National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) President Greg Wren’s retirement from the Alabama House of Representatives—and from the legislative non-profit group—came sooner than he expected.
Wren had originally planned to retire at the end of November but as part of a plea deal with state prosecutors, he resigned from the House April 1 and was automatically deposed as president of NCOIL.
The outspoken advocate of state insurance regulation pled guilty in an Alabama state court to a misdemeanor charge of using his office for personal gain. According to documents from the state Attorney General’s office, Wren attempted to add language to the Alabama General Fund Budget late last year that would have made a pharmaceutical co-op—American Pharmaceutical Cooperative Inc.—the sole supplier of Medicaid drugs in the state.
According to his lawyer James Anderson, Wren did not know that the co-op did business with RxAlly, a Virginia company contracted with Wren’s insurance business. Nevertheless, he pled guilty to the charge, resigned his seat early and agreed to pay $24,000 in restitution.
Wren will continue to cooperate in an ongoing investigation of corruption, said Anderson. However, as part of his plea agreement, he is not allowed to comment on the situation beyond what is released in the charging documents.
During the NAIC conference in Orlando, which Wren attended, he did not mention he was planning to plead guilty to a crime or resign his seat earlier than his planned departure in November.
He has not yet released a statement regarding the investigation or his service in NCOIL. One of his final lasting acts in the organization was to implement an international coalition designed to increase state regulators’ roles in international insurance discussion.
In the same vein, Wren also voiced strong views that the NCOIL president, or his or her designee, receive membership in the Federal Insurance Office's Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance (FACI).
"We strongly believe that a state lawmaker, a proven national leader on insurance public policy, whould provide diversity sought for [Federal Advisory Commitee on Insurance] membership while showing lawmakers—at the state and federal level—that policymaker input is important to the FIO mission," Wren said in January letter to FIO Director Michael McRaith.
The moment Wren resigned, the presidency of NCOIL fell into the hands of New York State Senator Neil Breslin. A democrat, Breslin represents a change from Wren’s GOP ties.
Note: An earlier version of this article stated that NCOIL was an industry trade group. It is not; it is a legislative, non-profit group whose main area of public policy concern is insurance legislation and regulation.
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