The Alabama Commissioner of Insurance has entered into an agreement with the
Alabama Secretary of State whereby foreign insurers will continue to "qualify to
do business" in the State of Alabama by only making necessary filings with the
Department of Insurance. To view the agreement please click below:
http://www.aldoi.gov/PDF/Legal/DOI_SOS.pdf
This agreement was reached between the Commissioner of Insurance and the
Secretary of State after the Alabama Attorney General issued an opinion dated
December 20, 2001, which concluded as follows:
The Alabama Department of Insurance acts as the agent for the
Secretary of State for the purpose of performing the ministerial duties required
of the Secretary of State under Amendment No. 473 and the Alabama Business
Corporations Act.
To read the complete opinion of the Attorney General, please click
below:
http://www.ago.state.al.us/pdfopinions/2002-099.pdf
As previously reported, this agreement essentially put into writing the
procedures which have been in place for several years between the two offices.
Those procedures include a delegation of certain ministerial and discretionary
functions of the Secretary of State which are duplicative of the ones already
required to be performed by the Alabama Department of Insurance, as is permitted
in the opinion of the Attorney General. The only thing that will be done
differently is that the Department will be collecting the $175 fee on behalf of
the Secretary of State.