The state regulator is looking into the National Rifle Association’s role in selling banned coverage products.
The New York Department of Financial Services is currently investigating the NRA for allegedly taking illegal gun insurance kickbacks in the state. The investigation is examining the National Rifle Association’s role in the sale of banned coverage products to firearm owners.
The NRA allegedly took in at least $14 million in illegal kickbacks in the state.
The state regulator’s investigation is one component of a broader effort that launched in 2018. It is the result of a number of insurance company consent agreements that occurred last year which ended the Carry Guard insurance product – and other similar products – sold under the NRA brand, said a New York Post report.
Carry Guard was an NRA branded insurance policy sold to gun owners. It offered those policyholders up to $150,000 in coverage against legal costs if they were arrested for a shooting they claimed was done in self-defense. In New York, the state prohibits the sale of insurance coverage offering protection for a potentially criminal activity. That insurance product also paid up to $1 million in coverage for civil liability suits having to do with injuries or damage “that was beyond the use of reasonable force to protect persons or property,” said a copy of a 2018 consent agreement with an underwriter.
The NRA is being investigated for receiving illegal gun insurance kickbacks in New York.
The National Rifle Association is not licensed within the New York insurance market and may therefore not sell coverage products in the state. However, it received at least $14 million in payments for assisting with the sale of Carry Guard and other similar insurance products from 2000 through 2008. This, according to the 2018 consent agreement to which it was not party.
Therefore, the New York Department of Financial Services may pursue the NRA for receiving insurance sales kickbacks in the stat, as that activity is not permitted, said a New York Post source.
Investigators examining this case will also look into the NRA’s role in offering a free one-year NRA membership for 
those who purchase coverage, which is an illegal gun insurance activity in the state. The reason is that New York does not allow insurance products to be sold with incentives worth more than $25.
