Oklahoma Senate Bill SB1438

Oklahoma 2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/2/26
• Refer: 2/3/26
• Failed: 2/19/26

Caption

Insurance; requiring certain filings; establishing requirements to determine excessive profit; requiring return of certain amounts. Effective date.

Summary

SB 1438 would add a new section to Title 36 of the Oklahoma Statutes governing private passenger automobile insurers. It requires insurers writing family, standard, personal, or similar private auto policies to file annual data with the Insurance Commissioner, including earned premiums, losses and loss adjustment expenses, administrative and selling expenses, and policyholder dividends. The bill also defines how to calculate an insurer group’s underwriting gain or loss over a three-year period and how to compare that result to an anticipated underwriting profit benchmark. If an insurer group is found to have earned “excessive profit” under the bill’s formula, the Insurance Commissioner would be required to order a return of the excess after a hearing. The refund would be distributed pro rata to policyholders of record, either as a cash refund or a credit toward future premiums, with specific timing rules for each method. Refunds would be treated as policyholder dividends for reporting purposes, and the Commissioner would be authorized to adopt rules to implement the new requirements.

Impact

The bill would create a new regulatory framework in Oklahoma for monitoring profitability in the private passenger automobile insurance market. It would impose new annual reporting obligations on insurers, establish a statutory method for measuring underwriting profit against an anticipated benchmark, and authorize the Insurance Commissioner to order refunds when profits exceed the threshold. The measure would affect insurers writing personal auto coverage and their policyholders, but would not apply to commercial automobile insurance.

Sentiment

The available voting history suggests limited support for the bill. It failed in the Senate Business and Insurance Committee on a 2-7 vote, indicating that most committee members opposed advancing it. No committee transcript is available, so there is no recorded debate to show broader support or opposition arguments, but the committee result points to a generally unfavorable reception.

Contention

The main point of contention is the bill’s approach to regulating insurer profitability and mandating premium refunds. Supporters would likely view the measure as consumer protection against excessive auto insurance profits, while opponents may see it as an intrusive rate-setting or profit-control mechanism that could affect insurer solvency, pricing flexibility, and market stability. The bill itself anticipates one such concern by allowing an insurer to avoid a refund if it can show the payment would render a member financially impaired or insolvent.