The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents' new president said he believes the most pressing issue facing the insurance industry and its customers today is finding a solution to catastrophe coverage problems.

Robert Page, president of Charles A. Page & Sons Insurance Agency in Houma, La., who was named president of the Alexandria, Va.-based association last month, said the greatest concern to him is finding an answer to providing affordable insurance to customers in catastrophe-prone areas of the nation.

Mr. Page said he believes the answer to this problem is having the federal and state governments and the private sector work together to create “some kind of mechanism that will allow people to afford to buy insurance.”

“We are at a point now, particularly in the coastal communities along the Gulf and East Coast, where insurance is becoming more expensive than the mortgage payments on people's homes,” remarked Mr. Page.

There are a number of bills in Congress addressing this issue, he observed, and the association has set up a committee to review that legislation. He said the idea would be to find the best measures and put together a program that works to everyone's benefit.

“We want the private sector involved in this,” he said. “They are the lifeblood of insurance, but we can't keep dishing off everything to the federal government when something goes wrong.”

The association also supports allowing insurers to put aside profits, tax-exempt, toward eventual natural catastrophes, and it will be up to the association to get congressional representatives to listen and work to pass this legislation.

While some may argue that creation of a disaster catastrophe fund would only serve to subsidize the disaster-prone regions of the United States, Mr. Page said the fund should be directed at all natural disasters. He also noted the vital importance of the Gulf region, which is a major supplier of oil and gas to the rest of the United States.

On other issues, he said the association would continue to support state regulation of the insurance industry.

“Federal regulation is not needed,” he said flatly.

After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it was local government people turned to for help with their insurance, Mr. Page said, adding that he could not imagine a federal agency dealing as quickly and effectively for consumers as state regulators did.

On the issue of Terrorism Risk Insurance Act supports for insurers in the event of a catastrophic attack, he said long-term extension of the act is vital, but the Senate version of the extension lacks important components that are in the House bill.

The reauthorization, he said, should provide coverage for nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological terror events. He said while national carriers have the wherewithal to absorb the higher event trigger in the Senate bill, the House's lower trigger of $50 million would ensure that regional insurers would remain in good financial standing after an event.

PIA will continue pushing its Local Agents Serving Main Street America branding campaign to produce more resources for agents to utilize. To assist agents in growing and perpetuating their agencies, the association will be implementing a resource center on the PIA Web site that will give valuable advice in this area, he advised.

The association is also launching Vision 2010, a committee whose job it will be to identify products, coverages and forms agents and customers need to cover risks, Mr. Page said.

As for PIA itself, he said it is in the strongest position he has seen in years, with membership growing continuously over the past three years.

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