Podcasts about Insurance commissioner

Mississippians celebrate the legacy of Pope John Francis. He died yesterday at the age of 88.Then, Conservationists urge the Army Corps of Engineers to use measured steps in opening the Bonne Carre Spillway. Engineers want to prevent flooding from the Mississippi River. Plus, we speak with the state Insurance Commissioner about catastrophe savings accounts and how they can be helpful after a disaster. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 807:  A shift in Colorado's approach to funding wildfire insurance may bring new costs to policyholders. Lawmakers are now considering a fee-based model in revised legislation, after NAMIC encouraged state Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway to discard earlier efforts to impose strict loss ratio requirements on home insurers.Plus, there's a new insurance commissioner in Missouri.  On today's Unscripted, we sit down with Angie Nelson to break down the state's insurance market and what's ahead for Missouri insurers and policyholders.This episode of the Insurance Uncovered is sponsored by Holborn.

Campbell Business professor Michelle Osborne chats on the Risk Management Institute Podcast with thought leaders in Insurance, Risk Management, and much more. In this episode, Dr. Osborne chats with Allan McVey, W.Va. Insurance Commissioner, who sports 48+ years of experience in the industry. Learn about the Campbell University Risk Management Institute by visiting risk.campbell.edu 

Thousands of people lost their homes in the Los Angeles wildfires. Now, they're looking to their insurance companies to help them rebuild. But as the world warms, disasters like these are becoming more frequent and more severe, exposing an insurance system that isn't equipped to cover the rising damages. In Los Angeles, people who lost everything were left to fend for themselves. This is just the latest example of how insurance is failing to keep up with climate change.  In this bonus episode of A Matter of Degrees, we're joined by Dave Jones, California's Insurance Commissioner from 2011 to 2018 and the current Director for the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley's Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. We dive into how the climate crisis is breaking our home insurance system, what we can do to fix it, and how to make fossil fuel companies pay their fair share.

ABC 7/KGO San Francisco broke the story: California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is facing scrutiny over his taxpayer-funded trips to various international destinations, including Bermuda, Bogotá, and Paris. Public records reveal that Lara has taken 46 trips, often missing key state insurance hearings. Now lawmakers are calling for an audit. Please Like, Comment and Follow 'Broeske & Musson' on all platforms: --- The ‘Broeske & Musson Podcast’ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever else you listen to podcasts. --- ‘Broeske & Musson' Weekdays 9-11 AM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 FM KMJ | Facebook | Podcast| X | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After missing the first key state insurance briefing of the year while traveling in Bermuda, questions have been raised about the attendance record of California's Insurance Commissioner since Ricardo Lara assumed office in 2019. March 26th 2025 --- Please Like, Comment and Follow 'The Ray Appleton Show' on all platforms: --- 'The Ray Appleton Show’ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever else you listen to podcasts. --- 'The Ray Appleton Show’ Weekdays 11 AM -2 PM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 KMJ | Website | Facebook | Podcast | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ABC 7/KGO San Francisco broke the story: California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is facing scrutiny over his taxpayer-funded trips to various international destinations, including Bermuda, Bogotá, and Paris. Public records reveal that Lara has taken 46 trips, often missing key state insurance hearings. Critics argue that these trips, which include stays at luxury hotels, lack clear business purposes and raise questions about the appropriate use of taxpayer money. Lara's office defends the travel. Please Like, Comment and Follow 'Broeske & Musson' on all platforms: --- The ‘Broeske & Musson Podcast’ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever else you listen to podcasts. --- ‘Broeske & Musson' Weekdays 9-11 AM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 FM KMJ | Facebook | Podcast| X | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Insurance Commissioner Lara skipped hearing for Bermuda trip Please Subscribe + Rate & Review KMJ’s Afternoon Drive with Philip Teresi & E. Curtis Johnson wherever you listen! --- KMJ’s Afternoon Drive with Philip Teresi & E. Curtis Johnson is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever else you listen. --- Philip Teresi & E. Curtis Johnson – KMJ’s Afternoon Drive Weekdays 2-6 PM Pacific on News/Talk 580 & 105.9 KMJ DriveKMJ.com | Podcast | Facebook | X | Instagram --- Everything KMJ: kmjnow.com | Streaming | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Insurance Commissioner Lara skipped hearing for Bermuda trip Please Subscribe + Rate & Review KMJ’s Afternoon Drive with Philip Teresi & E. Curtis Johnson wherever you listen! --- KMJ’s Afternoon Drive with Philip Teresi & E. Curtis Johnson is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever else you listen. --- Philip Teresi & E. Curtis Johnson – KMJ’s Afternoon Drive Weekdays 2-6 PM Pacific on News/Talk 580 & 105.9 KMJ DriveKMJ.com | Podcast | Facebook | X | Instagram --- Everything KMJ: kmjnow.com | Streaming | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In celebration of our 4th anniversary of "Above the Sides," we eagerly welcome Oahu Economic Development Board member, Robin Campaniano to this episode. In this conversation, we discuss his people-first approach to business and envisioning a prosperous Hawaii economy. Robin reflects on his long-standing friendship with Pono Shim, exploring how their intertwined careers have shaped his philosophy of aloha. Robin's influence in Hawaii's business community is extensive; he previously served as President and CEO of AIG Hawaii Insurance Company,   Insurance Commissioner for the State of Hawaii, and District Director and Counsel for the Small Business Administration's Honolulu Office. Most recently, he was selected as a member of the Governor's Climate Advisory Team. To give a glimpse into his world, Robin ideates about the power of observation in business, the significance of sharing meals together, the impact of Hawaii's small community culture on economic decisions (from tourism to military), and the integration of aloha into both relationships and written contracts. Robin opens up about his lifelong commitment to living up to the Hawaiian name that Pono gifted to him from the elders -  and his hopefulness in Hawaii's future as we strive to "remember who we are." Mahalo for joining us these last four years as we uncover what it means to think, act and live aloha. Episode Highlights0:24 Introduction to Robin Campaniano1:41 Friendship and intertwining careers with Pono Shim3:35 Pono's approach and sensitivity4:55 "We Go Eat" - the power of communal meals6:16 How to do business in Hawaii: welcoming visitors, new residents and colleagues to the islands8:00 Touching the essence of a person's character to motivate them8:49 Influences arise years later10:15 Joining the OEDB board of directors, exploring economic diversity12:00 Kicking off the New Markets Tax Credits venture12:44 Observation first14:30 Career and leadership reflections16:36 Hawaii is a small community/ island society17:10 "Pay it forward" - community involvement and service on nonprofit boards18:20 Hawaii's Climate Advisory Team20:15: Childhood on Air Force Bases (Japan to New York), graduated from Roosevelt High School21:58 Bringing the spirit of aloha to the global insurance industry23:41 Aloha in Action - writing the aloha spirit law into partnership agreements26:55 Native Hawaiians were intrepid in aquaculture, agriculture and wayfinding28:57 How do you include the aloha spirit into your written contracts? Establishing the connection31:21 Balancing tourism and military economic impacts34:03 Friendship with Pono Shim and being given a Hawaiian name38:34 Living up to the name39:16 What is on the horizon?40:16 Favorite meals with Pono41:45 A series of memories -42:55 The influence of Alvin Shim   Welcome to the Above the Sides podcast! Join us on our journey to uncover what it means to think, act, and live aloha. The inspiration for this podcast is the late Pono Shim, former President and CEO of the Oʻahu Economic Development Board. His stories capture the essence of what it means to live aloha. He made it known that aloha is a lifestyle. It is not a solution to problems, a marketing brand or to be used as an advantage over anyone else. Aloha is to be honored and practiced.The name of this podcast is in reverence of Hawaiʻi's Queen Liliʻuokalani, who wrote: "To gain the kingdom of heaven is to hear what is not said, to see what cannot be seen, and to know the unknowable – that is Aloha. All things in this world are two; in heaven there is but One.” Through these episodes, we seek to find that singular perspective, the one that is "above the sides" as we strive for universal peace.We welcome you to pause with us as we share the stories and voices of Hawai'i business leaders, educators and community members who have chosen to be lifelong students of aloha. Mahalo nui loa for listening.

(Monday 03/17/25)Amy King and Chris Merrill for Handel on the News.The Trump administration has deported hundreds of immigrants despite a court order. A 3.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Malibu area. Matt Richtman from Illinois became the first American man to win the Los Angeles Marathon in 31 years. Oil prices have risen following a U.S. attack on the Houthis and optimistic economic prospects in China. Pyrotechnics have been blamed for a fire that tore through a nightclub in North Macedonia, resulting in the deaths of 59 people. A Peruvian fisherman has been found alive after being lost at sea for 95 days. The Insurance Commissioner has "provisionally" accepted State Farm's 22% emergency rate hike. "Ted Lasso" is, believe it or not, returning for Season 4. Altoona police arrested Luigi Mangione and cleverly provided him with a snack to obtain his DNA. Jay Leno is supporting a California bill that would relax smog test requirements for classic cars.

The former Insurance Commissioner doesn't take too kindly the claims of white mansplaining from the current insurance comissionerSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This edition is supported by our friends at the Climate Majority Project. If you're in the UK, and have decided it's time to do something more than doomscrolling and more useful than throwing paint…on 15-16 March at Limehouse in London.Get more info and tickets here.Fires in Los Angeles at last count had $35 billion plus of insured losses and probably $300 billion plus of economic losses. Who should pay?Here to help decode that we spoke with Dave Jones - former Insurance Commissioner for California from 2011 through 2018. He's now the director of the Climate Risk Initiative at University of California, Berkeley. He recently wrote an oped in the New York Times arguing that the oil companies should have to pay for the damages of the LA wildfires, to arrest the insurance crisis.Steve Coulter of the Green Alliance here in the UK expands on, slight tension, conundrum, paradox. Steve talks about his recent briefing on this point, particularly focusing on Lloyd's of London.And, um, finally, our good friend, returning champion, Dana Drugmand, journalist, publisher of Climate in the Courts and One Earth Now, who's been helping us understand these issues in the US nearly a year now. She helps us explore the counteroffensive launched against the Empire State's 2024 Climate Superfund law by 22 Republican state attorneys general who filed suit against state of New York to challenge the law signed by Governor Kathy Hochul at the end of last year. Dana compares that to some of the other pushback to the first-of-its-kind bill that was passed and signed into law earlier last year in Vermont.06:35 Interview with Dave Jones: Background and Climate Risk08:22 Insurance Industry's Role in Climate Change10:11 Holding Fossil Fuel Companies Accountable15:03 Subrogation and Legal Actions18:12 Impact on Insurance Markets and Homeowners20:15 Financial Risks and Regulatory Responses38:39 Mitigation Measures and Legislative Actions48:06 Industry Split on Sustainable Practices49:09 Lloyd's of London: A Case Study in Poor Performance50:33 The Growing Uninsurability Crisis53:53 Government Intervention and Systemic Risks56:33 Call to Action for Policymakers59:50 New York's Climate Superfund Law and Legal Challenges01:07:34 The Broader Implications of Climate Litigation01:22:40 Conclusion and Final Thoughts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Inside Olympia....Austin Jenkins sits down with the newly sworn-in Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer.  Plus, we sit down with Rep. Clyde Shavers and talk Artificial Intelligence Legislation.

California's Insurance Commissioner wants to help people harden their homes before the next big fire. More on the protections in place to save homeowners from lowball offers. LA's District attorney is has a warning for potential price gougers in the wake of LA's fires. Plus, more.Support The L.A. Report by donating at LAist.com/join and by visiting https://laist.comSupport the show: https://laist.com

Today on AirTalk, we're bringing you up to date on all the latest information on the LA wildfires. We are joined by a team from KNPR in Nevada to talk about how wildfires might affect housing in L.A., Vegas, and beyond. We will also hear from both KNPR and LAist listeners about how they've been affected by the fires, so call in and share your story. Larry will have insurance experts along with Ricardo Lara, California’s Insurance Commissioner, to give insight on what might be next for the CA insurance market. Today on AirTalk: Catching up with LA wildfires (0:15) How will wildfires affect housing in LA, Vegas, and beyond? (15:53) KNPR and LAist listeners talk impacts of LA fires (31:56) What's next for the CA insurance market? (32:26)

In the immediate aftermath of the mammoth fires in Los Angeles, Ralph welcomes Douglas Heller, Director of Insurance at Consumer Federation of America to fill us in on what to expect from the industry and how to get the most out of your fire insurance claims. Then, our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, returns to present a list of constitutional crises to expect upon the second coming of Donald Trump.Douglas Heller is a nationally-recognized insurance expert and Director of Insurance at Consumer Federation of America. In addition to conducting research for and providing expertise to consumer rights organizations, Mr. Heller is a member of the U.S. Department of Treasury's Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance, an appointee of California's Insurance Commissioner, serving as a board member of the California Automobile Assigned Risk Plan, and he serves on the Executive Board of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud.A key thing for everybody to know is that the premiums that we have paid over the last several years here in California—and this really goes across the country, but in California in particular—have put the insurance industry in a perfectly healthy position to deal with the claims, as dramatic and as severe as these fires are and the amount of damage that they caused…For the insurance companies to cry poverty in the wake of the buildup of capital over the last several years would be outrageous, and so we're going to be watching for that.Douglas HellerThe story around the country was that California was already a terrible hellscape for the insurance companies to do business in. When in fact, they were doing far better than the rest of the country. One of the big trade journals that reports on the industry has said that State Farm has been kept afloat by its performance in California over the last couple of years. And it was more a kind of a climate opportunism—after ignoring the potential (and then, growing) impact of climate change on property risk for years and decades, the insurance companies finally had this kind of revelation that oh they can talk about climate change as a new risk and a justification for demanding whatever they want.Douglas HellerBattle lines seem to be drawn—at least in my opinion—between the “Drill baby, drill. All we need to do is rake the leaves” camp versus “Hey, this is another wake up call to the climate crisis.” Because this was a severe weather event. And there were four major fires at once, and no fire department, whose main daily job is medical emergencies, is equipped to deal with that. Especially since the first two days the winds were so high—hurricane force winds—they couldn't get helicopters and airplanes into the air to make the drops in these canyons. And I don't think there's any amount of brush clearing that would have stopped these winds from whipping up these embers to send them into these residential districts.Steve SkrovanBruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law. Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.The Trump regime has a high probability of being the most lawless dictatorial regime in American history. All presidents violate laws, but Trump has taken this to a new, boastful level of variety.Ralph NaderThe reason why it's more likely that Trump will use this dragnet in a more abusive ways, is because he and his FBI nominee have said openly that they're going to do everything they can to persecute, to go after their enemies list…The only limitation on abuse is that they don't have the manpower to actually use it all.Bruce FeinWe're the guardrails—not Congress anymore. It's the people who have to stand up and protest and not send scoundrels back to office if they're not discharging their obligations under the United States Constitution. If we aren't the guardrails, there aren't any out there.Bruce FeinNews 1/15/251. In Gaza, CNN reports a ceasefire deal has finally been reached. This comes on the heels of negotiations between the warring parties, attended by envoys of both President Biden and incoming President Trump, with Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Under the terms of this deal, Hamas has agreed to free the remaining 33 Israeli hostages in their custody, while Israel will “free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.” Trump's apparent demand for an immediate settlement with this many Israeli concessions comes as a shock. Israeli journalist Erel Segal, widely seen as a Netanyahu proxy, is quoted saying “We're the 1st to pay a price for Trump's election. [The deal] is being forced upon us… We thought we'd take control of northern Gaza, that they'd let us impede humanitarian aid.”2. In more foreign policy news, the American Prospect is out with a piece on the gifts received by senior foreign policy officials in the Biden Administration. According to this report, Bill Burns – Director of the Central Intelligence Agency – has in the past year received “an $18,000 astrograph, an $11,000 Omega watch, and a ceremonial Saudi war sword.” By comparison, Secretary of State Antony Blinken received $600 worth of memorabilia and “several acrylic landscape portraits.” As this piece notes, individuals cannot keep these gifts – they become public property – yet the disparity in these gifts does reflect the difference in perception toward Blinken and Burns. As one State Department official put it, “When you want someone to drink champagne, you send Blinken. When you need someone to actually fix s**t in Brazil, the Middle East, or Russia, you send Burns.”3. And in the final days of his administration, AP's Matt Lee reports President Biden will reverse Trump's decision to designate Cuba a state sponsor of terror. The state sponsor of terror designation resulted in Cuba facing even harsher sanctions than they had during the decades-long embargo and led to multiple critical shortages of essential goods like fuel. Since the designation was announced in 2021, many have called for it to be reversed, including New York State Senators and representatives in New York, Massachusetts and Minnesota, as well as local representatives and labor unions like the UAW, UE, and others, per People's Dispatch. It is unclear why Biden is taking this action now and Trump can reverse this move as soon as he takes office.4. Turning to labor, NBC reports the Services Employees International Union (SEIU) will rejoin the AFL-CIO, 20 years after leaving the labor federation. With SEIU back in the fold, the AFL-CIO will represent over 15 million workers. AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler is quoted saying “We are the, probably, only institution in the country that has an infrastructure in every city, in every state, in every workplace, that is a mobilizing machine…And as they say, outside power builds inside power.” This move is widely seen as an attempt to consolidate worker power ahead of Trump's return to office, though the unions have resisted saying so explicitly. The Teamsters left the AFL-CIO around the same time as the SEIU, but have made no moves to rejoin the labor federation and have instead opted to strategically align themselves with Trump. It remains to be seen which strategy will yield better results.5. In more labor news, Fast Company reports servers at Waffle House franchises around the country claim “the chain forces them to do janitorial work and dishwashing for [sub-minimum] tipped wages, robbing them of up to $46.8 million.” As this piece notes, “Wage theft…is a common practice. As of 2017…workers lose $15 billion annually in minimum wage violations alone.” Moreover, “From 2021 to 2024, the Department of Labor recovered more than $1 billion in back wages and damages for 615,000 employees in the U.S.” Waffle House is a particularly egregious offender, with 90% of workers surveyed reporting they had experienced some form of wage theft in the past year. The state minimum wage in Georgia, where Waffle House is based, is a meager $5.15 per hour, yet the tipped minimum is even lower at just $2.13 – a starvation wage. One worker, Melissa Steach, is quoted saying “Corporations can't keep throwing us around because we make all this money for them…And what are they really doing with it? They are not supporting their workers. They can't keep screwing us around. We're here. We're worth it.”6. On the other end of the spectrum, Apple CEO Tim Cook's staggering compensation package hit nearly $75 million in 2024, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Converted to an hourly wage, this equates to roughly $600 per minute. This is a substantial increase from his 2023 total of $63.2 million, but still lower than the nearly $100 million he received in 2022. In October, Apple reported its services business, including Apple Music and iCloud, hit a revenue of $24.97 billion for the quarter, a “new all-time high for the company.”7. In more tech news, the Intercept reports Meta – parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – is relaxing their content moderation rules as they relate to hate speech. The Intercept received leaked training materials to this effect, which explicitly outline what users are now allowed to say. These officially permitted statements include “Immigrants are grubby, filthy pieces of s**t,” “Jews are flat out greedier than Christians,” and simply “I'm a proud racist.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation's international freedom of expression director Jillian York is quoted in this piece saying, “While [Meta's previous censorship regime] has often resulted in over-moderation that I and many others have criticized, these examples demonstrate that Meta's policy changes are political in nature and not intended to simply allow more freedom of expression.”8. In a more positive story of social progress, EuroNews reports that the Italian Bishops' Conference has issued new guidelines all but clearing the way for openly gay men to enter the priesthood. According to the newly issued report, titled "Guidelines and norms for seminaries,” "When referring to homosexual tendencies, it's… appropriate not to reduce discernment only to this aspect, but, as for every candidate, to grasp its meaning in the global framework of the young person's personality.” In 2023 Pope Francis told the AP that “being homosexual isn't a crime,” and has endorsed the church “blessing” same-sex unions. Women remain entirely excluded from the priesthood.9. On the domestic front, Axios reports Justice Democrats – the progressive insurgent group – is planning a new wave of primary challenges to unseat “corporatist” incumbent Democrats. While the group's number one target seems to be George Latimer, who ousted Congressman Jamaal Bowman from his newly redrawn seat last cycle, spokesperson Usamah Andrabi told Axios the group is, “keeping every deep blue district on the table.” However, many of the prominent House progressives are shying away from this effort. Pramila Jayapal, former chair of the Progressive Caucus said “I think given what's at stake we feel really urgently that we need to protect all incumbents,” while Ilhan Omar said "There are folks who endorse against their own colleagues, but I don't."10. Finally, Public Citizen co-presidents Rob Weissman and Lisa Gilbert have written a letter to the chairs of the Trump Transition team asking to be named members of the Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE. In this letter, Weissman and Gilbert express their “concerns about DOGE's structure and mission,” particularly with regard to its proposed leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who “hold financial interests that will be directly affected by federal budgetary policies,” but also makes the key argument that DOGE's mission to “slash excess regulation” and “cut wasteful expenditures” must be tied to the other “half of the picture: more efficiently regulating corporations to better protect consumers and the public from harmful corporate practices.” They argue that their “appointment to serve as members of DOGE” would enable them to serve as “voices for the interests of consumers and the public who are the beneficiaries of federal regulatory and spending programs.” Rather than an earnest plea for an appointment, this letter is more likely meant to expose a key issue with the DOGE project: those in charge of cutting supposed government waste are riddled with conflicts of interests. They have too many fingers in the pie. If Trump were serious about reducing government spending generally – and corruption specifically – he would appoint people like Weissman and Gilbert, not Ramaswamy and Musk. And they would start with the unbelievably bloated, unauditable Pentagon budget.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Send us a textLouisiana Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple talks about the progress made in 2024 during the Legislative sessions and the hopes for 2025.Want to contact the Insurance Commissioner's Office, the website is https://ldi.la.gov/ and their phone number is (225) 342-3612.Gov. Landry's veto of HB 423Minding the Forest is a podcast of the Louisiana Forestry Association and his hosted by LFA Media Specialist Jeff Zeringue. Comments can be sent to jzeringue@laforestry.com.If you want to find out more about the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), go to forests.org.Check out our website at laforestry.com.Click this link to join the LFA.

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Ricardo Lara has tips on reimbursement options, what renters and business owners should know, what to do if you're not insured and how to watch for scams.

Rich talks with Jennifer Kelly, former spokesperson for the California Republican Party, about the wildfires ravaging California; she is also former assistant deputy Insurance Commissioner for the state. Next, President-elect Trump wants to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal. We get the opinion of Prof. Nick Giordano, Higher Education Fellow at Campus Reform. Later, a conversation with Brian Reisinger, author of "Land Rich, Cash Poor: My Family's Hope and the Untold History of the Disappearing American Farmer." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tommy spends some time with Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple talking about how we can continue to address the insurance crisis in the state

For the first time in 24 years, Washington has a new state Insurance Commissioner stepping into the role. Patty Kuderer is currently a state senator representing the 48th district, which covers areas including Redmond, Bellevue, and Medina. She’ll become Washington’s 9th insurance commissioner in January. It’s a big job - Kuderer will be in charge of licensing and regulation for every insurance industry in the state, as well as handling consumer complaints, and lobbying the legislature to change laws that impact Washingtonian’s insurance policies. Today, we’re focusing on just one part of the job: health insurance. Because Kuderer is jumping in at an interesting time: she’ll be taking office at the same time the second Trump term begins – which could have major implications for how healthcare is managed. The president-elect has tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and changes are expected to subsidies and regulation under the new administration. Meanwhile, the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and subsequent wave of vitriol toward the healthcare industry is bringing problems in the American healthcare industry into sharper focus. Guest: Patty Kuderer, currently a state senator representing the 48th district. She’ll become Washington’s 9th insurance commissioner in January. Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/soundsidenotes Soundside is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this mini episode of ALPS In Brief, our Bar & Affinity Partner Strategist Rio Peterson sits down with Mary Jane Pickens, Executive Director at the West Virginia State Bar to discuss the importance of bar partnerships, how they create value for members, and the pivotal role bars play in the legal community. — Transcript:  Rio Lane:  All right. Hello everybody. We are back for another mini-installment of the ALPS in Brief podcast. I am your host, Rio Lane, and I am talking today with Mary Jane Pickens, who's the executive director of the West Virginia Bar. Hi.  Mary Jane Pickens:  Hey, how are you?  Rio Lane:  I'm good. How are you doing?  Mary Jane Pickens:  Wonderful. Very, very happy to be back in Montana. It's a beautiful, beautiful place.  Rio Lane:  Wonderful. Yes. Thank you for joining us. I'm happy you're here too. I love Missoula. It's such a lovely city.  Mary Jane Pickens:  It is. It's fun. We went out and just took a quick walk this morning, and it's a wonderful little place. Lots of good stuff here.  Rio Lane:  It is. It absolutely is. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about yourself, Mary Jane. What's your background, and how did you come to the Bar Association?  Mary Jane Pickens:  Well, I've done a lot of different things. When I first became an executive director, I went to one of the ABA annual meetings, and they had us a boot camp for brand new executive directors, and you had to pick out a song. It was an icebreaker thing, and they would play your song and you were supposed to jump up and say, "That's my song." And my song was Long and Winding Road by the Beatles.  Rio Lane:  Oh, nice.  Mary Jane Pickens:  Because I felt like I had had a rather long and winding road to get to the bar. I graduated from law school. I went to Ohio Northern University, so I did not go to law school in West Virginia. Came back to West Virginia because it's my home, and went into private practice in a small firm, kind of a little boutiquey... We mostly did bankruptcy work. And did that for about 15 years and decided I needed a change and had an opportunity to go to the Insurance Commissioner's office in the state of West Virginia. And shortly thereafter, became general counsel for the West Virginia Insurance Commissioner. And I was there for about 11 or 12 years. And then I went to a large firm, did mostly government relations and lobbying mostly around the insurance industry.  Rio Lane:  Yeah.  Mary Jane Pickens:  Did that for about three years. And then because I love public service, it's where my heart is, I had a chance to go back to the state and be the executive director of the West Virginia Board of Risk and Insurance Management, which provides all of the property and liability insurance for the state of West Virginia, and also simultaneously be the Deputy Cabinet Secretary for the Department of Administration, which provides all the back office-y stuff and services for the rest of government.  Rio Lane:  Oh, wow.  Mary Jane Pickens:  And I was able to be acting cabinet secretary during 2016 during Governor Earl Ray Tomblin's last year, and then had a chance to go to the state bar, and that's where I am now. So it's kind of a long and winding road.  Rio Lane:  Yeah, yeah. That's really interesting. And you've been at the bar for two years?  Mary Jane Pickens:  Yes. I hit my two-year official mark on July 1.  Rio Lane:  Oh, congratulations. Congratulations.  Mary Jane Pickens:  Thank you.  Rio Lane:  Yeah. How are you liking it? Do you find it's a lot different than what you were doing before?  Mary Jane Pickens:  It is a lot different. It's still considered a state agency, but it's in the judicial branch. I've always been in the executive branch, so there's a lot of differences there. But it still is that public service feeling like you have constituents, you have customers, and you're there to help folks. And so that's what I love about it.  Rio Lane:  Yeah, that's fantastic. How do you find working with a board? Because I know you've got a board of folks that helps guide things. Yeah. Do you find that to be helpful, or do you find it's different than...  Mary Jane Pickens:  Well, we had a board at the Board of Risk and Insurance Management, but they were very different. They were rather hands-off.  Rio Lane:  Oh, okay.  Mary Jane Pickens:  So this board is a lot more engaged, which I think is a good thing.  Rio Lane:  Yeah.  Mary Jane Pickens:  We only have four quarterly meetings, but we have very, very involved officers and a very evolved executive committee. So I like it a lot. I think it's... We run the office and we do the day-to-day, but the president of the state bar speaks for the bar. So there's a little bit of separation that I enjoy, and so I feel like I have a lot of really good guidance and support and feedback from the board. I enjoyed it a lot.  Rio Lane:  That's fantastic. You find the board helpful in identifying things that the bar needs to be focusing on like new challenges that might be coming up, things that need to be anticipated?  Mary Jane Pickens:  Yeah, I do. We're on the ground, kind of on the front lines with our members, so we hear a lot and get a lot of those ideas. But our board is elected from 16 different districts all over the state.  Rio Lane:  Got it.  Mary Jane Pickens:  So they come together, and so they're bringing ideas and concerns from the lawyers in their areas because West Virginia is an oddly-shaped state. It can be... When you go to the eastern panhandle, you're almost in Washington DC, and then at Ohio and Kentucky on the other side. So the interests and concerns can be different in those different parts. So the board, I think, is very good at gathering that intel and bringing it back to Charleston and helping out with what we do in the office.  Rio Lane:  Yeah. Oh, that's fantastic. It sounds like a good working relationship.  Mary Jane Pickens:  It is. It's very good. We have a really good board.  Rio Lane:  Yeah. Oh, that's fantastic. So what are some of the things that maybe your members or the board has brought to your attention that are challenges that you find you're having to navigate this year and the next couple years?  Mary Jane Pickens:  Sure. We here... And I don't think this is uncommon among states. We have a lot of rural areas. We have basically a few... What we consider by West Virginia standards to be decent-sized cities. But there are a whole lot of areas that are what we would consider to be legal deserts. And I think a lot of states have the same issue. So the issues around the rural practitioner, the solo practitioner that's just out in a county where there's not that many people, we need to provide more support to those folks.  And we have put together a rural practice committee, and we're trying to address some of those things, ideally in conjunction with the law school, because the law school at West Virginia University is there to produce lawyers for the state of West Virginia, and elsewhere, but we love it when they stay. And so we're hoping to come up with some ideas to support those lawyers more that are out there actually helping the people. Another big issue, and this is huge right now in West Virginia, and I don't know how this is in other states, but we have a desperate need for lawyers to do guardian ad litem work and abuse and neglect proceedings.  Rio Lane:  Okay.  Mary Jane Pickens:  And a lot of this does come out of unfortunate circumstances around drug use and abuse and families that are really struggling. And we have a lot of children in foster care. And last year... We do regional meetings. We go all around the state in the fall, and we had judges come to all of those regional meetings and speak on pretty much whatever they wanted to talk about. Every single one of them made a desperate plea to the lawyers in the audience to consider taking on guardian ad litem work or doing abuse and neglect legal services because it's such a big need.  Rio Lane:  Oh, wow. And is that something that is funded by the state, those services? Or is it...  Mary Jane Pickens:  It can be through the Public Defender Services Agency, which is an agency I'm very familiar with because it's part of the Department of Administration. So yes, there are public defender corporations around the state that they kind of have some interaction with. And also they just handle appointed work in the public defender system. So they're involved in a lot of that, but it's not enough to meet the need. And you get into these rural counties, and a lot of times the lawyers that are in those counties are the judge, the prosecutor, and the public defender. They're the ones that are there, and you need some others out there. So it all kind of comes together. The challenges kind of overlap.  Rio Lane:  Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And do you find that you having a membership that's aging out as well? Is that also something that you're navigating?  Mary Jane Pickens:  A little bit. We're an old state. I mean, generally speaking. Virginia's rather old, and I don't know that it's really getting any younger. So that is a concern. One of the things that... We're planning our annual meeting for 2025, and one of our speakers that we've lined up is going to talk about generational differences and the fact that law firms and lawyers who are more seasoned need to be a little bit more open-minded about younger lawyers and what their expectations are and how to meet their needs and keep them in the state of West Virginia.  Rio Lane:  Yeah. Do you find that something that the bar is having to navigate too, is new members, younger lawyers coming in and navigating their expectations and how they want to engage with the bar?  Mary Jane Pickens:  I think so, and that's something that I would like to be able to spend more time on. I don't know that we've gotten very far on that. We do have a young lawyer section, and it has its own board, and so they're kind of on the front lines of that addressing the needs of younger lawyers. But it's something that I think we do need to work on, and I think I probably need to spend more time on that.  Rio Lane:  Yeah. And it's challenging too, as technology shifts, trends shift, needs shift, etc. I mean, I think we could all safely say that upcoming generations do not engage in the same way that past older generations do. I mean, even for myself, I grew up with... I didn't have a computer until I think I was in my 20s. So yeah, it's definitely a new challenge I think that I'm hearing quite a bit about, actually, is how to navigate that. Yeah. What's your membership size? How many...  Mary Jane Pickens:  We have probably, if you counted every single type of member, we would have probably between 8,000 and 9,000, which sounds like a lot. Active in-state lawyers is probably closer to 44, 4,500.  Rio Lane:  Got it.  Mary Jane Pickens:  So we have inactives, active, not practicing. There's all kinds of different membership statuses. But the actual lawyers that are on the ground in the state of West Virginia licensed and practicing is about 4,400 probably.  Rio Lane:  Got it. Got it. Okay. And do you know how many of those are older, how many skew younger, and what that break down is? It's okay-  Mary Jane Pickens:  No, not off the top of my head, although there is a lot of interest in that kind of data, and our IT director has put that type of information together for our Supreme Court and others who have asked for it. So I think it's safe to say, even without having the numbers in front of me, that it's an older group.  Rio Lane:  Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. I want to shift a little bit, talk about partnerships. And so the bar obviously has partnerships with different kinds of organizations, sometimes vendors, sometimes different groups. What are some of the things you look for in a partner that wants to work with the bar?  Mary Jane Pickens:  I think the most important... The thing that makes the relationship, I think, the most valuable and work the best is having a really good understanding of what each other do, or each other does, I guess.  Rio Lane:  Yeah. Do, does. Yeah.  Mary Jane Pickens:  And I think just using ALPS as an example, I mean, it's purely kind of by accident, but it's fortunate that I do have the insurance background. It helps a lot because I think I understand certainly the regulatory environment and what an insurance company has to do and the things that they focus on and things. And risk management. At BRIM, we were the risk manager for the state of West Virginia, so I have that mindset, so I think that helps. I think it also helps for your partner to have a good understanding of what you do as a bar, not just selling a product to your members, but understanding, again, what your challenges are, what your members need, what their expectations are. I think it's really helpful to have a partnership with an entity that understands what we do. Strategically, what our goals are, what our mission is, that sort of thing.  Rio Lane:  Yeah, absolutely. I think that kind of helps too when it comes to helping then support your members, and able to provide content or information where maybe there's gaps or that you need a little boost in.  Mary Jane Pickens:  Yeah, absolutely.  Rio Lane:  Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I always like to think about partnership as a much more dynamic... Just much more beyond, well, tell them that we're great and we'll sell to them.  Mary Jane Pickens:  Right. Right.  Rio Lane:  Yeah, it's definitely a team effort, and it's important that values and ideas align.  Mary Jane Pickens:  It sure is. And actually just last week, I got a call from a lawyer in Raleigh County, West Virginia, and he was an older gentleman, and he was closing up his practice. And so he was just looking around for guidance on, what do I do? And the state bar is an agency under our Supreme Court of Appeals, the Office of Disciplinary Counsel is there and the Board of Law Examiners also. We're separate agencies, but all combined, regulate the practice of law on behalf of the Supreme Court. So I said, "Well, why don't you call ODC, the Office of Disciplinary counsel? I'm sure they've got some guidance. I know they've got some information on succession planning on their website," but I didn't have at my fingertips specific information to give him. So I reached out to Mark Bassingthwaighte.  Rio Lane:  Yeah.  Mary Jane Pickens:  He very kindly, and less than 24 hours later, sent me some checklists and a client letter sample and that sort of thing. So I was able to very quickly turn that around and send it to our member in Raleigh County, which I think was probably very helpful. I think it was exactly what he's looking for.  Rio Lane:  Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I love that. I love that Mark was able to help with that.  Mary Jane Pickens:  Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's great.  Rio Lane:  He is. He's fantastic. Yeah, he's an incredible resource. I think we're all very lucky to have him.  Mary Jane Pickens:  Yeah.  Rio Lane:  Yeah. So would it be safe to say that your experience with ALPS as a partner has been a positive one?  Mary Jane Pickens:  Oh, it sure has. ALPS helps support our regional meetings, which are very important to us. That's our chance to actually get out of Charleston and go to these places and meet these lawyers where they are. Those are really important to us, and I think our membership really enjoys that, and ALPS helps us in that area. Chris Newbold was able to help us with our strategic planning session last fall, and we were real happy how that turned out because it's doable. I mean, we ended up with a one page, which we loved, because the one before was several pages, and it was very colorful and it had graphs and it had arrows, and it was great looking. But we ended up with something short that really, really, really focused on the things that were achievable over a reasonable period of time, and that we enjoyed that experience. So it's just all kinds of things like that as part of the whole partnership that we've enjoyed.  Rio Lane:  Yeah. Oh, I'm really happy to hear that. It's very important to me that a partnership is a good working relationship, and then we're both supporting each other in success because it's not a zero-sum game. It's like, yeah, support the members, support the profession, support each other. Yeah, that's good. So I'm really glad to hear that we're doing that. Yeah. That's fantastic. So I think we've got just a couple more minutes, but I wanted to ask you, what are some, not necessarily challenges, but things that you see kind of coming up on the horizon that you predict maybe the bar or the profession has to... Will have to navigate?  Mary Jane Pickens:  Well, one of the things that is kind of swirling around out there, we're a mandatory bar.  Rio Lane:  Right, yes.  Mary Jane Pickens:  So we're not a voluntary bar. We're mandatory. You have got to be a member of the West Virginia State Bar to practice law in West Virginia. So there are the issues around mandatory bars that you all are probably familiar with. And we try very, very hard to stay on the right side of that line where what we do is germane to the regulatory job of what we do.  Rio Lane:  Yes.  Mary Jane Pickens:  But I think that there's a constant pull because we also want to do charitable events, and we want to support all of our members regardless of their backgrounds and where they come from. And some of those areas can get a little... Have been blurry in other jurisdictions and have resulted in some lawsuits and things. So I think that's a challenge for us is a mandatory bar. And we're always watching out for that because we want to serve our members and do what we're supposed to do, but we also want to make sure that we're on the right side of that doing what we're supposed to do line. So I mean, that's one of them. Some of the others, I think we've kind of mentioned the generational stuff.  Rio Lane:  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not surprised to hear that either. There's been numerous instances the last few years when a mandatory bar has run afoul of certain things and was deunified, so yeah. Yeah. And that's definitely a challenge, but yeah. Okay. Well, awesome. I think that's really all we got, all we have to chat about, and I really appreciate you coming and just chatting with me, and hearing about the bar and about the partnership and everything. Yeah. So thank you so much.  Mary Jane Pickens:  Oh, I appreciate it. This was a great opportunity. Thank you so much for asking me.  Rio Lane:  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Happy to have you. And at some point, folks, I will be back with another little mini episode of In Brief. But in the meantime, enjoy your day.   

Ricardo Lara has ignored every request from the show to appear and answer our questions the state's insurance debacleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

7:35 a.m. - Chris Brown - Northern District Public Service Commissioner Topic: Update from the Northern District's PSC and his recent comments regarding the PSC and Insurance Commissioner positions continuing to be an elected office. He can also discuss their recent nuclear summit. 8:05 a.m. - Sid Salter - Political Analyst - Vice President for Strategic Communications and Director of Public Affairs at Mississippi State University Topic: Recap of the presidential election, the historic re-election of Trump, what he foresees the next four years of policy will look like, transition from Biden/Harris admin to a Trump/Vance admin., etc

Tommy talks with Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple about hurricane season, catastrophe bonds, and more

The International Sustainable Finance Centre of Excellence (ISFCOE) is proud to announce the expansion of Sustainable Finance Week Ireland to reflect a broadened focus on the full spectrum of sustainable finance, including areas such as nature finance, social finance, and the regulatory landscape. This year's agenda showcases events with an array of global leaders in the areas of nature and social finance, including a keynote address by California's Insurance Commissioner, Riccardo Lara, along with several panel discussions featuring leading experts within the global field of sustainable finance. Several speakers will also be featured virtually throughout the event. Now, in its seventh year, the event will take place from 25th to 29th November and will once again be sponsored by AIB, a leading advocate for sustainable finance in Ireland. The week-long event, formerly known as Climate Finance Week, is organised by the Irish-based ISFCOE, which was established following Ireland's first national Sustainable Finance Roadmap aimed at accelerating sustainable finance change through knowledge sharing, training, and research. The event is further supported by Skillnet Ireland and the Department of Finance. This year, Sustainable Finance Week Ireland will also host the inaugural Irish-UK Transition Finance Summit. This collaborative event, convening policymakers and businesses from seven jurisdictions, will delve into the risks and opportunities for states transitioning to a low-carbon economy. By fostering dialogue and understanding among key stakeholders, the summit aims to accelerate progress towards a sustainable future. The expansion of the event lineup reflects a significant shift in financial institutions' approach to sustainability. While climate finance remains a crucial element, the broader sustainable finance agenda now also addresses the urgent need to finance biodiversity conservation, promote social equity, and support economic structures that are resilient to future challenges. Minister of State with responsibility for Financial Services, Credit Unions, and Insurance, Neale Richmond, said, "Sustainable finance is crucial in safeguarding our environment, but also in ensuring that we have a resilient economy for our future generations. Sustainable Finance Week Ireland is an opportunity to bring together our financial strategies with our environmental goals." "By bringing together industry leaders, policymakers, and innovators, we can chart a sustainable path forward, and I am confident that the work, the discussions, and the decisions made during Sustainable Finance Week will help us build a more sustainable future for generations to come," said Richmond. AIB Chief Executive Colin Hunt said "AIB's purpose is empowering people to build a sustainable future. We are delighted once again to sponsor Sustainable Finance Week Ireland, which has become a force for educating, inspiring, and driving progress." "As we collectively grapple with the challenges of the climate crisis, we should not lose sight of the opportunity for the finance sector to play a critical role in supporting customers in managing and mitigating climate change risks. We look forward to the discussions and solutions Sustainable Finance Week Ireland will bring, enabling the finance sector to do even more to protect our people, our planet, and our prosperity for generations to come, said Hunt." "The expansion of the event reflects the growing recognition that sustainability in finance must go beyond climate change," said Gillian Power, Interim CEO at the International Sustainable Finance Centre of Excellence "Sustainable finance encompasses a wide array of crucial areas, from preserving natural ecosystems to ensuring social inclusion and economic stability. 'Sustainable Finance Week Ireland' better captures the comprehensive nature of the discussions and initiatives that will take place during the week." Registration for all Sustainable Finance Week Ireland e...

Washington's Office of Insurance Commissioner is open for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century, as current Commissioner Mike Kreidler will not run for reelection. Vying to replace him are two state senators: Democrat Patty Kuderer and Republican Phil Fortunato. Learn about their priorities for this important but often overlooked statewide office, this week on Inside Olympia.

We're talking to candidates for key downballot races on the WUNC Politics Podcast as part of our Down The Ballot series. Next up: The race for insurance commissioner. The insurance commissioner gets the final say on whether insurance companies can raise the rates you pay for home and auto insurance. And this year's election for the position comes amid a proposed 42% average homeowners insurance premium hike. The commissioner also oversees insurance fraud and consumer protection work at the agency. WUNC spoke with the Republican incumbent, Commissioner Mike Causey, and his opponent, Democratic state Sen. Natasha Marcus, about their views on the insurance rate increase process and other issues facing the department.Sign up for our free, weekly WUNC Politics Newsletter here to read more from the Down The Ballot series.

Want to Download the Cease & Desist? Read Here: https://bit.ly/CurtisRayCeaseAndDesist 0:00 - Overview 5:17 - Reviewing the Cease & Desist 18:17 - $10,000 Fine 22:46 - MPI Calculator 23:50 - Special Update on Curtis Ray ______________________________________________ ✉️ Email BetterWealth: https://bttr.ly/infoWEBSITE: https://betterwealth.com====================DISCLAIMER: https://bttr.ly/aapolicy*This video is for entertainment purposes only and is not financial or legal advice.Financial Advice Disclaimer: All content on this channel is for education, discussion, and illustrative purposes only and should not be construed as professional financial advice or recommendation. Should you need such advice, consult a licensed financial or tax advisor. No guarantee is given regarding the accuracy of the information on this channel. Neither host nor guests can be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss incurred by applying any of the information offered.

Candidate Conversations are part of Delaware Public Media's 2024 Election coverage, and the Delaware Debates we are producing with the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication.Among the races we are examining is the race for Insurance Commissioner and in this interview, Republican Ralph Taylor.

Aaron VanTuyl and Matt Baide, podcast hosts, Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner, discuss the "OIC Answers" podcast that seeks to inform Evergreen State consumers on a wide range of insurance topics.

Downed trees, storm tips from Georgia's Insurance Commissioner, top 3 things to do in the landscape plus when you can always prune

Today's Clark County rundown highlights a local student's baking fundraiser for Bali, election prep for Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner, concerns over unsafe food practices at unpermitted food carts, and upcoming discussions on I-5 bridge tolling. https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/ #ClarkCountyWa #FoodSafety #ElectionPrep #I5Tolling #Fundraiser #Baking #BaliClinic #Transportation #HealthConcerns

Nancy Churchill, from Dangerous Rhetoric, shares her thoughts on Washington state's 2024 election, urging voters to focus on the important but often overlooked races for state treasurer and insurance commissioner. Learn more about the candidates running for these roles and how their work could impact state finances and insurance policies. Read the full story at https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/opinion/opinion-election-prep-treasurer-and-insurance-commissioner on www.ClarkCountyToday.com. #VoteByMail #SharonHanek #PhilFortunato #Politics #ClarkCountyWa #LocalNews

In this podcast, Rachel has a discussion with Shane Gussman, lobbyist for SAG-AFTRA in Sacramento. A timely and important discussion on AI and how it affects the entertainment industry. Shane Gusman is a partner at Broad & Gusman LLP specializing in governmental and regulatory advocacy. He has represented a wide variety of interests at the Legislature and numerous state agencies. He has served on the board of directors of several nonprofits and is the Insurance Commissioner's appointee on the Board of Governors of the California Insurance Guarantee Association. Prior to becoming a lobbyist, Mr. Gusman worked as an associate at a business litigation firm where he represented clients in both federal and state court. He is a graduate of the University of California, Davis School of Law.Watch the Podcast on YouTube | Read the DiariesHost, Author of Diary of an Actress,. Executive Producer: Rachel BailitEditor, Producer : Max BugrovYouTube: @diaryofanactresspodcastInstagram: diaryofanactresspodcastTikTok: @diaryofanactresspodcastFacebook: diaryofanactress

As a former Louisiana Secretary of State, Insurance Commissioner and State Senator, Jim Brown has had to cross many rivers including the Mississippi, Atchafalaya, the Red and the Pearl. In his retirement, Brown has had the chance to wade in the Jordan River.                          Brown joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde to talk about his new book, “Jesus, Jews, Jihad and Me: My Jerusalem Journey.” He visited the holy land last year, a region known for the wisdom of the prophets but where he also learned and sensed something was wrong. The day after he left, the war began.

PSC President James Brown is running for State Auditor and Insurance Commissioner.

Candidate Conversations are part of Delaware Public Media's 2024 Election coverage, and the Delaware Debates we are producing with the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication.Among the races we are examining is the race for Insurance Commissioner and in this interview, Democrat Trinidad Navarro.

Candidate Conversations are part of Delaware Public Media's 2024 Election coverage, and the Delaware Debates we are producing with the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication.Among the races we are examining is the race for Insurance Commissioner and in this interview, Democrat Kayode Abegunde.

7:05 a.m. - Neal Mead - Senior Associate AD for Event Management, Ole Miss Topic: The upcoming concert on August 30th at Ole Miss to kickoff Football. Neal has been overseeing the planning for this concert. https://www.supertalk.fm/country-music-star-brett-young-to-headline-concert-ahead-of-ole-miss-football-season/ Tickets: https://olemisssports.com/sports/2018/7/20/tickets 7:35 am - Mike Chaney - Commissioner, MS Insurance Department & State Fire Marshal Topic: Fire risks, Firemen, Rates & the potential to turn MS Insurance Commissioner into an appointed position. 8:05 a.m. - Don Redman - Spokesman, AAA Mississippi Topic: Where gas prices are currently and where they look like they are headed leading into the Labor Day weekend, also what AAA thinks this travel weekend will look like.

Alan McClain was appointed as Arkansas's 24th Insurance Commissioner by former Governor Asa Hutchinson in April 2020, and continues to serve as Commissioner under Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.  Prior to his appointment, McClain served for five years as Commissioner of Arkansas Rehabilitation Services (ARS)—a sister agency of the Arkansas Insurance Department (AID) under the state Department of Commerce.Commissioner McClain began his career in state government in 1992 at AID, spending eight years in its Public Employee Claims Division. Prior to joining AID, he served as a Claims Manager for self-insured workers' compensation plans at the Little Rock offices of Sedgwick James Insurance.McClain served thirteen years with the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission (AWCC), where he spent almost nine years as its Chief Executive Officer.  While at the AWCC, he also served as the regulator for companies and groups seeking to self-insure workers' compensation risks. In 2013 McClain left the AWCC to join the Workers' Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he worked alongside numerous state workers' compensation agencies as they utilized the work of WCRI in making data-driven policy decisions.McClain served as President of the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation between 2019-20, as well as President of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards & Commissions (IAIABC) in 2011, where he was named Co-Chair of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)/IAIABC Joint Working Group. During his time as Commissioner of Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, Governor Hutchinson also appointed McClain to serve on the Arkansas Workforce Development Board, and the Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities.In addition to membership on a number of other NAIC task forces and working groups, McClain currently serves as Chair of the NAIC Property and Casualty (C) Committee, as well as Chair of the Workers' Compensation Task Force, a subgroup of the Property and Casualty (C) Committee. He also serves on the Financial Standards and Accreditation (F) Committee, which reviews insurance department ability to analyze company solvency.McClain is a native Arkansan. He holds an undergraduate degree from Hendrix College in Conway, as well as a Master of Public Administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Focusing exclusively on risk management and insurance professional development, the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance provides a practical advantage at every career stage, positioning our participants and their clients for confidence and success.

Don't worry, there's no premium for this episode! This week on the Holler, Daniel and Quinn welcome Senator Natasha Marcus, NC's Democratic candidate for Commissioner of Insurance. Natasha shares stories from her time in the Senate, her passion for public service, and her vision for holding insurance companies accountable. Along the way, she addresses common myths about the office of Insurance Commissioner and reveals why being a state senator is not as cushy as it sounds. Tune in to hear about this crucial down-ballot race and why Senator Marcus believes she is the right choice for North Carolina's Commissioner of Insurance! Learn more at https://natashamarcus.com/ Follow the Hometown Holler on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube---and don't forget to leave us those 5 Stars! 00:00 World's Greatest Podcast Introduction02:07 Meet Natasha Marcus 03:48 Natasha's Political Journey 05:53 Challenges in the Senate 13:08 Role of the Commissioner of Insurance 16:02 Issues with Current Commissioner 18:38 Insurance Industry Insights 19:18 Understanding Insurance Rate Increases 19:49 The Consent to Rate Loophole 20:58 The Impact of Consent to Rate on Policyholders 23:46 Running for Commissioner of Insurance 24:19 Challenges and Rewards of Public Service 28:54 Campaign Stories and Insights 31:42 Quickfire Questions 37:01 Final Thoughts

LISTEN: On the Friday, June 12 edition of Georgia Today: A former Georgia insurance commissioner is convicted of money laundering and health care fraud; Savannah steps up their renewable energy efforts with the installation of solar panels in some municipal buildings; and Georgia joins a nationwide effort to save the bees.

Insurance is supposed to provide security; in Louisiana it has become a crisis. We hear stories of homeowners being challenged to pay house notes because of the growing costs of home insurance. Automobile rates have increased, too, and what about health costs? Jim Brown who served as a Louisiana state senator, Secretary of State and Insurance Commissioner (1991- 2000) joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with producer Kelly Massicot, to talk about a volatile industry. He also explains why rates tend to be less in neighboring Mississippi and offers his suggestion of an important change for the Insurance Commissioner's office. Rate payers should be aware.

Every American who has a mortgage is required by their bank to have homeowners insurance, but getting it and keeping it is becoming a challenge. In this episode, hear the highlights of a Senate hearing examining the problems in the homeowners insurance market and why they might lead to much bigger problems next time disaster strikes. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via Support Congressional Dish via (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! Background Sources Effects of Climate on Insurance Christopher Flavelle and Mira Rojanasakul. May 13, 2024. The New York Times. Chris Van Hollen et al. September 7, 2023. Chris Van Hollen, U.S. Senator for Maryland. Alice C. Hill. August 17, 2023. Council on Foreign Relations. Insurance Information Institute. Antonio Grimaldi et al. November 19, 2020. McKinsey & Company. Lobbying OpenSecrets. OpenSecrets. OpenSecrets. Heritage Foundation SourceWatch. Demotech William Rabb. April 15, 2024. Insurance Journal. Parinitha Sastry et al. December 2023. Fannie Mae Adam Hayes. May 17, 2023. Investopedia. Hurricanes National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Audio Sources Senate Committee on the Budget June 5, 2024 Witnesses: Glen Mulready, Insurance Commissioner, State of Oklahoma Rade Musulin, Principal, Finity Consulting Dr. Ishita Sen, Assistant Professor of Finance, Harvard Business School Deborah Wood, Florida Resident , Research Fellow, Heritage Foundation's Grover Hermann Center for the Federal Budget Clips 23:05 Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): In 2022 and 2023, more than a dozen insurance companies left the Florida residential market, including national insurers like Farmers. Residents fled to Citizens Property Insurance, the state backed insurer of last resort, which ballooned from a 4% market share in 2019 to as much as 17% last year. If it has to pay out claims that exceed its reserves, citizens can levy a surcharge on Florida insurance policy holders across the state. Good luck with that. Particularly if the surcharge grows to hundreds or even thousands of dollars to depopulate its books. Citizens has let private insurers cherry pick out its least risk policies. Those private insurers may have problems of their own, as we will hear today. 25:10 Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): The federal budget takes a hit because these insurers and their policies are accepted by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, who either own or guarantee a large part of our $12 trillion mortgage market. This all sounds eerily reminiscent of the run-up to the mortgage meltdown of 2008, including a role of potentially captive or not fully responsible rating agencies. 25:45 Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): Florida is far from alone. A New York Times investigation found that the insurance industry lost money on homeowners coverage in 18 states last year, and the states may surprise you. The list includes Illinois, Michigan, Utah, Washington, and Iowa. Insurers in Iowa lost money each of the last four years. This is a signal that hurricanes and earthquakes, once the most prevalent perils, are being rivaled by hail, windstorms, and wildfires. 28:00 Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): This isn't all that complicated. Climate risk makes things uninsurable. No insurance makes things unmortgageable. No mortgages crashes the property markets. Crashed property markets trash the economy. It all begins with climate risk, and a major party pretending that climate risk isn't real imperils our federal budget and millions of Americans all across the country. 33:45 Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA): Insurance premiums are far too high across the board and may increase after the recent storms, including those very storms in my state of Iowa. Climate change isn't the primary driver of insurance rate hikes and collapse of the insurance industry isn't imminent. Although I'll have to say, Iowa had six property and casualty companies pull out of insuring Iowans. Climate change doesn't explain why auto insurance premiums in 2024 have increased by a whopping 20% year over year. It also doesn't account for the consistent failure of liberal cities to fight crime, which has raised insurance risk and even caused insurers to deny coverage. Expensive liberal policies, not climate change, are much to blame for these market dynamics. 39:00 Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): The first witness is Rade Musulin. Rade is an actuary with 45 years of experience in insurance, specializing in property pricing, natural perils, reinsurance, agriculture, catastrophe, risk modeling, public policy development, and climate risk. Specifically, he spent many years working in Florida, including as chair of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund Advisory Council during the time in which Citizens Property Insurance Corporation was established. 39:35 Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): Our second witness is Dr. Ishida Sen. Dr. Sen is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School. Her recent research examines the pricing of property insurance and the interactions between insurance and mortgage markets. This includes the role that institutions and the regulatory landscape play and the broader consequences for real estate markets, climate adaptation, and our overall financial stability. 40:00 Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): Our third witness is Deb Wood. Ms. Wood and her husband Dan McGrath are both retired Floridians. They moved to South Florida in 1979 and lived in Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale for 43 years until skyrocketing insurance premiums became too much. They now reside in Tallahassee, Florida. 40:35 Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA): Dr. EJ Antoni is a Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget. His research focuses on fiscal and monetary policy, and he previously was an economist at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Antoni earned his Master's degree and Doctor's degree in Economics from Northern Illinois University. 41:10 Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA): Commissioner Glen Mulready has served as Oklahoma's 13th Insurance Commissioner and was first elected to this position in 2019. Commissioner Mulready started his insurance career as a broker in 1984, and also served in the Oklahoma State House of Representatives. 42:15 Rade Musulin: Okay. My name is Ray Muslin. I'm an actuary who has extensive experience in natural hazard risks and funding arrangements for the damage and loss they cause. I've worked with many public sector entities on policy responses to the challenges of affordability, availability of insurance, and community resilience. This work included participating in Florida's response to Hurricane Andrew, which included the creation of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund and Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. The Cat Fund and Citizens can access different forms of funding than traditional insurance companies. Instead of holding sufficient capital or reinsurance before an event to cover the cost of potential losses, both entities use public sources of capital to reduce upfront costs by partially funding losses post-event through bonding and assessments. All property casualty insurance policy holders, whether in Citizens or not, are subject to its assessments. While the Cat Fund can also assess almost all policies, including automobile, this approach exposes Floridians to debt and repayment if large losses occur, and it subsidizes high risk policies from the entire population. These pools, others like them in other states, and the NFIP have contributed to rapid development in high risk areas driving higher costs in the long run. In Florida, national insurers have reduced their exposure as a significant proportion of the insurance market has moved to Citizens or smaller insurers with limited capital that are heavily dependent on external reinsurance. To date, Florida's system has been successful in meeting its claims obligations, while improvements in building codes have reduced loss exposure. However, for a variety of reasons, including exposure to hurricanes, claims cost inflation, and litigation, Florida's insurance premiums are the highest in the nation, causing significant affordability stress for consumers. According to market research from Bankrate, the average premium for a $300,000 home in Florida is three times the national average, with some areas five times the national average. A major hurricane hitting a densely populated area like Miami could trigger large and long lasting post-event assessments or even exceed the system's funding capacity. Continued rapid exposure growth and more extreme hurricane losses amplified by climate change will cause increasing stress on the nation's insurance system, which may be felt through solvency issues, non-renewals, growth of government pools, and affordability pressure. 44:55 Rade Musulin: Evidence of increasing risk abounds, including Hurricane Otis in 2023, which rapidly intensified from a tropical storm to a cat. five hurricane and devastated Acapulco in Mexico last summer. Water temperatures off Florida exceeded a hundred degrees Fahrenheit last week. As was alluded to earlier, NOAA forecast an extremely active hurricane season for '24. We've seen losses in the Mid-Atlantic from Sandy, record flooding from Harvey, and extreme devastation from Maria, among others. In coming decades, we must prepare for the possibility of more extreme hurricanes and coastal flooding from Texas to New England. 46:50 Dr. Ishita Sen: Good morning Senators. I am Ishita Sen, Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School and my research studies insurance markets. In recent work with co-authors at Columbia University and the Federal Reserve Board, I examine how climate risk creates fiscal and potentially financial instability because of miscalibrated insurer screening standards and repercussions to mortgage markets. 47:15 Dr. Ishita Sen: Insurance is critical to the housing market. Property insurers help households rebuild after disasters by preserving collateral values and reducing the likelihood that a borrower defaults. Insurance directly reduces the risks for mortgage lenders and the Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Mortgage Lenders therefore require property insurance and the GSEs only purchase mortgages backed by insurers who meet minimum financial strength ratings, which measure insurer solvency and ability to pay claims. The GSEs accept three main rating agencies AM Best, S & P and, more recently, Demotech. And to provide an example, Fannie Mae requires insurers to have at least a B rating from AM Best, or at least an A rating from Demo Tech to accept a mortgage. Now, despite having this policy in place, we find a dramatic rise in mortgages backed by fragile insurers and show that the GSEs and therefore the taxpayers ultimately shoulder a large part of the financial burden. Our research focuses on Florida because of availability of granular insurance market data, and we show that traditional insurers are exiting and the gap is rapidly being filled by insurers, rated by Demotech, which has about 60% market share in Florida today. These insurers are low quality across a range of different financial and operational metrics, and are at a very high risk of becoming insolvent. But despite their risk, these insurers secure high enough ratings to meet the minimum rating requirements set by the GSEs. Our analysis shows that many actually would not be eligible under the methodologies of other rating agencies, implying that in many cases these ratings are inflated and that the GSEs insurer requirements are miscalibrated. 49:20 Dr. Ishita Sen: We next look at how fragile insurers create mortgage market risks. So in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, homeowners with a policy from one of the insolvent Demotech insurers were significantly more likely to default on their mortgage relative to similar borrowers with policies from stable insurers. This is because insurers that are in financial trouble typically are slower to pay claims or may not pay the full amounts. But this implies severe economic hardships for many, many Floridians despite having expensive insurance coverage in place. However, the pain doesn't just stop there. The financial costs of fragile insurers go well beyond the borders of Florida because lenders often sell mortgages, for example, to the GSEs, and therefore, the risks created by fragile insurers spread from one state to the rest of the financial system through the actions of lenders and rating agencies. In fact, we show two reasons why the GSEs bear a large share of insurance fragility risk. First is that lenders strategically securitize mortgages, offloading loans backed by Demotech insurers to the GSEs in order to limit their counterparty risk exposures. And second, that lenders do not consider insurer risk during mortgage origination for loans that they can sell to the GSEs, even though they do so for loans that they end up retaining, indicating lax insurer screening standards for loans that can be offloaded to the GSEs. 50:55 Dr. Ishita Sen: Before I end, I want to leave you with two numbers. Over 90%. That's our estimate of Demotech's market share among loans that are sold to the GSEs. And 25 times more. That's Demotech's insolvency rate relative to AM Best, among the GSE eligible insurers. 57:15 Glen Mulready: As natural disasters continue to rise, understanding the dynamics of insurance pricing is crucial for both homeowners and policymakers. Homeowners insurance is a fundamental safeguard for what is for many Americans their single largest asset. This important coverage protects against financial loss due to damage or destruction of a home and its contents. However, recent years have seen a notable increase in insurance premiums. One significant driver of this rise is convective storms and other severe weather events. Convective storms, which include phenomena like thunderstorms, tornadoes, and hail, have caused substantial damage in various regions. The cost to repair homes and replace belongings after such events has skyrocketed leading insurance companies to adjust their premiums to cover that increased risk. Beyond convective storms, we've witnessed hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding. These events have not only caused damage, but have also increased the long-term risk profile of many areas. Insurance companies are tasked with managing that risk and have responded by raising premiums to ensure they can cover those potential claims. 58:30 Glen Mulready: Another major factor influencing homeowner's insurance premiums is inflation. Inflation affects the cost of building materials, labor, and other expenses related to home repair and reconstruction. As the cost of living increases, so does the cost of claims for insurers. When the price of lumber, steel, and other essential materials goes up, the expense of repairing or rebuilding homes also rises. Insurance companies must reflect these higher costs in their premiums to maintain financial stability and ensure they can meet those contractual obligations to policyholders. 59:35 Glen Mulready: I believe the most essential aspect of managing insurance premiums is fostering a robust, competitive free market. Competition among insurance companies encourages innovation and efficiency, leading to better pricing and services for consumers. When insurers can properly underwrite and price for risk, they create a more balanced and fair market. This involves using advanced data analytics and modeling techniques to accurately assess the risk levels of different properties. By doing so, insurance companies can offer premiums that reflect the true risk, avoiding excessive charges for low risk homeowners, and ensuring high risk properties are adequately covered. Regulation also plays a crucial role in maintaining a healthy insurance market. Policyholders must strike a balance between consumer protection and allowing insurers the freedom and flexibility to adjust their pricing based on the risk. Overly stringent regulations can stifle competition and lead to market exits, reducing choices for consumers. We've seen this play out most recently in another state where there were artificial caps put in place on premium increases that worked well for consumers in the short term, but then one by one, all of the major insurers began announcing they would cease to write any new homeowners insurance in that state. These are all private companies, and if there's not the freedom and flexibility to price their products properly, they may have to take drastic steps as we've seen. Conversely, a well-regulated market encourages transparency and fairness, ensuring that homeowners have access to the most affordable and adequate coverage options. 1:02:00 Dr. EJ Antoni: I'm a public finance economist and the Richard F. Aster fellow at the Heritage Foundation, where I research fiscal and monetary policy with a particular focus on the Federal Reserve. I am also a senior fellow at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. 1:02:15 Dr. EJ Antoni: Since January 2021, prices have risen a cumulative 19.3% on average in the American economy. Construction prices for single family homes have risen much faster, up 30.5% during the same time. 1:03:20 Dr. EJ Antoni: Actuarial tables used in underwriting to estimate risk and future losses, as well as calculate premiums, rely heavily on those input costs. When prices increase radically, precisely as has happened over the last several years, old actuarial tables are of significantly less use when pricing premiums because they will grossly understate the future cost to the insurer. The sharp increase in total claim costs since 2019 has resulted in billions of dollars of losses for both insurers and reinsurers prompting large premium increases to stop those losses. This has put significant financial stress on consumers who are already struggling with a cost of living crisis and are now faced with much higher insurance premiums, especially for homeowners insurance. 1:05:10 Dr. EJ Antoni: The increase in claims related to weather events has undoubtedly increased, but it is not due to the climate changing. This is why the insurance and reinsurance markets do not rely heavily on climate modeling when pricing premiums. Furthermore, climate models are inherently subjective, not merely in how the models are constructed, but also by way of the inputs that the modeler uses. In other words, because insufficient data exists to create a predictive model, a human being must make wide ranging assumptions and add those to the model in place of real world data. Thus, those models have no predictive value for insurers. 1:07:40 Sen. Sheldon Whitehoue (D-RI): You say that this combination of demographics, development, and disasters poses a significant risk to our financial system. What do you mean by risk to our financial system Rade Musulin: Well, Senator, if you look at the combination, as has been pointed out, of high growth and wealth accumulation in coastal areas, and you look at just what we've observed in the climate, much less what's predicted in the future, there is significant exposure along the coastline from Maine to Texas. In fact, my family's from New Jersey and there is enormous development on the coast of New Jersey. And if we start to get major hurricanes coming through those areas, the building codes are probably not up to the same standards they are in Florida. And we could be seeing some significant losses, as I believe was pointed out in the recent Federal Reserve study. Sen. Sheldon Whitehoue (D-RI): And how does that create risk to the financial system? Rade Musulin: Well, because it's sort of a set of dominoes, you start with potentially claims issues with the insurers being stressed and not able to pay claims. You have post-event rate increases as we've seen in Florida, you could have situations where people cannot secure insurance because they can't afford it, then that affects their mortgage security and so on and so forth. So there are a number of ways that this could affect the financial system, sir. Sen. Sheldon Whitehoue (D-RI): Cascading beyond the immediate insurer and becoming a national problem. Rade Musulin: Well, I would just note Senator, that in Florida, the real problems started years after we got past Andrew. We got past paying the claims on Andrew, and then the big problems occurred later when we tried to renew the policies. 1:10:50 Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): And you see in this, and I'm quoting you here, parallels in the 2008 financial crisis. What parallels do you see? Dr. Ishita Sen: So just like what happened during the financial crisis, there were rating agencies that gave out high ratings to pools of mortgages backed by subprime loans. Here we have a situation where rating agencies like Demotech are giving out inflated ratings to insurance companies. The end result is sort of the same. There is just too much risk and too many risky mortgages being originated, in this case backed by really low quality insurers that are then entering the financial system. And the consequences of that has to be born by, of course the homeowners, but also the mortgage owners, GSCs (Government Sponsored Enterprises), the lenders, and ultimately the federal and state governments. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): You say, this will be my last question. The fragility of property insurers is an important channel through which climate risk might threaten the stability of mortgage markets and possibly the financial system. What do you mean when you refer to a risk to the financial system? Dr. Ishita Sen: Well, as I was explaining the GSEs, if there are large losses that the GSEs face, then those losses have to be plugged by somebody. So the taxpayers, that's one channel through which you've got risk to the financial system and the GSE's serve as a backstop in the mortgage market. They may not have the ability or capacity to do so in such a scenario, which affects mortgage backed security prices, which are held by all sorts of financial institutions. So that starts affecting all of these institutions. On the other hand, if you've got a bunch of insurers failing, another channel is these insurers are one of the largest investors in many asset classes like corporate bonds, equities, and so on. And they may have to dump these securities at inopportune times, and that affects the prices of these securities as well. 1:12:45 Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-AI): Dr. Antoni, is there any evidence to support the notion that climate change is the greatest threat to the insurance market? Dr. EJ Antoni: No. Senator, there is not. And part of that has to do again, with the fact that when we look at the models that are used to predict climate change, we simply don't have enough empirical data with which we can input into those models. And so as a result of that, we have to have human assumptions on what we think is going to happen based essentially on a guess. And as a result of that, these models really are not of any predictive value, and that's why these models for the last 50 years have been predicting catastrophic outcomes, none of which have come true. 1:14:45 Glen Mulready: This focus on the rating agencies, I would agree with that if that were the be all end all. But the state insurance commissioners in each 50 states is tasked with the financial solvency of the insurance companies. We do not depend on rating agencies for that. We are doing financial exams on them. We are doing financial analysis every quarter on each one of them. So I would agree if that was the sort of be all end all, forgive that phrase, but it's not at all. And we don't depend very much at all on those rating agencies from our standpoint. 1:22:15 Dr. Ishita Sen: On the point about regulators looking at -- rating agencies is not something that we need to look at. I would just point out that in Florida, if you look at the number of exams that the Demotech rated insurers, that by the way have a 20% insolvency rate relative to 0% for traditional insurers, they get examined at the same rate as the traditional insurers like Farmers and AllState get examined, which is not something that you would expect if you're more risky. You would expect regulators to come look at them much, much more frequently. And the risk-based capital requirements that we have currently, which were designed in the 1980s, they're just not sensitive enough to new risks like wildfire and hurricanes and so on. And also not as well designed for under-diversified insurance companies because if so, all of these insurers were meeting the risk-based capital requirements, however, at the same time going insolvent at the rate of 20%. So those two things don't really go hand in hand. 1:23:25 Dr. Ishita Sen: Ultimately what the solution is is something that is obviously the main question that we are here to answer, but I would say that it is extremely hard to really figure out what the solution is, in part because we are not in a position right now to even answer some basic facts about how big the problem is, what exactly the numbers look like. For instance, we do not know basic facts about how much coverage people have in different places, how much they're paying. And when I say we don't know, we don't know this at a granular enough level because the data does not exist. And the first step towards designing any policy would be for us to know exactly how bad the problem is. And then we come up with a solution for that and start to evaluate these different policy responses. Right now we are trying to make policy blindfolded. 1:23:50 Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): So we've had testimony before this committee that we've already spent $5-6 trillion. That's 5,000 to 6,000 billion dollars trying to mitigate climate change. We haven't made a dent in it. Their estimates, it's going to cost tens of trillions of dollars every year to reach net zero. So again, this is not the solution for a real problem, which is the broken insurance market. I have enough Wisconsin residents who live on the Gulf Coast in Florida to know after Hurricane Ian, you got some real problems in Florida. But fixing climate change isn't the solution. 1:33:15 Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR): In looking at the materials I saw that Citizens Property Insurance Company, I gather that's Louisiana and Florida, that have a completely state backed program. Well, alright, so if the state becomes the insurer of last resort and they now suffer the same losses that a regular private insurance company is suffering, now the folks in the state are carrying massive debt. So that doesn't seem like a great solution. Dr. Ishita Sen: That's definitely a problem, right? The problem is of course, that whether the state then has the fiscal capacity to actually withstand a big loss, like a big hurricane season, which is a concern that was raised about Citizens. And in such a scenario then in a world where they do not have enough tax revenue, then they would have to go into financial markets, try to borrow money, which could be very costly and so on. So fiscally it's going to be very challenging for many cities and many municipalities and counties and so on. 1:36:40 Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT): I wish there were something we could do that would reduce the climate change we're seeing and the warming of the planet. But I've seen absolutely nothing proposed by anyone that reduces CO2 emissions, methane gases and the heating of the planet. Climate change is going to happen because of the development in China and Indonesia and Brazil, and the only thing that actually makes any measurable impact at all is putting a price on carbon, and no one seems to be willing to consider doing that. Everything else that's being talked about on the climate — Democratic Senator: I got two bills. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT): I know you and I are, but you guys had reconciliation. You could have done it all by yourselves and you didn't. So the idea that somehow we're going to fix climate and solve the insurance problem is pie in the sky. That's avoiding the reality that we can't fix climate because that's a global issue, not an American issue. Anyway, let me turn back to insurance. 1:38:30 Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT): So the question is, what actions can we take? Fiscal reform? Yes, to try and deal with inflation. Except I want to note something, Mr. Antoni, because you're esteemed at the Heritage Foundation. 72% of federal spending is not part of the budget we vote on. So we talk about Biden wants to spend all this.... 72% we don't vote on; we only vote on 28%. Half of that is the military. We Republicans want more military spending, not less. So that means the other 14%, which the Democrats want to expand, there's no way we can reduce the 14% enough to have any impact on the massive deficits we're seeing. So there's going to have to be a broader analysis of what we have to do to reign in our fiscal challenges. I just want to underscore that. I would say a second thing we can do, besides fiscal reform and dealing with inflation, is stopping subsidizing high risk areas. Basically subsidizing people to build expensive places along the coast and in places that are at risk of wildfire. And we subsidize that and that creates huge financial risk to the system. And finally, mitigation of one kind or another. That's the other thing we can do is all sorts of mitigation: forestry management, having people move in places that are not high risk. But if you want to live in a big house on the coast, you're gonna have to spend a lot of money to insure it or take huge risk. That's just the reality. So those are the three I come up with. Stop the subsidy, mitigation, and fiscal reform. What else am I missing, Mr. Musulin? And I'm just going to go down the line for those that are sort of in this area to give me your perspectives. Rade Musulin: Well, thank you, Senator. And I'd agree with all those things. And I'd also add that we need to start thinking about future-proofing our building codes and land use policies. The sea levels are rising. If you're going to build a house that's supposed to last 75 years, you ought to be thinking about the climate in 75 years when you give somebody a permit to build there. So I'd say that's important. I'd also say that large disasters also drive inflation because it puts more pressure and demand on labor and materials. More disasters means supplies that could have been used to build new homes for Americans or diverted to rebuild homes in the past. So certainly doing things to reduce the vulnerability of properties and improve their resilience is important. And I do think, sir, that there are things we can do about climate change with respect over periods of decades that can make a difference in the long run. Thank you. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT): Thank you. Yes. Dr. Ishita Sen: So before that, the one point about inflation that we are missing, which is without doubt it is a contributing factor, but the US has had inflation in the past without such an acute crisis in insurance markets. So whether that is the biggest cause or not is up for debate. I don't think we have reached a conclusion on inflation being the biggest contributor of rising insurance cost. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT): It's just a big one. You'd agree It's a big one? Dr. Ishita Sen: I agree. It's a big one, but I wouldn't say it's the biggest one in terms of policy solutions. I completely agree with you on, we need to stop subsidizing building in high risk areas. That's definitely one of the things we need to do that. Mitigation, another point that you bring up. And on that, I would say not only do we need to harden our homes, but we also need to harden our financial institutions, our banks, and our insurance companies in order to make them withstand really large climate shocks that are for sure coming their way. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT): Thank You, Ms. Wood. I'm going to let you pass on this just because that's not your area of expertise. Your experience was something which focused our thinking today. Mr. Mulready. Glen Mulready: Thank you, Senator. I would say amen to your comments, but I'll give you three quick things. Number one, FEMA has a survey out that states that every $1 spent in mitigation saves $6 in lost claims. It pays off. Number two, unfortunately, a lot of communities have to have a disaster happen. In Moore, Oklahoma, back a dozen years ago, an EF5 (tornado) hit, it was just totally devastating. After that, the city of Moore changed their zoning, they changed their building zoning codes, and then third, the city of Tulsa, back in the eighties, had horrible flooding happened. So they invested over decades in infrastructure to prevent flooding. Now we're one of only two communities in the country that are Class one NFIP rated. 1:45:40 Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD): One way to address this, and I think it was discussed in a different matter, is the need to get the data and to get consensus on where the risks lie, which is why last year Senator Whitehouse, Senator Warren and I sent a letter to the Treasury Department, to the Federal Insurance Office (FIO), urging them to collect information from different states. I'm a supporter of a state-based insurance system for property and casualty insurance, but I do think it would benefit all of us to have a sort of national yardstick against which we can measure what's happening. So Dr. Sen, could you talk a little bit about the benefit of having a common source of insurance data through the FIO and how that could benefit state regulators and benefit all of us? Dr. Ishita Sen: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for bringing that up. That's just the first order importance, I think, because we don't even know the basic facts about this problem at a granular enough level. The risks here are local, and so we need to know what's going zip code-by-zip code, census tract-by-census tract, and for regulators to be able to figure out exactly how much risk is sitting with each of these insurance companies they need to know how much policies they're writing, what's the type of coverage they're selling in, what are the cancellations looking like in different zip codes. Only then can they figure out exactly how exposed these different insurers are, and then they can start designing policy about whether the risk-based capital ratios look alright or not, or should we put a surcharge on wildfires or hurricanes and so on? And we do need a comprehensive picture. We just can't have a particular state regulator look at the risks in that state, because of course, the insurer is selling insurance all over the country and we need to get a comprehensive picture of all of that. 1:47:40 Sen. Chris Van Hollen: I appreciate that. I gather that the Treasury Department is getting some resistance from some state insurance regulators. I hope we can overcome that because I'm not sure why anyone would want to deny the American people the benefit of the facts here. 1:48:45 Rade Musulin: I will just note that sometimes climate change itself can contribute to the inflation we've been talking about. For example, there were beetle infestations and droughts and fires in Canada, which decimated some of the lumber crop and led to a fivefold increase in the cost of lumber a few years ago. So some of this claims inflation is actually related to climate change, and I think we need to address that. 1:49:35 Glen Mulready: If you didn't know, the NAIC, National Association of Insurance Commission is in the midst of a data collection right now that will collect that data for at least 80% of the homeowner's market. And we have an agreement with FIO (Federal Insurance Office) to be sharing that data with them. They originally came to us, I got a letter from FIO and they were requesting data that we did not actually collect at the zip code level, and they had a very stringent timeline for that. So my response, it wasn't, no, it was just, look, we can't meet that timeline. We don't collect that today. We can in the future. But from that is where this has grown the data called by the NEIC. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD): So I appreciate, I saw that there had been now this effort on behalf of the....So has this now been worked out? Are there any states that are objecting, to your knowledge at this point in time, in terms of sharing data? Glen Mulready: I don't know about specific states. We will be collecting data that will represent at least 80% of the market share. Music by Editing Production Assistance

Mississippi Today's Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender interview Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney about the impact of legislation allowing him to create a state exchange where Mississippians can sign up for health insurance instead of doing so on a federal exchange. Chaney said the new exchange would be a positive for the about 250,000 Mississippians on the federal exchange. But Chaney says he will not attempt to create the state exchange unless Gov. Tate Reeves signs off on it.