Shared Concern: Keeping Up With Regulatory Action

A concern shared by the major insurance-consulting firms' clients is the impact recent and ongoing regulatory actions will have on the industry, including the move toward a more international accounting standard; the work that is continuing as a result of Dodd-Frank; and other changes that may be introduced by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) or the Federal Insurance Office in the next few years.

Ernst & Young's clients are asking, “How will we meet what will be a lot more significant and timely demand for data and not kill ourselves from a profitability perspective?” says Insurance Advisory Practice Leader Dave Hollander.

As a result, Hollander says, clients want to create strategies designed to make their information a lot more accessible and transparent, regardless of what those future information demands may entail.

“We know that change is coming, but we still really don't have a good handle on what the changes will be,” says Rebecca Amoroso, Deloitte's U.S. insurance leader. “One change we do know is coming is that NAIC has actually pushed up the implementation date for ORSA [Own Risk and Solvency Assessment].”

Deloitte has people who are very close to the NAIC, she says, as well as former regulators who stay in touch with current regulators so it can provide clients regular insight, such as Howard Mills, the former superintendent of the New York Insurance Department and now a director and chief advisor to Deloitte's Insurance Industry Practice.