Posted On: February 6, 2007, 10:27 am CST

Posted By: Matt

The current market crisis has it's origins in the former DOI headed by Tom Gallagher. During the last soft market, the Florida DOI never met a rate decrease it didn't like. One of the reasons for STATE insurance departments existence is rate regulation. Someone forgot to tell Tom that rate regulation responsibility runs north and south. If the DOI had stood it's ground on rates, the bottom of the soft market would not have been so severe. Further, had Gallagher been responsible in setting initial Citizens rates, the entity would likely have had less exposure and better capitalization, thereby avoiding the assessments we were virtually assured would never be needed.