NAIC President Andrew N. Mais: Collaboration and Coordination Help Set Our State-Based System Apart

On Nov. 17, 2024, during the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) Fall National Meeting in Denver, Colorado, Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Andrew N. Mais delivered his final Opening Session address as NAIC president, where he looked back at the successes and progress achieved in 2024 as a result of the coordination and collaboration that help "set our [state-based system of insurance regulation] apart." 

Said Commissioner Mais, "Regardless of background or belief, here we are, around the same table, dedicated to the same result. That is not so easy to find nowadays. 

"Working together, and the back and forth that comes from thoughtful debate, strengthens the end product, and it strengthens us, too. We gain new insights. We see broader perspectives. That means greater and more diverse representation." 

Regarding "Mind the Gap," his presidential theme, Commissioner Mais noted that "the bottom line for insurance is that it is about people, about us and the ones we love, about safety and resilience, about security where there is risk, about hope at times of sadness, about the promise of a better tomorrow."

You can read the full speech below:

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Now, during this season, our thoughts especially turn toward who and what make us thankful and grateful.

And I’m particularly reminded of such things as I prepare to wrap up my time as NAIC president.

Shortly after I started my term this year, I challenged us all, but especially myself, to “Mind the Gap” in 2024.

As state insurance regulators, we know the importance of making sure as many people as possible have the proper insurance coverage. And no one is in a better position to help than we are. 

The coverage gap is always on our minds, as closing it is a core part of our mission, but placing extra emphasis on this message has allowed for greater discussion and strategizing and for even more focused efforts.

Already in this session, we have had some special moments of thanks. There will be more to come. Truthfully, if we went through the whole list, we would be here quite a long time.

But as I look back over the past year, I want to be sure that my fellow insurance commissioners, their teams, and the NAIC staff know how thankful I am for your incredibly hard work to mind the gap.

In your day-to-day responsibilities; on social media; in the press; at sold-out, standing-room-only events; and more, you have spread the word and tackled the issues with creativity, passion, and diligence.

Nowhere is this more evident, perhaps, than when dealing with natural disasters, as we have had to do this year. 

Before, during, and after, you engage, support, and equip.

Though there is much about nature we cannot predict with absolute certainty, we can be sure of the basic principles of mitigation and preparation to strengthen protection and resilience.

As we confront shared as well as the unique challenges in our individual states on this front, the NAIC is supporting our state departments of insurance in creating and expanding mitigation programs. 

The NAIC’s Center for Insurance Policy and Research, the CIPR, is working with several states, including my own, to develop – we’re all working to develop – mitigation programs for perils such as wind, hail, wildfire, and flood. 

Through CIPR, state insurance regulators have greater resources available to assist in planning, developing, implementing, and maintaining viable mitigation programs. Several states are utilizing CIPR resources to address new risk reduction and consumer protection efforts on a large scale. And these mitigation efforts are helping to reduce risks and guard more homes, which will ultimately help close the gap by expanding access to more insurance options.

This work provides a great example of the coordination and collaboration required to successfully mind and close protection gaps.

You hear those words a lot at the NAIC: “coordination” and “collaboration.” That’s because such an approach helps set our system apart. 

Regardless of background or belief, here we are, around the same table, dedicated to the same result. That is not so easy to find nowadays. 

Working together, and the back and forth that comes from thoughtful debate, strengthens the end product, and it strengthens us, too. 

We gain new insights. We see broader perspectives. That means greater and more diverse representation. 

This year, collaboration resulted in the first-ever National Climate Resilience Strategy for Insurance.

It’s also gained us ground in addressing financial transparency around investments through the Framework for Regulation of Insurer Investments.

And state insurance regulators, working together through the Macroprudential Working Group under the NAIC’s Financial Condition Committee, the (E) Committee, have been making great progress on addressing the list of 13 regulatory considerations for solvency monitoring.  

Some of the work has been completed, while other projects remain ongoing or may lend themselves to continuous ongoing monitoring in the future. 

All this work has resulted in significant progress and enhancements for our regulatory system, mostly around investments and affiliated transactions.  

The release of the Cybersecurity Event Response Plan by the NAIC’s Cybersecurity (H) Working Group earlier this year marked another achievement, one that supports regulators with responding to a cybersecurity event at a regulated entity. 

And that Working Group is not done yet with the work. They keep learning and expect to enhance the document as they continue to hear from subject matter experts. 

On the health insurance front, this year, as stated in our strategic priorities, we modified Model #880, the Unfair Trade Practices Act, to grant states regulatory power over lead generators.

And thanks to the persistence of state insurance regulators making their voices heard, federal regulators finalized a rule earlier this year stepping up their oversight of Medicare Advantage plan marketing, and they have also heightened scrutiny to protect consumers in the federal exchange from unauthorized health-plan switches and enrollments. 

Still, as always, to best protect consumers, we continue to call for regulatory authority over the Medicare Advantage market to be returned to the states.

Of course, our collaborative philosophy extends to our involvement not only beyond our state lines but also our country’s borders, as minding the gap is a global issue.

To date in 2024, we have participated in more than 40 outreach calls, bilateral meetings, and events held by international organizations. And that is without factoring in the numerous meetings hosted by the IAIS, the International Association of Insurance Supervisors.

One of the bright spots, one of the highlights of my year, always comes each year when our International Fellows program offers us a chance to introduce insurance supervisors from around the world to our state-based system. 

Just a few days ago, we wrapped up our fall in-person session, which drew eight regulators from the Bahamas, Bermuda, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and Thailand. 

And as part of that program, insurance departments in the District of Columbia, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Rhode Island, as well as my own state of Connecticut, hosted these regulators for five weeks to provide firsthand insight into how states approach financial regulation, market conduct, licensing, and many other aspects of insurance regulation.

My department was proud to work with Nitipha Changlum from Thailand’s Office of the Insurance Commission, who shared her own insights from more than seven years in the field as she learned from us. 

It is a two-way street. We learn as much as we share, and that is why I would encourage any states that have not taken advantage of this unique opportunity to talk to the NAIC about hosting an International Fellow in the future.

Now, without a doubt, one of our longest running and most involved collaboration efforts internationally has been the development of a group capital standard for Internationally Active Insurance Groups (IAIGs). (We use, you know, everything we’ve got I use abbreviations for.) But the idea for that was to provide insurance regulators with meaningful and reliable information about the solvency risks presented by and to the IAIGs.

And this project has been underway at the IAIS for more than a decade. 

Now, I can happily say that state insurance regulators and the NAIC welcome the successful conclusion of the IAIS process, which has determined that the Aggregation Method, the U.S. Aggregation Method, provides a basis for implementation in the United States of the Insurance Capital Standard to produce comparable outcomes. 

The comparability assessment – and I know there are so many in industry as well as regulators who participated; thank you to everyone who participated in this long and sometimes arduous struggle – has been a multi-year robust, technical process examining the two approaches to group capital adequacy. The AM, the Aggregation Method, was developed as a more appropriate approach for the U.S. insurance market and supervisory regime, and it ensures that policyholders are protected and that the insurance products on which U.S. consumers rely are available.

Now, the finalization of the ICS and conclusion of the AM comparability assessment will be officially affirmed during the IAIS’s upcoming meetings in Cape Town, and it is a major milestone for the IAIS.

It reflects the commitment of the international insurance supervisory community to moving forward together and the importance of having appropriate jurisdictional flexibility. Reaching this milestone is also a testament to the resolve of insurance supervisors to collaborate on setting standards that protect policyholders and enhance global financial stability. 

As work transitions into implementation, the NAIC will work domestically on its approach to the AM as the U.S. implementation of the ICS. Collaboration and coordination will continue with our international counterparts as they adapt the ICS to their respective jurisdictional approaches and as the IAIS works on developing an appropriate implementation assessment framework. 

Internally, we continue working together on our three-year State Connected strategic plan, which is headed into its final year.

One of our key completed initiatives under that plan has been the launch of a new Member portal for regulators – NAIC Connect. It’s a centralized hub for more effective communication and collaboration between Members and insurance department colleagues.   

We’re also in the final steps of launching the modernized System for Electronic Rate and Form Filing, SERFF, platform, and it will be launched with the Insurance Compact filings.

Finally, as I review this, I have to say congratulations are in store for the insurance departments in Massachusetts and New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands, yeah, and Connecticut.  It’s out of alphabetical order, but I had to save the best for last. 

But I’m proud to announce that the NAIC’s Financial Regulation Standards and Accreditation Committee just voted to reaccredit those jurisdictions for the next five years after a thorough, independent review. 

These few examples I’ve listed today are just that: it’s a snapshot of the good work that has taken place this year to protect consumers; support secure, stable, and healthy markets; and mind the gap.

The year is almost over, but our work is far from done.

This week, we will build on our efforts from 2024 and help set the stage for 2025, with collaboration once again the featured element.

We know the challenges, but if we look around this room, I believe we will see the solution: each of us, from government, to industry, to interested parties, with unique talents, views, and resources, demonstrating what is possible when we work together.

As we have over the past year. As proud guardians of the exemplary tradition of state insurance regulation, we have all worked together, each contributing in our own way to our North Star: consumer protection.

And that should give all of us – here in this room and around this nation – a lot to be thankful for.

I know I have a lot to be thankful for, and I want to thank you one more time. I thank the officers for their support, their sage advice … and the occasional eye roll.

I want to thank the NAIC staff, top to bottom, in every area who went out of their way to make this whirlwind of a year tolerable at worst and so often enjoyable, even when I would wake up in some strange hotel room not knowing which city I was in. Thank you. As I travelled to share our story and listen to our stakeholders, never once did I feel less than superbly prepared thanks to all your hard work. Thank you. 

I must also thank my colleagues, the great staff of the Connecticut Insurance Department, the best regulators in the world. I may be a little biased, but I’m going with that. They rose to every challenge, from COVID to climate risk and so much in between, giving me the security to travel with the absolute faith that Connecticut consumers were in good hands while I was on some flight and unreachable. 

In actual fact, some at this table may be thinking that Connecticut consumers were in better hands when I was unreachable. Yes, I hear your thoughts, Jon!

Next, I must take a moment to thank my family. You are my rock. You have been my inspiration, my shelter from the storm. I am so glad to have you here today. I couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you.

We mind the gap, making sure that everyone has access to the protection they need – because the bottom line for insurance is that it is about people, about us and the ones we love, about safety and resilience, about security where there is risk, about hope at times of sadness, about the promise of a better tomorrow.

I thank you all for affording me the pleasure and privilege of serving and sharing this message this past year. Where I have done it well, it is because of you, because I stood on the shoulders of giants – like the ones around me here at the table and the ones who led the way before. People like Eric Cioppa, who we’re fortunate to have join us. And for those times where I may have fallen short, I thank you for your indulgence. God is not finished with me yet.

Or with us. As we begin this last meeting of 2024, we know our mission continues. We know, too, that with Commissioner Godfread at the helm, we will be in good hands.

I thank you for this year, and I look forward to the next.

God bless you.