Morris Chavez, New Mexico, State Insurance Superintendent

After replacing two insurance superintendents in less than a year over allegations of questionable activities, New Mexico’s Insurance Department seems to sorely need some ethics training. The latest appointed Insurance Superintendent Morris “Mo” Chavez, hopes to provide just that, restoring transparency, honesty and integrity to the office.

A licensed attorney and former regulator, Chavez shared with Insurance Journal’s Andrea Ortega-Wells how his administrative experience will help to move the New Mexico Department of Insurance in a new direction — one that can be trusted.

Chavez spoke to Wells at a recent meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Among his priorities, he said, is to oversee and work with the fraud ethics department, newly created by the state’s Public Regulations Commission. Read on to find out how he will work with this new department and ensure that business is being conducted “in the right way.”

New Mexico’s Department of Insurance has been in the press for recent turnovers in staff. How do you plan to restore the impression of ethics within your department?

Chavez: I have been on the job six weeks, but it’s been a wonderful opportunity that I’ve been given. Unfortunately, there has been some negative press surrounding the Insurance Division this year, and maybe the past couple of years, and that is unfortunate for the employees of the division. So, one of the things that I wanted to do right away when I accepted the job, when I was fortunate to receive the appointment, was to stand for transparency, honesty and integrity, and really restore the morale that has been kind of low in the Insurance Division. I think we’re definitely headed in that direction.

I understand the Public Regulations Commission also has created a fraud/ethics department. Is it under your control, and what do you expect to come out of this department?

Chavez: It is [in my jurisdiction], and I think that this new bureau within the Insurance Division is really a wonderful idea. It will really benefit the citizens of New Mexico, and benefit the division as a whole. I really expect some good things. It’s important for any organization, whether you’re a state agency or a Fortune 500 company, to run your organization in an ethical manner. I think my working with this division very closely, to make sure we’re doing the business the right way, is very important.

Have you ever experienced anything quite like this in your past? You previously were a regulator for the Indian Gaming Commission, right?

Chavez: This is something brand new for me. I bring a unique mix of experience to this job. I’m a licensed attorney, and I was a regulator, as you mentioned, for the New Mexico Gaming Control Board. That really put me in a good position to do this job, and to do it well. Prior to the Gaming Control Board, I came from the insurance industry; I actually worked in surety, which is a subset within insurance. My surety/ insurance experience, coupled with being a regulator in gaming, and then being an attorney, sets me up to hopefully do well in this position.

Do you have a timeline for when you expect your department to address ethics? In other words, where do you hope your department is a year from now?

Chavez: I look at it more in terms of five years from now. Immediately, I’m trying to do some things and institute some policies with the staff to address any immediate concerns that people may have, and to really do things the right way. But, the benchmark I look at is that because we’re taking these steps initially, I want to look at five years from now. I’ve put myself out there and said, if I can look back five years from now at how things have gone, that’s the benchmark. But in a year, I hope that we have a staff that is committed to ethics and to doing things the right way, and is buying into my vision that hopefully is going to benefit the consumers in New Mexico.

How have the questions about ethics in the department affected morale among the staff, and even among the insurance community?

Chavez: To some extent, I come from the agency world. When I graduated from law school, I was not only a licensed attorney, I was a licensed agent. So I have a good relationship with a lot of agents in New Mexico and the insurance community as a whole, including consumers. Unfortunately, there was a negative perception of the Insurance Division this past year, right or wrong. So what I’ve tried to do right away is to get in there and show people things are really not as bad as they seem, and that we’re going in the right direction. To further answer the question, as a licensed attorney, I take ethics very seriously. I’ve taught ethics on a national level for the American Bar Association, so that’s something that’s very important to me. At the local level, if I can instill that in the staff, it’ll be key in really going in the direction where we want to go.

Do you think that your strong background in the ethics is one of the reasons why the PRC chose you?

Chavez: I would like to think so. I know there were some issues when I was hired with my age, that I have the administrative experience. I know one of the qualities they were looking for in the new superintendent was ethics, and that was one of the things that I really talked to them about. I have taught ethics, and as a licensed attorney, I’m required by our state bar to take classes in ethics. I can bring that to the department. Yet to be honest, I think it already existed. Once again, it was the public perception of what has gone on, but once again, I think we are moving in the right direction.

What would you like your relationship with independent agents to be in your state?

Chavez: As I mentioned, I come from the independent agents community of New Mexico … I was actually president of the Young Agents [group] a few years back. So it’s going to be very key in my administration to work with agents, because agents really work with consumers. Having that relationship, a good relationship, a positive relationship with agents, is really going to be key in terms of getting my vision and my policy out to consumers. That’s really consumer education of insurance.

As a newcomer to the NAIC, do you have any thoughts on whether a state should have an appointed or an elected commissioner of insurance?

Chavez: There may be a dozen or so commissioners, superintendent directors, that are elected. I would have to say I’m happy that in New Mexico it’s an appointed position. I’m not sure how I would do in an election, but I guess I would say that the appointment process with which I’m familiar works, because I went through a pretty extensive interview process in terms of resume qualifications and backgrounding. That really gave the PRC in New Mexico good ammunition to say, “This is the person we want, we’ve checked out his qualifications and he’s the best one for the job.”

What do you hope to become involved in on a national level with the NAIC; are there any particular issues or committees that you’d like to be a part of?

Chavez: I’m so new, that I’m really taking everything that the NAIC has to offer in right now. The one thing I will try to look for is what the NAIC can offer the state of New Mexico and the consumers, its citizens. From that realm, [I’d like to] be able to take what I’ve learned here, and what the staff has learned here, back to New Mexico so it can benefit the consumers.

Topics Agencies Mexico New Mexico