial Strength Rating of B- (Fair) to the company.
According to InsuranceNewsNet, “the rating service abruptly reversed itself last week, downgrading [the rating] to C++.
Derek Hebert, one of the company founders (and a good friend of mine) says the company “is on a strong financial footing.”
AND…
“On September 2023, Upstream announced a reinsurance agreement…the reinsured block may consist of certain durations of the company’s Secure Legacy MYGA statutory reserves over the 2023 and 2024 issue years,” a news release states. “The transaction is expected to improve the company’s capital position, including increases to free cash flow and RBC coverage.”
My question- does errors and omissions insurance even cover an agent to write an unrated insurer?
You tell me.
Upstream may be on “pause” for a bit.
Thanks for the info John Hilton.
