Managers of the National Association of InsuranceCommissioners could spend about $12 million over thenext three years to improve the organization's information systemsand data security efforts.

Modernize data collection

Officials at the Kansas City, Missouri-based regulator group saythey hope to use about $8.5 million to modernize theNAIC's insurance industry data collection systems, andchange the NAIC's tech project development practices.

NAIC officials say they also need money to create an analyticsdata warehouse, offer regulators self-service business intelligencetools, harden NAIC systems against hackers, and create toolsregulators can use to educate consumers.

Officials have outlined the spending proposals in a newthree-year strategic plan.

The plan, dubbed "State Ahead," also includes non-techproposals, and both tech and non-tech proposals that that involvelittle or no extra spending.

A copy of the plan is available here.

NAIC officials want to spend $600,000 to give state insuranceregulators more briefings on complicated newissues, such as cybersecurity, and the insuranceimplications of self-driving vehicles.

Expand training programs

Other, low-cost projects could include expanding trainingprograms for insurance department staffers below the commissionerlevel, and weeding out NAIC working groups and other NAIC panelsthat aren't doing enough to justify their cost.

Julie Mix McPeak, the NAIC president, and four other NAICofficers write in a letter introducing the strategic plan that theyhave been talking to NAIC employees and other commissioners aboutthe strategic plan since early 2017.

The strategic plan is necessary because of all of the manyforces changing the nature of U.S. insurance regulation, includinglow interest rates, advances in technology, and consumers' demandfor simpler, faster insurance product purchasing procedures, NAICofficials write.

"The NAIC has never experienced such a convergence of forceswith the potential to reshape the industry," NAIC officials write."We need to evolve with the marketplace around us, lest we be leftbehind."

The NAIC was founded in 1871. It hopes to generate about $106million in revenue this year and spend about $106 million.

The NAIC expects to get 28% of its 2018 revenue from insurancecompany and industry information database fees, and 15% of itsrevenue from the sale of publications and other types of insurancedata products. Only 2% of NAIC revenue comes from memberassessments, according to the NAIC budget.

Allison Bell is the insuranceeditor for ThinkAdvisor. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitterat @Think_Allison.