H-4159.1  _______________________________________________

                    SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 2224

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      57th Legislature     2002 Regular Session

By House Committee on Financial Institutions & Insurance (originally sponsored by Representatives Benson and Hatfield)

Read first time 02/08/2002.  Referred to Committee on .

Licensing specialty producers of certain lines of insurance.

    AN ACT Relating to licensing specialty producers of certain lines of insurance; and adding a new section to chapter 48.17 RCW.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 48.17 RCW to read as follows:

    The legislature finds that insurance covering the loss, theft, mechanical failure, or malfunction of communications equipment is commonly offered to consumers of these products.  The financial institutions and insurance committee in the house of representatives shall conduct a study of the insurance products offered to consumers of communications equipment, together with the information and brochures describing these insurance products, and shall prepare recommendations for the appropriate regulatory supervision and licensure of the specialty producers of these insurance products.  For the purposes of this study, "communications equipment" means handsets, pagers, personal digital assistants, portable computers, automatic answering devices, batteries, and other devices or their accessories used to originate or receive communications signals or service.

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