House adopts resolution urging CompSource to return about $1 billion to policyholders

The Oklahoma House of Representatives on the floor session considered and adopted House Resolution 1047, introduced by Representative Snead, urging CompSource Mutual Insurance Company to ensure that roughly $1,000,000,000 in reserves be returned to policyholders before the company completes any corporate reorganization or sale.

Representative Snead, the resolution’s sponsor, told members the measure is intended to protect policyholders. "We have about 1,000,000,000 dollars in policyholder, revenues, or actually reserves that need to go back to the policyholders," Snead said, and moved for adoption of the resolution as amended.

The measure is nonbinding: several members asked whether the resolution responds to a specific corporate action and whether it would have the force of law. Representative Tetford asked whether the resolution was a response to a request to start a mutual holding company; Snead replied the resolution is not preventing any transaction but seeks to make sure policyholders are "made whole" before any transition. Snead described a mutual company as being "owned by the policyholders" and contrasted that with a stock company "owned or ran by a board of stockholders." He also told the chamber that any distribution method—cash or shares—would be for the policyholders and the mutual company to determine.

Other members pressed for clarity on the process and precedent. Representative Fugate suggested simple resolutions are typically symbolic, and asked why this item appears to direct a private entity; Snead said the resolution expresses the will of the House to protect constituents and that action as law was not pursued because the filing deadline had passed. Representative Kane asked how payments would be determined and who would get paid; Snead responded that the mutual company and its policyholder-members would decide distributions. Chairman Trey Caldwell asked for historical context, and Snead summarized the company’s past conversions between mutual and stock forms and recent regulatory changes that opened the market to other insurers.

The resolution calls on CompSource Mutual Insurance Company to prioritize returning reserves to policyholders in the context of any reorganization. Representative Snead requested adoption by unanimous consent; the transcript records the request for adoption by consent and no roll-call vote is recorded in the floor transcript.

The House concluded the day with routine announcements and adjourned until Wednesday, April 8 at 1:30 p.m.