Relating to prohibited insurance discrimination on the basis of an insured's marital status following the death of the insured's spouse.

Contracts

• Software Vendor Agreements: Review contracts with rating engine providers (e.g., Guidewire, Duck Creek) and TPAs. You must issue change orders immediately to ensure their logic maps "Widowed" to "Married" pricing tiers by the effective date.
• Actuarial Data Services: Ensure third-party loss cost recommendations are updated to reflect this statutory merging of risk categories.

Hiring/Training

• Customer Service Protocols: Train CSRs to handle "Death of Insured" notifications. Staff must understand that removing a deceased spouse from a policy cannot trigger a rate increase based on the survivor's change in marital status.
• Title Agent Training: Title agents must be trained to distinguish between requesting marital history for legitimate heirship/title clearing (permitted) versus using that data to deny coverage or alter terms (prohibited).

Reporting & Record-Keeping

• Data Segmentation: Your Policy Administration Systems (PAS) must stop lumping "Widowed," "Divorced," and "Never Married" into a single "Unmarried" bucket. You must segregate "Widowed" data to prove compliance during TDI market conduct exams.
• Audit Trails: Maintain digital records demonstrating that the "Married" base rate was applied to any applicant identified as widowed.

Fees & Costs

• Premium Revenue Impact: Carriers should anticipate a reduction in premium revenue for the widowed demographic, as they move from "Single" to "Married" rate tables.
• IT Remediation Costs: Budget immediately for internal or external IT hours required to recode underwriting logic.