If you’ve been harmed by an insurance entity, you deserve your money back
The insurance commissioner can hold an insurance company or producer accountable if they violate the law by suspending their insurance license or issuing a fine. But if your company overcharges you or wrongfully takes your premium, we cannot make them give you your money back.
Substitute Senate Bill 5331 would correct this and allow us to order a company that violates the law to pay restitution to their victims.
Here’s how the proposed bill could help consumers:
- When an insurance company uses rates that are not approved, we don’t have a way to make them pay you back what you’ve overpaid.
- If an illegal health insurer defrauds policyholders, we can order them to stop their unlawful activity and fine them but we cannot order them to repay the money they took.
- If an insurance agent collects premiums but doesn’t forward that money to the insurance company — leaving the policyholder without coverage — we cannot require them to repay the money they took.
It’s also about fairness
For most other entities we regulate, the limit is $10,000 per violation or offense. Our authority to fine property and casualty insurers — like home and auto insurance companies — is limited to $10,000, regardless of the number of violations.
We believe all insurers should be treated the same. This restitution bill allows us to penalize property and casualty insurers the same way we can penalize all other entities we regulate.
OIC Answers podcast
Listen to our podcast featuring Rep. David Hackney and Commissioner Patty Kuderer talking about consumer protection and the restitution bill.
Listen to our podcast featuring North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Jon Godfread speaking with Commissioner Kuderer about how North Dakota passed a bill similar to SB 5331 in 2025.