By:  Rosson                                           S.B. No. 1451
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the disclosure of installment payment plan options to
    1-2  consumers purchasing certain motor vehicle insurance.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 21, Insurance Code, is
    1-5  amended by adding Article 21.15-7 to read as follows:
    1-6        Art. 21.15-7.  INSTALLMENT PAYMENT OPTION DISCLOSURE
    1-7        Sec. 1.  APPLICABILITY.  This article applies to any agent or
    1-8  solicitor licensed to sell private passenger motor vehicle
    1-9  insurance policies in this state, including agents for county
   1-10  mutual insurance companies, Lloyd's associations, interinsurance
   1-11  exchanges, and reciprocals.
   1-12        Sec. 2.  DISCLOSURE REQUIRED.  An insurance agent offering or
   1-13  selling private passenger motor vehicle insurance in this state
   1-14  must disclose to the insured or prospective insured all payment
   1-15  plan options, including the payment plan available to an applicant
   1-16  for insurance through the Texas Automobile Insurance Plan
   1-17  Association (TAIPA), if applicable.  If the agent offers a premium
   1-18  finance loan as one option, the agent must also provide a
   1-19  comparison between the terms of the premium loan and the payment
   1-20  plan available through the insurer.  Such disclosure must include a
   1-21  comparison of the down payments, the monthly payments, and the
   1-22  total amounts of the finance charges and monthly service charges.
   1-23  The disclosure and comparison shall be made on a standard
    2-1  disclosure form in English and Spanish, to be adopted by the
    2-2  commissioner.
    2-3        Sec. 3.  EXEMPTION.  An agent is not required to disclose an
    2-4  installment payment plan option to an insured or applicant for
    2-5  insurance coverage who, during the two years preceding the date of
    2-6  the application for insurance coverage or the renewal of existing
    2-7  insurance coverage, has been a named insured on a private passenger
    2-8  motor vehicle insurance policy canceled for nonpayment of required
    2-9  premiums.
   2-10        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   2-11  applies only to a private passenger motor vehicle insurance policy
   2-12  that is delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed on or after
   2-13  January 1, 1996.  A policy that is delivered, issued for delivery,
   2-14  or renewed before January 1, 1996, is governed by the law as it
   2-15  existed immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that
   2-16  law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-17        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.