by Josh Chetwynd
Following a hearing on a series of insurance reform bills held by the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Financial Services last week, a key Massachusetts agents’ association official expressed concerns about efforts to increase regulation for setting homeowner insurance rates.
Among the proposals discussed at the hearing was a push for increased transparency in how rates for homeowners are set. But Frank Mancini, CEO of the Massachusetts Association of Insurance Agents, told ibamag.com such changes would add unnecessary steps to the process, potentially muddling an already robust system.
“Our opposition is that the current rate setting process for homeowner insurance is fine,” Mancini said. “It has been used for decades in Massachusetts, and we continue to have a very competitive marketplace.”
Mancini points out that under the current system there are more than 70 companies writing homeowner policies in the state and that no single insurer has more than 12% of the market. This differs greatly with many other locales where one insurer may have between 25% and 35% of the business statewide.
In addition, efforts to provide the state attorney general’s office with more say in the homeowner rate filing process also gives Mancini pause. One bill gives the attorney general the ability to appoint Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association board members. The attorney general would also be able to hold rate hearings.
“If the attorney general starts asking for hearings,” Mancini says, “that’s just going to bog down the process. The insurance department is already bogged down with hearings every year.”
