FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 19, 2010
Contact: Jason Moon 517-335-1700

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LANSING - Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation (OFIR) Commissioner Ken Ross sent a bulletin to the state's crop adjusting industry that OFIR will now allow applicants involved solely in crop adjusting activities to receive a limited qualification for Crop Loss by successfully completing examination requirements established by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC).

The Commissioner's notification follows concerns from the crop adjusting industry regarding the applicability of the current licensing standards. The industry was concerned that applicants involved solely in crop adjusting were required to pass an examination that focused on broad insurance adjusting fields such as home and auto and did not include specialized crop adjusting testing and training. Because of the wide-ranging exam requirements, many crop adjusting experts, which included a number of former farmers, were prevented from working in the industry.

"Michigan is now on the cutting edge in crop adjuster certification. This specialized examination will bring a higher quality of adjusting into the field." Ross said. "I want to thank State Representative Barb Byrum for bringing this matter to OFIR's attention and working with our agency and the industry to resolve this issue."

"The heightened degree of training will benefit the crop adjusting industry, farmers and ultimately the state's consumers," Byrum said.

The FCIC is a government corporation within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) authorized to carry out programs of the Federal Crop Insurance Act. The Risk Management Agency (RMA) operates and manages the FCIC. Each year, the FCIC publishes a Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA). The SRA establishes terms and conditions under which the FCIC provides subsidies and reinsurance on eligible crop insurance contracts sold or reinsured by the insurance company named on the agreement.

Link to the Bulletin 2010-05-INS: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dleg/Bulletin_2010-05-INS_310979_7.pdf

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