2026 Legislative Achievements

The 91st Iowa General Assembly came to a close on Sunday, May 2nd. The III team has been hard at work to ensure our organizations legislative priorities were successful. III focused on a number of policy priorities, such as transparency, ensuring cost drivers were addressed and e-signature provisions. As we look ahead to 2027, see what we have accomplished this year!

E-Signatures: As more and more businesses adapt to working in the digital age, e-signatures have become vital to completing transactions efficiently and securely. They help reduce paperwork, speed up transactions, and increase accessibility, allowing transactions to be completed asynchronously. This session, the III worked to support HF 777 which made the process easier for insurance companies to obtain a salvage title for extremely damaged vehicles. This bill took two years to push across the finish line, and we are happy it finally made it through. This was an III priority.

Towing and Abandoned Vehicles: Inconsistent towing and abandoned vehicle practices remain an ongoing concern in Iowa, particularly when it comes to fee transparency, notice requirements, and storage policies. This session, lawmakers explored policies providing clear standards for these practices, which in turn, will decrease confusion, disputes, and unexpected costs for vehicle owners, insurers, and towing companies. The III supported the final towing/abandoned vehicle bill that made it through at the end of session. This was yet another III priority for the year.

Civil Statues:What will likely be an annual priority for our association, our first goal was to avoid the discussion of any legislation that addressed the civil statute of limitations for certain lawsuits. We were successful; this issue never reached a full floor vote in either chamber. Any bills addressing the topic did not make it to a full committee vote. As in years past, we will need to continue discussions on the best path forward to educating legislators on these types of policies.

Sidewalk Liability: A hold-over bill from last year, that was introduced in response to a Supreme Court case, shifted sidewalk liability back to everyday home and business owners away from the local governments, ultimately did not move. The III opposed this bill and worked to successfully kill it, multiple times.

Insurance Withdrawal: Part of last year’s Insurance Division Omnibus included an insurance withdrawal section, with many requirements for insurance companies who were planning to leave the state or reduced premium coverage by a certain percent; that bill did not make it through last session, even though it included many other pieces. This year, those same withdrawal requirements were introduced as a stand-alone bill, which we were again able to stop at the committee level. 

Vehicle Parts: Two bills (one in each chamber) were presented to the legislature this year that had strict requirements for insurance carriers and vehicle parts. This bill came from the auto-equipment dealers, and has come up often, but ultimately the III was able to kill this bill before it reached the full floor in either chamber.

Information Provisions: Bills were introduced in both chambers that established new requirements for insurers regarding timely information provision to insureds, restricted policy deadlines and statute of limitation language, mandated specific procedures for loss calculation and claim adjustment, introduced non-compliance penalties, and regulated the use of aerial images for underwriting decisions. Proponents of the bills said the idea was to enhance transparency, fairness, and provide consumer protections in property and casualty insurance claims and policies; however, the bills really included mandates, restrictions, and would take away business decisions from companies. The III opposed these bills and worked to successfully kill them in the first funnel.

Settlement Delay: A bill was introduced in the Senate that would restrict when an insurance company could settle an auto-accident claim; an insurance company would have to wait 72 hours before settling with an insured. The III worked against this bill and it did not make it through the first funnel.