Press Release

TALLAHASSEE (02/14/2007) - The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (Office) today announced that it has contracted with a consulting actuary to calculate property insurance rate reductions for Floridians which are required under legislation recently signed into law by Gov. Charlie Crist.  J. Robert Hunter arrived in Tallahassee today to begin work to determine rate reductions which are required to be adopted by all Florida residential property insurers. 

           

Hunter is the former insurance commissioner of the state of Texas and presently serves as the director of the Consumer Federation of America.  He has over 45 years of experience in the insurance industry, with an emphasis on analysis of public policy issues related to insurance.  Hunter is a fellow (by examination) in the Casualty Actuarial Society and is a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.  Hunter will be joined by Paul Walther, CPCU, ARe, who is a renowned reinsurance specialist and consultant.

           

Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said the work called for in HB 1A to accurately price the rate reductions is vital, which is why he is pleased to recruit someone of Hunter's stature for the assignment.   "The body of work Bob has put together over the years is legendary," said McCarty.  "He is truly one of the great minds on issues surrounding the insurance industry, and I am grateful we were able to attract him to Florida to take on this very important project."

           

"I want to make sure consumers get the full benefit from the reforms," said Hunter, "while also making sure insurers retain rates which accurately reflect the risk they are bearing.  This law is a significant achievement, and I am honored to be asked to help implement the legislation."

           

The Office is required to calculate what is called a presumed factor by March 15th.  A bill passed by the Florida Legislature during January's Special Session provided valuable enhancements to the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund.  The changes will offset some of the massive increases in unregulated global reinsurance costs following the 2004 - 2005 hurricane seasons.  Those increases are responsible, in large part, for the significant increases in insurance costs born by Floridians.  The presumed factor will represent the savings that will be generated by these statutory changes.

 

Once the Office publishes the presumed factor each residential property insurer is required to file a rate change reflecting the presumed factor for insurance policies written or renewed on or after June 1, 2007.  Insurers cannot non-renew or cancel residential property insurance policies until they make these required filings.

           

Hunter's resume is attached below.

 

# # #

 

 

 

 

Consulting actuary with over 45 years of experience with the insurance industry, primarily engaged in analysis of major public policy issues relating to insurance (with an emphasis on property/casualty insurance), including actuarial matters and consumer issues.

 

 

 

B.Sc. in Physics, Clarkson University, Potsdam, N.Y., 1958.

 

 

 

Casualty Actuarial Society. Fellow (by examination).

 

American Academy of Actuaries. Member

 

 

 

 

      Self-employed consulting actuary.

 

            Also serve as pro-bono Director of Insurance for the 

            Consumer Federation of America (CFA). (See "Pro Bono

            Activities," below.) 

 

 

      1959-1960.      Atlantic Mutual Insurance Companies. Underwriter, working on several lines of insurance, including commercial property/casualty insurance.

 

      1960-1966.      National Bureau of Casualty Underwriters (NBCU) (a forerunner organization of the Insurance Services Office (ISO)). I ran their state rate-filing unit, and later became an automobile insurance rate making supervisor in the actuarial department.  Duties included: analysis of claims experience for rate making; presentation of the rate requests to the appropriate Bureau committees for action; and presentation of the adopted rate levels to state officials, sometimes in hearings.

 

      1966-1970.      Mutual Insurance Rating Bureau (MIRB) and the Mutual Insurance Advisory Association (MIAA). I was an Associate Actuary, engaged in activities similar to those in which I was engaged at NBCU, but for all lines of property/casualty insurance.  As an officer of MIRB and MIAA, I dealt directly with the General Manager and was responsible for much of the research undertaken at these organizations.

 

                              MIRB/MIAA were forerunner organizations to the Automobile Insurance Plans Service Office ("AIPSO"), the organization charged with servicing and helping run, for the insurance industry, the residual market mechanisms (usually assigned risk plans) for automobile insurance in the U.S.

 

 

      1970-1980.      Federal Insurance Administration, U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, under HUD Secretary George Romney.

 

          I served in a number of positions, including Chief Actuary, Deputy Federal Insurance Administrator, Acting Federal Insurance Administrator, and Federal Insurance Administrator.

 

          During my ten-year stint in federal insurance regulation (1970-1980), I was involved with insurance-related public policy issues of the highest order. I testified before Congress on many occasions on the programs of the Federal Insurance Administration (such as property insurance written through the FAIR plans), as well as on insurance issues generally (such as the purported medical malpractice insurance "crisis" of the mid nineteen-seventies, the costing of health insurance, no-fault auto insurance proposals, and many other issues). I also served on federal inter-agency task forces dealing with products liability insurance, no-fault auto insurance, medical malpractice insurance, risk retention group formation, workers' compensation insurance, and other issues.

 

          I was responsible for actuarial and public policy advice to HUD regarding statutory programs (e.g. flood insurance, the Riot Reinsurance/FAIR Plan, and Urban Crime Insurance) and many other matters as requested by the White House and other federal agencies. Some examples:

 

                  - Administered the FIA's Riot Reinsurance/FAIR Plan program. ("FAIR Plans" are the residual market for fire (homeowners and business properties) insurance.  These were usually Joint Underwriting types of organizations.) In my work administering this program, we made many examinations of FAIR Plans, including reviewing claims practices. I participated in  writing a book-length overall analysis of the public interest issues involved in residual market insurance (Fair Plan and automobile assigned risk plan), entitled Full Insurance Availability (HUD 1974).

 

                  - Administered the FIA's flood insurance program, which included both homeowner and business insurance. I monitored claims-paying approaches of the insurance companies that serviced the flood insurance program.

 

                  - Wrote the actuarial regulations for President Nixon's temporary 1972 wage- and price-freezing directives as well as for other phases of that program, and helped run some insurance rate cases for the Price Commission.

 

                  - Worked with the U.S. Department of Transportation on its landmark no-fault automobile insurance study.

 

                  - Worked with the U.S. Department of Labor on workers' compensation insurance matters.

 

                  - Worked with the White House on national health insurance proposals.

 

    I received the HUD Secretary's Award for Excellence by Secretary Carla Hills for the work I performed from 1971-1977.

 

 

 

      1993-94           Insurance Commissioner of the State of Texas, appointed by Governor Ann Richards. In charge of the day-to-day operations of the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI). Made all executive decisions on insurance policy matters that arose during my tenure, including rate making, statistical collection, loss prevention, solvency monitoring, residual market issues, enforcement, examination, claims practices, complaint resolution, consumer information dissemination and myriad other matters attendant to running a major government agency such as TDI.

 

         I also undertook a major reorganization of TDI, cutting the staff from 1,100 to about 900 and greatly decentralizing the authority to the remaining staff. TDI became a much more effective and efficient organization during my brief tenure.

 

         As Texas Insurance Commissioner, I was a member of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).  Served on the Executive Committee of the NAIC and as Vice-Chair of the Western Zone of the NAIC. Served on several advisory groups to the NAIC, including the Advisory Committee to the Task Force on Profitability and Investment Income, the Market Conduct Advisory Committee, the Nuclear Insurance Advisory Committee and as co-chair of the Technical Resource Group to the Statistical Task Force.

 

         (Since leaving the insurance regulation field I have served as a "funded" consumer representative to the NAIC (i.e. NAIC paid travel expenses to facilitate my attendance at their meetings).)

 

 

 

      1980-1993 Conducted my own actuarial and insurance public policy consulting practice, voluntarily limiting my clients to government agencies and consumers of insurance to avoid even the appearance of any conflict of interest vis-à-vis my work on consumer matters. (Clients are named below under "Public Policy Research and Testimony".)

 

      1995-to date    Actuarial and insurance public policy consulting practice; resumed pro-bono activities as Director of Insurance for the Consumer Federation of America.

 

      Extensive consulting work on a variety of insurance issues for state agencies, including:

 

      Ratemaking and profitability matters (early 1980s) and disciplinary actions related to market conduct abuses (1995) for the Florida Department of Insurance.

 

      Pricing and public policy issues related to tort reform measures for the New York, Maine and California legislatures.

 

      Medical malpractice insurance for the Governor of Puerto Rico.

 

      Workers' compensation insurance rate making for the Attorney General of Oklahoma, the Attorney General of Virginia, the Public Advocate of Maine, the Public Advocate of Florida and the Governor of Puerto Rico.

 

      Private passenger automobile insurance as a member of the Governor's Task Force in the State of New Jersey.

 

      Private passenger automobile insurance rate making for the Public Advocate of New Jersey, the Public Advocate of South Carolina, the Attorney General of Connecticut, the Attorney General of Massachusetts, the Attorney General of Virginia, the Attorney General of California, the Office of Public Insurance Counsel in Texas and the Departments of Insurance in California, Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Texas.

 

      Insurance implications of hurricanes as a member of the consulting team for the Academic Task Force in the State of Florida following Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

 

      Antitrust and reinsurance as a member of the Governor's Subcommittee on Antitrust and Reinsurance in Virginia.

 

 

 

      Testified as an actuarial expert on behalf of clients (such as those listed below); on behalf of the private insurance industry when I was employed there during the nineteen-sixties; on behalf of consumer organizations such as NICO, CFA, Consumer's Union (publisher of Consumer Reports), Common Cause, and others; on behalf of the States of California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and others; and on behalf of the federal government from the 1980s to the early 1990s.

 

      Testified or performed research for federal agencies, including:

 

            U.S. Department of Labor (on Workers' Compensation rate

            making)

 

            U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (on Medical Malpractice)

 

            U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (on insurance

            aspects of hazardous waste)

 

            U.S. General Accounting Office (on federal tax policy and 

            rate issues)

 

            The U.S. Congress's Office of Technology Assessment on

            several issues.

 

      Testified frequently before committees of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, as Federal Insurance Administrator, as President of NICO, as Texas Insurance Commissioner, and as Director of Insurance at CFA.

 

      Testified before every state legislature in one forum or another.

 

      Testified on the purported "liability crisis" at least once in every state of the Union (plus D.C. and Puerto Rico) during a 12-month period in the mid-1980s.

 

 

      Articles published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, the Dallas Morning News, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and other leading newspapers.

 

      Quoted extensively in the insurance industry press and the general media.

 

      Interviews on numerous TV programs, including "Larry King Live," "60 Minutes," "This Week With David Brinkley," "The Today Show," "Good Morning America," "CBS Morning News," "CBS Evening News," "NBC Evening News," "Fox News," "Donahue," and "Oprah Winfrey."

 

      Frequent appearances on radio shows-both news programs (e.g. National Public Radio's "All Things Considered") and talk shows (e.g. Larry King).

 

 

 

      2002   Esther Peterson Consumer Service Award for lifetime

                outstanding service to consumers

 

      2002    Schraeder-Nelson Publications Award; article of the

                 year for Enron's Impact on State Insurance Regulation,

                 Regulator Magazine, Insurance Regulatory Examiner's

                 Society

 

      1976    HUD Secretary's Award for Excellence for work

                 performed from 1970 to

 

 

      Published Articles and Papers (Partial List)

 

      2006    False Claims; The Problems with the National Flood

                 Insurance Program; op-ed, New York Times   

 

      2005    Principles for Protecting Consumers Under a Federal

                 Catastrophe Insurance Program.

 

      1998    J. Robert Hunter, America's Disastrous Disaster

                "System" (Consumer Federation of America, 1998).

                Analyzes critically the current approach to handling

                disasters in this nation and proposes an alternative

                system that would end taxpayer subsidy of anticipated  

                levels of damage, move the cost of high risk to those

                who live in high risk areas, and minimize death and

                damage due to unwise construction practices.

 

      1995   J. Robert Hunter, Product Liability Insurance Experience,

                1984-1993 (1995)

 

      1995   J. Robert Hunter, Medical Malpractice Insurance

                Experience, 1984-1993 (1995)

 

      1995   J. Robert Hunter, Auto Insurance—Progress Through

                Reform But More To Be Done (1995)

 

      1994   J. Robert Hunter, "Insuring Against Natural Disaster,"

                Journal of Insurance Regulation (1994).

 

      1993   J. Robert Hunter, "Rate Suppression, A Critique",

                Journal of Insurance Regulation (1993).

 

      1985   J. Robert Hunter and Professor Raymond Hill (Princeton

                University), Workers' Compensation Insurance Rate

                making: Regulation of Profit Margins and Investment

                Income. (Written under contract for the U.S. Department

                of Labor.)

 

      1983   J. Robert Hunter, "Study of Feasibility of Risk Retention

               Groups for Hazardous Waste Facilities," in the Journal of

               the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters' Society.

               Addressed the possible use of risk retention groups to

               ease the tight market for environmental coverage.

               (Written under contract for the Environmental Protection

               Agency.)

 

      1983    J. Robert Hunter and Dr. John W. Wilson, Investment

                 Income and Profitability in Property/Casualty Insurance

                 Rate Making (1983). Paper was instrumental in

                 convincing the NAIC to adopt "total return rate making

                 procedures" as the preferred rate regulatory model.

 

 

      2007    J. Robert Hunter, Property/Casualty Insurance in 2007: 

                Overpriced Insurance, Underpaid Claims, Declining

                Losses and Unjustified Profits, Consumer Federation of

                America.

 

      2006    J. Robert Hunter, Study of GEICOs Use of Occupation

                and Education in Classifying Auto Insurance, Consumer

                Federation of America.

 

      2006    Report to National Association of Insurance

                 Commissioners on the Impact of higher Gasoline Prices

                 on Auto Insurance Pricing - Consumer Federation

                 of America.

 

      2006   Testimony before House Financial Services Committee

                on Title Insurance Cost and Competition.

 

      2006   Before the Senate Judiciary Committee, "Implications of

                Repealing the Insurer's Antitrust Exemption.

 

      2005   Before the Senate Banking Committee, "Oversight of the

                National Flood Insurance Program"

 

      2005   Before the Senate Banking Committee, "Oversight of the

                Terrorism Risk Insurance Program"

 

      2005   Weaning the Insurance Industry and Large Commercial

                Policyholders from Taxpayer Subsidies Under the

                Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.

 

      2005   The Impact of Commissions on Prices and Service

                Quality for Home and Automobile Insurance.

 

      2005   Contingent Insurance Commissions: Implications for

                Consumers.  

 

 

      2004    Before the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee,

                 "Insurance Brokerage Practices and Contingent

                 Commissions" 

 

      2004    Before the Senate Banking Subcommittee, "Examination

                 and Oversight of the Condition and Regulation of the

                 Insurance Industry"

 

      2004    The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act: Should It Be

                 Renewed?

 

      2002    How the Lack of Federal Back Up for Terrorism

                 Insurance Has Affected Insurers and Consumers: An

                 Update, 08/22/02

 

      2000    J. Robert Hunter, Study of State Insurance

                 Departments, Part III: Internet Web Page Grades.

                 (CFA)

 

      2000    J. Robert Hunter, 1988, 1993, and 1998 Changes in

                 State Insurance Department Resources. (CFA)

 

      1999    Consumer Information Available From State Insurance

                 Departments. (CFA)

 

      1999    Insurance Department Grades for Consumer Complaint

                 Information. (CFA)

 

      1986    J. Robert Hunter, Insurance in California: Profitability,

                Competition and Equity in Selling and Pricing Private

                Passenger Automobile Insurance and the Crisis in Day

                Care and Municipal Liability Insurance. Commissioned by

                the California legislature. The principal document used

                by the drafters of Proposition 103 as a blueprint for

                casualty insurance reform in California.

 

      1984   Series of reports on the interrelationship of gender and

                miles driven in setting auto insurance rates.

 

      1981   J. Robert Hunter, Gas Prices and Auto Rates: Insurance

                Implications of the Dynamic Changes in America's

                Driving Habits.

 

      1980   J. Robert Hunter, Taking the Bite Out of Insurance:

                Investment Income in Rate Making. Led to a major NAIC

                study of this issue.

 

 

      1980-93     I created an insurance consumer organization, the

               National Insurance Consumer Organization, which I

               served pro-bono. NICO was the first national organization

               dedicated to looking at all kinds of insurance (except

               pensions) from a consumer perspective. It undertook

               research and advocacy on behalf of  consumers, and

               became the leading voice for consumers on insurance

               issues.

 

               NICO published information advising consumers how to 

               buy insurance of all types, fielded complaints from

               consumers, and otherwise dealt on a daily basis with the

               needs and concerns of insurance consumers, including

               their understanding of insurance contracts.

 

      1995  Serve pro-bono as Director of Insurance for the

               Consumer Federation of America to date CFA), 1424 16th

               Street, N.W., Suite 604, Washington, DC 20036.

 

 CFA is a federation of 250 consumer advocacy groups with a combined membership of more than 50 million Americans.