Declarations – Southeast

Not Experts

“Most of us don’t want to be experts in insurance. We want to run our business and live our lives.”

—Frederick Eppinger, CEO, Hanover Insurance Group

Alabama Promise

“The governor did not expect the process to take this long, but recognizes that this is a very complicated issue, and decisions must be made carefully.”

—Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley’s press secretary, Jennifer Ardis, on why Bentley has not yet kept a campaign promise he made in 2010 to have the Legislature address the rising cost and declining availability of homeowners’ insurance in Alabama.

Elected Commissioner

“We’ve seen this before, with too much authority, too much power concentrated in too few hands.”

—South Carolina state Sen. Luke Rankin, sponsor of a bill to make the insurance regulator an elected official. Rankin said the bill is needed to prevent them from feeling beholden to the governors who appoint them and to protect the regulators from decisions that governors may not like.

Trayvon Martin

“We try to be as accommodating as possible to constitutional and community issues.”

—Tallahassee City Attorney Jim English on the city’s decision to let the National Christian League of Councils hold a march in honor of the teenage shooting victim Trayvon Martin despite the group’s not having the required $1 million liability policy. The group said it could not find insurers willing to write a policy.