The top shortcomings of life and health insurers in the eyes of state regulators are slow claims handling, non-compliant underwriting practices and failure to provide required compliant disclosures, according to Wolters Kluwer's 2016 Top 10 Market Conduct Actions for Life and Health Insurers.

For the 13^th year, the Minneapolis-based governance, risk and compliance division of the global consulting firm reviewed state insurance regulators' market conduct actions of U.S. insurers published in 2016, and found that violations of claims and underwriting regulatory requirements continue to dominate the annual findings.

“Insurance professionals have to manage a variety of internal and external factors when processing claims, including claimant communications and mandatory disclosures, and these areas continue to pose a challenge for insurers,” says Kathy Donovan, senior compliance counsel for Wolters Kluwer's insurance compliance business. “Conducting focused, targeted internal audits in these problem areas can provide insurers an avenue for better monitoring the effectiveness of their regulatory practices, and thereby help foster more consistent compliance results.”