December Edition of Farmer’s Files

As I share my final edition of Farmer’s Files, I’m pleased to have this opportunity to highlight the success of the Fall National Meeting, including the announcement of the Robert Dineen Award recipients; the election of the 2021 NAIC officers; the special session on pandemic business interruption insurance; and the adoption of the Group Capital Calculation (GCC). These are just a few of the topics included in my sunset edition of Farmer’s Files.

Congratulations to the Newly Elected NAIC Officers

The NAIC Membership elected incoming officers during the closing activities of the Fall National Meeting, Dec. 9, 2020. The newly elected officers will assume their duties on Jan. 1, 2021.

The following Zone officers were also elected during the Fall National Meeting:

Northeast Zone 

• Commissioner Jessica K. Altman – Chair, Pennsylvania  
• Commissioner Gary Anderson – Vice Chair, Massachusetts 

• Commissioner Kathleen A. Birrane – Secretary-Treasurer, Maryland 

Southeast Zone 

• Commissioner Jim L. Ridling – Chair, Alabama  
• Commissioner Mike Chaney – Vice Chair, Mississippi 
• Commissioner James J. Donelon – Secretary-Treasurer, Louisiana 

Midwest Zone 

• Director Larry D. Deiter – Chair, South Dakota 
• Commissioner Glen Mulready – Vice Chair, Oklahoma 
• Commissioner Doug Ommen – Secretary-Treasurer, Iowa 

Western Zone 

• Director Lori K. Wing-Heier – Chair, Alaska 
• Commissioner Michael Conway – Vice Chair, Colorado 
• Commissioner Andrew R. Stolfi – Secretary-Treasurer, Oregon 

 Lombardo, Ito and Stolte Recognized with the Robert Dineen Award

Congratulations to this year’s Robert Dineen Award recipients. During the opening session of the Fall National Meeting, the NAIC announced this year's Robert Dineen Award recipients:

Paul Lombardo, Director of the Life & Health Division of the Connecticut Department of Insurance; Gordon I. Ito, Chief Deputy Insurance Commissioner of the Hawaii Insurance Division; and Doug Stolte, Deputy Commissioner, Financial Regulation Division, Virginia State Corporation Commission Bureau of Insurance.

These three state insurance regulators are committed to the NAIC’s mission. Their decades of experience have helped shape the modernization of state-based regulation in their respective divisions and their work has made an impact that will endure for years, upholding the objectives of the industry.

Adoption of GCC: A Milestone Achievement for Working Group and NAIC

During the Fall National Meeting, members of the NAIC adopted the NAIC’s Group Capital Calculation (GCC), along with model legislative language designed to enable the GCC once adopted by the state legislatures.

The GCC was developed by the NAIC’s Group Capital Calculation (E) Working Group in a project that began in 2015. The GCC provides U.S. solvency regulators with an additional analytical tool for conducting group-wide supervision.

Key, tangible benefits include:

• A tool that quantifies risk across the insurance group coupled with transparency into how capital is allocated.
• Key financial information on the insurance group that assists regulators in holistically understanding the financial condition of non-insurance entities.
• Information that assists in understanding whether and to what degree insurance companies may be supporting the operations of non-insurance entities.
• A new tool that can be used to help resolve any concerns to ensure that policyholders of the insurers in the group will be protected.

CIPR’s Special Session on Business Interruption Insurance  

The Center for Insurance Policy and Research (CIPR) hosted a special session entitled “Pandemic Business Interruption Federal Insurance Mechanism – Learning from the Past, Thinking About the Future.” The three-hour session, which took place during the Fall National Meeting, provided an overview of the impact businesses of all sizes are enduring as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. NAIC representatives and subject matter experts within and outside of the industry discussed the pros and cons of how best to address business interruption (BI) coverage and whether a federal insurance mechanism could address this issue as it has in the past regarding coverage for acts involving terrorism, flood and crops.

The special session provided a holistic view of the evolving conversations surrounding the issue of BI coverage.

The session discussions included the following topics: 

Panel #1: Setting the Stage: BI Background & Federal Insurance – Flood, Crop, Terrorism – Key Lessons Learned

Panel #2: Pandemic Business Interruption – Overview of Current Proposals

Panel #3: The Pandemic Risks Landscape

The NAIC believes that a federal mechanism is likely necessary to adequately address the complexities surrounding BI coverage. While the NAIC does not have a position on any of the proposals presented during the special session or any other proposals addressing BI coverage at this time, the NAIC stands ready to work with regulators and lawmakers on such solutions.

NIPR Sees Producer Licensing Rebound

The COVID-19 pandemic gave the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) the unique opportunity to help state insurance regulators and the insurance industry implement the necessary regulatory adjustments needed to properly respond to the pandemic. NIPR continues to provide a comprehensive source of producer licensing-related information through its COVID-19 Resource Center on NIPR.com, which centralizes the state-specific bulletins relating to producer licensing, as well as exam vendor updates.

After seeing declines in transaction volume in the first and second quarters of 2020, producer licensing transaction volume began to recover during the summer as license renewal extensions expired and online testing became available in a growing number of states.

A Heartfelt Thank You

As I close my last Farmer’s Files, I wanted to take a moment to thank each of you for helping make this year a strong, solid year for the NAIC. As you well know, 2020 was not the year we expected, but it was the year that we got. I am proud of what we have done with our year together. We navigated and continue to navigate a global pandemic; we took on social unrest and began the important work of addressing racial and social issues within the industry; and we weathered a year filled with unprecedented natural disasters. As an organization and as individual states and territories, I hope we have all learned to lean on each other just a bit more, to be patient with ourselves and others as we all adapt to change and, most importantly, I hope we have learned what it is to be resilient.

Thank you to Mike and Andy and everyone at the NAIC who made my tenure as President at the NAIC not only a positive experience, but a pleasure. The NAIC is a large organization, but the well-run functionality, the personal support and strong friendships have truly been something special.

To my staff here at the South Carolina Department of Insurance, I owe a heartfelt thank you to each of you as well. Being President of the NAIC wouldn’t have been a reality without your support and ability to carry on the business of our Department in South Carolina, even more so in the face of all this year has handed us.

To my Deputies, Dan Morris, Diane Cooper, Gwen McGriff, Joe Cregan, Kendall Buchanan, and Tommy Watson, a special thank you for your leadership throughout this year; and to Casey Clyburn, the person who has kept me on track each step of the way, I owe a debt of gratitude for your unwavering support.

I leave the NAIC office chairs knowing that David Altmaier and our other officers will continue the excellent work we have started together. I wish each of you health and happiness throughout the holidays and into the new year.

Thank you.