374
Opinion of the Court
Circuit correctly recognized, Metropolitan Life asked first whether the law there in question "fit a common-sense understanding of insurance regulation," Cisneros, 134 F. 3d, at 945, and then looked to the McCarran-Ferguson factors as checking points or "guideposts, not separate essential elements . . . that must each be satisfied" to save the State's law, id., at 946.
The first McCarran-Ferguson factor asks whether the rule at issue "has the effect of transferring or spreading a policy-holder's risk." Metropolitan Life, 471 U. S., at 743 (internal quotation marks omitted). The Ninth Circuit determined that the notice-prejudice rule does not satisfy that criterion because it "does not alter the allocation of risk for which the parties initially contracted, namely the risk of lost income from long-term disability." Cisneros, 134 F. 3d, at 946. The United States as amicus curiae, however, suggests that the notice-prejudice rule might be found to satisfy the McCarran-Ferguson "risk-spreading" factor: "Insofar as the notice-prejudice rule shifts the risk of late notice and stale evidence from the insured to the insurance company in some instances, it has the effect of raising premiums and spreading risk among policyholders." Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 14. We need not pursue this point, because the remaining McCarran-Ferguson factors, verifying the common-sense view, are securely satisfied.
Meeting the second factor, the notice-prejudice rule serves as "an integral part of the policy relationship between the insurer and the insured." Metropolitan Life, 471 U. S., at 743. California's rule changes the bargain between insurer and insured; it "effectively creates a mandatory contract term" that requires the insurer to prove prejudice before enforcing a timeliness-of-claim provision. Cisneros, 134 F. 3d, at 946. As the Ninth Circuit stated: "The [noticeprejudice] rule dictates the terms of the relationship be-
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