The Maryland Insurance Administration (MIA) has revealed that it has shut down yet another insurer that is related to Hal Katz, the well known Baltimore policy pitchman, in a trend that has continued since December.
The last two insurers were owned by Katz’s son and had their licenses revoked, closing them down.
Those companies were both run by Geary Katz and were called Laurel Insurance Corporation and Senate Insurance. According to recent news from the MIA, the licenses for both of those companies were revoked at the end of 2013 after they had been the subject of an agency investigation. The records from the MIA stated that the insurers and Katz himself, “have demonstrated that they do not meet the standard of trustworthiness and competence required of an insurance producer.”
The Senate and Laurel insurance companies had previously been investigated regarding payments issues.
In that issue, the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund (MAIF) had been receiving premiums payments in an untimely basis from those two insurers. The state explained that Senate is among the primary producers for MAIF, which answers directly to the Maryland legislature.
Within the most recent investigation, it was determined by the MIA that the two companies have continued to struggle to make their MAIF premium payments in a timely basis. Furthermore, Senate had been acting as a producer for a company in North Carolina without having given MAIF any notification, despite the fact that a consent order required it to do so.
The MIA said that it knew of overdue premium payments worth over $125,000 in one circumstance. Moreover, the Senate Acceptance Corporation – a Geary Katz finance company – had written checks that were being returned for insufficient funds. Beyond that, official records have shown that investors in that investment company forced it into bankruptcy. The documents at the MIA show that the Katz owned companies had been withholding premiums from the insurers in an unlawful way.
It is believed that Senate Acceptance, alone, is in an owing situation for approximately $50 to its investors, on top of unpaid premiums to insurers that are worth an estimated $900,000.
