Consumer Group Seeks Insider Insurance Advisors

By Daniel Hays

NU Online News Service, April 1, 11:39 a.m. EST?Stephen D'Amato, the Center For Insurance Research's newly named executive director, said he plans to build a national network of insurance professionals to help consumers.[@@]

Mr. D'Amato, an attorney who served seven years as an insurance rating bureau director for Massachusetts, said the Cambridge, Mass.-based advocacy group hopes to fill a void created as "insurance regulators nationwide have scaled back their consumer protection activities."

The Center plans, he said, to recruit actuaries, economists, attorneys and brokers "to serve many consumers that government has failed to protect."

Mr. D'Amato said that yesterday the group launched an active search "for consumers with specific grievances against the insurance industry" with a "Consumer Call," asking about questionable insurer practices.

He said the "Consumer Calls" will be made periodically, and the first one seeks homeowners and renters complaints. The Center is taking information at 617 441-2900 or online at cir@TheWorld.com.

Mr. D'Amato said the Center also wants to hear from consumers who live in coastal areas, such as Cape Cod, whose home coverage has been cancelled or increased substantially in cost.

Other items upcoming on the Center's agenda are auto insurance reforms that fail to lower rates and passive discrimination that avoids lowering rates for minorities and low income insurers, Mr. D'Amato said.

Also on the agenda are: unfair exclusions in insurance policies that shift costs to a few consumers, company misconduct that deprives policyholders of rights during demutualization and other corporate dealmaking regulatory failures and "alarming" proposals to deregulate insurance rates.

Mr. D'Amato said that while he was with the Massachusetts Insurance Division it was known in for pursuing consumer issues, but severe staff cutbacks "and the agency's pro-insurer bias, have left consumers largely unprotected in numerous areas."

Mr. D'Amato when he left the agency had called for the dismissal of then commissioner Linda Ruthardt.

He promised that the Center by recruiting an insurance professionals network, "will step in where regulators fear to tread."

A spokesman for the Massachusetts Insurance Division, Christopher Goetcheus responded that "Our agency recovered nearly $2 million for insurance consumers in 2003. The agency has also been recognized nationally for its work in monitoring the financial solvency of insurers, which is key to protecting insurance consumers' interests. To my knowledge Mr. D'Amato has not assisted an insurance consumer in at least six years."

He said the division maintains relations with Massachusetts-based insurers but the charge of an industry bias is "absolutely baseless."

The Center, a nonprofit research and advocacy group, was founded in 1991 by Jason Adkins an attorney and insurer gadfly.

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Consumer Group Seeks Insider Insurance Advisors

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