Washington Bureau - NU Online News Service

The decision by White House officials and congressional leadersto keep group life insurance out of the Terrorism Risk InsuranceAct was a "terrible mistake," a former state regulator saidMonday.

"A catastrophic attack would put significant pressure on the[group life] industry," Gregory Serio said here during a paneldiscussion at the annual meeting of the Association for AdvancedLife Underwriting, Falls Church, Va.

Serio, who is now a managing director at Park Strategies L.L.C.,New York, a lobbying firm, served as New York insurancesuperintendent from 2001 until January 2005. He took over assuperintendent when his predecessor, Neil Levin, left to becomeexecutive director of the Port Authority of New York and NewJersey. Levin died as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks onthe World Trade Center in New York.

Another panelist, Mark Grier, vice chairman for financialmanagement at Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, N.J., saidinsurance company managers are worried about the group lifesector.

"There is a great deal of concern about the concentration ofrisk" in that product line, Grier said.

Congress extended TRIA for 2 years in December 2005.

Many members of Congress wanted to add group life insurers tothe TRIA program, but Bush administration officials and somecongressional leaders succeeded in an effort to exclude grouplife.

Critics of the idea of adding group life to TRIA argued that thegroup life market seems to have been functioning well since theSept. 11, 2001, attacks despite lack of TRIA protection.