Bringing Steady Leadership to Mississippi for Several Decades

With continued service to the state of Mississippi since the mid-70’s, Insurance Commissioner George Dale has been a steadying influence for the industry in the Magnolia State.

When Dale was elected commissioner in 1975, he became the youngest insurance commissioner in Mississippi history. Now in his eighth term, Dale is the longest-serving insurance commissioner in the United States. He is a native of Jefferson Davis County, and spent 11 years early in his career in the field of education.

Dale recently set aside some time to talk with Insurance Journal Southeast about issues in the state and where he sees the P/C market and its agents headed.

Insurance Journal: What attracted you to run for the office of insurance commissioner?

Dale: I’ve always wanted to be involved in politics, it was a lifelong dream. I got some encouragement to run for this office, ran, and was successful. In Mississippi, this is referred to by some as a ‘minor state office’ but I was first on the ballot and got elected. Most people when first elected to insurance commissioner jobs are not insurance technicians. In our state it is difficult to be elected as regulator of the insurance industry for someone who comes from an insurance background. That was one of the pluses I used in my campaign. This job probably requires more of an administrator than a technician. I felt like I had shown I was a strong administrator. I had limited knowledge of insurance when I started and no connection with it at all. In this position, you have to walk a difficult line between the consumer and the industry. If you’re not a consumer advocate you won’t have a very long term. I think I’ve been able to do that. It is amazing with the problems with the industry, particularly in our state with what the market shares have had over the years, that I’m able to say only one time in eight elections have I gotten less than 70 percent of the vote. The voters have been very generous with me.

IJ: How would you describe the current property/casualty market for agents in Mississippi?

Dale: Just today, I received a visit from one of the larger carriers [Southern Guaranty] in our state delivering me a letter that they were discontinuing writing home and automobile insurance in our state that will affect some 13,000 policyholders, so my answer to that, is that we’re scrambling every way we can to help agents find markets for their customers. It is a constant problem keeping a market on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We have three coastal counties that border on the Gulf of Mexico, and because of the hurricane exposure, that is a constant battle that we fight. If you look at P/C overall, they’re have not been that many [carriers] to leave the state, they’ve just reduced their exposure or have not written any new business. [Southern Guaranty is doing similar withdrawals in Arkansas and Tennessee.]

IJ: What are the concerns with the medical malpractice situation in the state?

Dale: The medical malpractice market is not getting very much better in our state. The Legislature last year in a special session passed some limited reforms but it did not go far enough and has not had enough time to take effect and see what the impact will be. We have elected a business-friendly state Supreme Court that as cases are being appealed to the Supreme Court there is some light at the end of the tunnel. There has been a federal investigation dealing with some of the large judgments received in certain venues in our state. A number of those type things have happened, causing the public to be more aware that we need to come up with more fair
judgments.

IJ: Talk a little bit about fighting insurance fraud in the state.

Dale: We work very closely with the attorney general’s office. A few years ago, former attorney general Mike Moore created an insurance fraud division in his office. It gives us an agency to work with. Our office was pretty well involved in unraveling the Martin Frankel case that is the largest insurance fraud case in history. One member of our staff is our investigator and those cases we don’t refer to our attorney general; there are cases that relate to [agents], such as agents withholding money and things like that. We think we have done a good bit to make sure our agents are acting in a professional and honest manner.

IJ: How does the insurance department act to help residents when storms hit the state?

Dale: We have a pretty good system that has been in place for several years. One of the advantages in having had a number of disasters is that every time you have one, you get a little bit better at handling them in the future. We do a lot of online assistance that is given out through our department after a time of disaster.

IJ: How is the workers’ compensation market doing in Mississippi?

Dale: Workers’ comp has done well in our state. In 1992, we made some very drastic reforms in the workers’ comp system. This department did some things, plus we elected a very pro-business governor who didn’t understand an awful lot about government, but he understood about the assigned risks of workers’ compensation and so he appointed people in positions related to workers’ comp that were very positive appointments. With the reforms the Legislature passed we think we have a good workers’ comp system.

IJ: Any message for independent agents in Mississippi?

Dale: In the state of Mississippi, the local independent agent is the first line of providing service to the general public and the first line in creating a good working relationship between the consumer and the insurance industry. If the consumer has a good experience with the local agent, they will probably have a positive view of the insurance industry. If they have a negative experience, it usually gets our office involved and [creates] a very poor feeling by the consumer towards the insurance industry.

IJ: Goals for the remainder of 2004?

Dale: The main thing is to continue to aggressively recruit markets for our state. We’re doing that on a daily basis, contacting companies. We put together a package of information from our department of economic development that relates to population, median income, a number of factors that would be presented to a prospective industry that was considering coming into the state. We’ve taken the information and furnished it to insurance companies to have that available to further consider whether they want to write insurance in our state.

For more information on Commissioner Dale and the department, visit www.doi.state.ms.us/