Brazil’s Superintendence of Private Insurance initiates public consultation on new resolution regarding personal insurance, under the Insurance Contract Law

Contributions accepted until today, March 25

Brazil’s Superintendence of Private Insurance (“SUSEP”) has initiated a public consultation on a draft resolution establishing the general characteristics for the operation of personal insurance risk coverage.

The new regulation stems from the amendments introduced by Law No. 15,040/2024 (“Insurance Contract Law”) and expressly repeals CNSP Resolution No. 439/2022. If this new resolution is approved, SUSEP will proceed with the revision of Circular No. 667/2022, which addresses the operating rules and criteria for the operation ofpersonal insurance risk coverage.

Initially, Article 2 clarifies that “personal insurance”– although this is not the terminology used in the Insurance Contract Law – covers life and physical integrity, as well as other risks to which an individual may be exposed.

Regarding this point, SUSEP clarifies that this choice is justified due to the systemic impact that changing the terminology would have on other regulations (further expanding the scope of the revision), without any significant regulatory benefit. In addition, there are other lines of business within the personal insurance group, whose risks do not strictly pertain to life or physical integrity[¹].

Another initial provision is that the draft equates insurance cooperatives with insurance companies for the purposes of applying the resolution, provided that their operations comply with the provisions of specific regulations (Art. 3).

Among the other new features introduced by the draft, we highlight the following:

• Rescue and containment expenses: One of the main changes introduced by the draft resolution concerns the treatment of containment and rescue expenses in personal insurance. On this topic, SUSEP stated, in its explanatory memorandum, that its internal technical departments had initially decided to remove regulations on this matter due to a lack of technical clarity and the fact that market practice does not provide coverage for such expenses in this insurance sector. Despite this, SUSEP determined that coverage for containment and salvage expenses is now guaranteed to the insured under the Insurance Contract Law, including in the context of personal insurance, which is why the agency proposed that the public consultation include provisions on the matter. Thus, Article 8 establishes that the expenses necessary to prevent an imminent loss or mitigate its effects are the insurer’s responsibility, even if incurred by third parties or if they were ineffective, up to the limit agreed upon by the parties, without reducing the insurance coverage.

In our view, the regulation of salvage and containment expenses in the normative resolution is premature and lacks doctrinal, jurisprudential, and market grounds. Given the nature and purpose of salvage and containment expenses (to prevent imminent loss or reduce damage), we understand that they pertain to the realm of property and casualty insurance and do not apply to personal insurance, which generally does not have an indemnity function.

• Contracting more than one policy (Art. 4): The draft reinforces the provision of Art. 112 of the Insurance Contract Law, which allows for the contracting of more than one insurance policy covering the same interest, while paragraphs 1 and 2 address the limitation on the insured amount. The articles establish that, when such insurance guarantees a third party’s property rights or is intended for indemnification purposes, it will be subject, as applicable, to the rules governing property and casualty insurance (Art. 97 of the Insurance Contract Law).
• Expansion of coverage for children under 14 (Art. 7): The draft introduces a change compared to the provisions of CNSP Resolution No. 439/2022 by expressly providing that children under 14 may purchase coverage for surgeries, daily hospital stays, and disability resulting from illness.
• Explicit rules on technical and social discrimination (Art. 10 and §2): The draft stipulates that commercial and technical criteria for underwriting or accepting risks may involve distinctions, provided that they do not lead to social discrimination or undermine free enterprise. For example, as already provided for in CNSP Resolution No. 439/2022, the refusal of a risk solely because the applicant is a person with a disability constitutes discrimination and will, consequently, be subject to punishment under the terms of the specific regulations.
• Standardization of overhead charges and grace periods within the same plan (Art. 13, §2, and Art. 15): The draft stipulates that the overhead charge (the percentage of the premium allocated to administrative and commercial expenses) must be identical for all policyholders under the same individual plan or the same group policy. In addition, it establishes that all policyholders under the same plan must also have identical grace periods.
• Express prohibition on health declarations by the policyholder (Art. 32): The draft introduces a new provision prohibiting the policyholder, in group insurance contracts, from declaring the health status of the insurable group. In our view, the wording is flawed, as Article 32, sole paragraph, of the law establishes that the insurer’s exceptions and defenses regarding the statements provided for drafting the contract will only apply if the personal health statements have been personally completed by the insureds. However, there is no prohibition against the policyholder, as the legal representative of the insured group, providing information regarding the composition and details of the insured group at the time of contracting for the purposes of risk assessment and pricing by the insurer.
• Free choice of beneficiaries (Art. 38): The draft expressly establishes that the insured is free to designate beneficiaries and to change such designations at any time, without making an exception for insurance policies taken out to secure a third party’s property rights or that have a clear indemnity function, in which case the designation or change of beneficiaries is prohibited.

We note that the draft excludes the operational rules regarding life insurance for security guards, loan insurance, agricultural insurance, and personal accident insurance for passengers, which were previously established by Resolution No. 439/2022 and will now be regulated in the revision of SUSEP Circular No. 667/2022.

Finally, the following provisions remain unchanged, only with wording adjustments: the general rules governing payment of the insured amount; the prohibition on the insurer’s subrogation to the rights and claims of the insured or beneficiary against the party responsible for the loss; the obligation to issue certificates; and the rules governing the coverage term.

After the final publication of the resolution, life insurance plans registered prior to the effective date of the regulation must be adapted, under penalty of applicable sanctions. However, the required adaptations will apply only to contracts signed or renewed as of the date of registration of the adaptation or amendment to the insurance and will not cover policies sold prior to the date established in supplementary regulations. The draft does not specify a deadline for this adaptation, a point that is also being raised with SUSEP.

The documents related to Public Consultation No. 10/2025 are available in full on the SUSEP website.

Market comments may be submitted until today, March 25, 2026.

Demarest’s Insurance, Reinsurance, Health and Private Pension team is monitoring developments in this public consultation and remains available to provide further clarification.

[¹] Such as: travel, unemployment/loss of income, loss of the Pilot Certificate (PCHV), and other situations classified as “Random Events.”