New York – Howard Mills

Looking back on his two-year tenure, former New York Superintendent of Insurance Howard Mills says he thinks insurance actions by his own and other states’ attorneys general came about because there was a vacuum in insurance regulation, a vacuum which he hopes he has helped fill by initiating exams that look at more current risk information on insurers and adding attorneys with investigatory experience to the department.

“We hope to be able to find problems before they become full blown and avoid a lot of the collateral damage, if you will, that we’ve seen in some of these investigations in recent years,” he said.

Mills also recommended that questions about agency compensation should not be answered by regulators but instead settled by state lawmakers, who are likely to be more sensitive to the concerns of Main Street agents.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has nominated Eric Dinallo to succeed Mills. Of the new administration, Mills said he believes it will work to strengthen insurance markets. “I think that Gov. Spitzer certainly understands the critical role of the insurance industry. I am absolutely convinced that he has every intention of doing what he needs to do to create and maintain a strong market for insurance in New York State,” Mills said.