Kentucky’s Transportation Cabinet and Department of Insurance have launched a new vehicle insurance verification system, and auto insurers have until Jan. 15 to start getting on board.
The new Kentucky Insurance Verification System, authorized by state lawmakers earlier this year, should allow state agencies to access auto insurance information in real time and should improve the process by which uninsured drivers are identified, the DOI said in a bulletin.
Insurance carriers that cover at least 1,000 registered vehicles must make their own insurance verification systems and books of business available next year. The new state system is now available for registration, testing and product integration.
The state is not requiring carriers to provide information on commercial vehicles, but it is highly recommended, the department said. Vehicle indentification numbers are not required to be reported for fleet policies. Insurers must use the secure file transfer protocol explained in the bulletin.
Key dates include:
- Jan. 15, 2026: The deadline for insurance companies to register on the IVS website (www.KentuckyIVS.com).
- July 1: Carriers must submit a test book-of-business file to the IVS system and should test web connectivity.
- Oct. 1: Insurers should move to full use of the new IVS system, make web services available, and begin book-of-business submissions.
The legacy Automobile Liability Insurance system will be discontinued after the new service is up and running.
State Farm, California’s largest homeowners insurer, got approval for a 17% rate increase following billions of dollars in losses from the L.A. wildfires and a pullback on writing new policies in the state. State Farm upped its rate request in May.
The wildfires, which destroyed 11,000 homes, put a spotlight on the state’s already existing homeowners insurance crisis. In another brewing battle over the impact of the fires, a few of the victims of wildfires have asked California Gov. Gavin Newsom to call for the resignation of California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara over reforms Lara pushed that were designed to help ease the state’s homeowners insurance crisis.
According to the Morningstar report, regulators have enabled carriers to get premium increases quickly, and have made other reforms that includes letting insurers use more modeling catastrophe modeling, are “a move in the right direction to create a sustainable property insurance market,” but the reliance on the FAIR Plan is a risk for the industry.