Georgia – John Oxendine

Commissioner John Oxendine hopes to set Georgia’s coast apart from its neighboring coastal states, and says he is wrestling with some insurers that are trying to put “big insurance loads” on the Georgia’s homeowners market.

Oxendine has resisted actions he feels reinsurers are trying to impose on Georgia based on hurricane activity in states like Florida and the Carolinas.

“That’s something that we think is very inappropriate,” he said. “We’ve made companies actually absorb some of that or put that risk on other states.”

Oxendine also shuns hurricane models being used in other hurricane-prone states. He said Georgia has been fortunate to have maintained a good competitive market on its coast.

“We don’t have the historical problems that a lot of other states have, therefore we only allow companies to use historical data in rating information,” Oxendine said. “We do have a wind pool, but we have kept the population of it low.”

Recently reelected to a historic fourth consecutive term, Oxendine has also championed a rural health care initiative, saying his state has “great doctors” but lacks specialists in sparsely populated regions.

Oxendine encourages independent agents to join professional associations. He said he considers the opinions of independent agents when writing regulations, but gives them more credence if they belong to certified organizations.

Topics Georgia