ST. PAUL – The Minnesota Senate today passed a commerce policy omnibus bill that includes many provisions to help consumers with the challenges they face in their daily lives. With protections benefitting seniors, delaying expensive changes to Medigap plans, and simplifying survivorship issues, the good sections in this bill outweigh the troublesome concerns.

Included in this legislation is a provision to make it easier for people dealing with Transfer of Death Deeds (TODD) proposed by Sen. Warren Limmer (R-Maple Grove). “This is an instance where we can make sure a good deed does not get punished,” said Sen. Limmer. “Making these changes recognizes that after someone dies, small technical issues can get resolved without invalidating the entire transfer of property to a loved one. Technical details can nullify the grantor’s wishes and cost the family precious time or money.” The TODD changes help families that made merely technical errors on legal forms protect their homes and ensure continuity of insurance on their property.

Other changes include:

• Changes to township municipal insurance to allow mergers of these providers without dropping consumers due to geographic restrictions.
• Making it easier for those at risk of losing insurance to get coverage through an out-of-state plan, called a surplus line, with just one referral.
• Banning phone cases shaped like guns as a commonsense protection for law enforcement and consumers alike.

Some changes make big promises, but may not live up to them including:

• “Click to Cancel” bill promises to stop automatic renewals is promising, but businesses raised concerns over difficult compliance.
• “Taylor Swift” bill aims to bring transparency to pricing doesn’t go far enough to protect consumers.