Regulation/Legislation

The authority of federal regulators to oversee and liquidate troubled large insurance companies should be significantly pared back in legislation Congress is considering, insurance interests are arguing.

Compromise legislation proposed by the Obama administration and Rep. Barney Frank would give federal banking regulators broad authority over large, troubled insurers, stirring concern within the property and casualty industry and among state officials.

C.V. Starr & Company--headed by Maurice Greenberg, the former boss of American International Group--strongly denied that the managing general underwriter is busy looting staff from AIG.

State regulators, legislators and even a consumer advocate group expressed alarm last week over efforts in Congress to usurp some insurance oversight power, warning that federal lawmakers are going too far in preempting local authority over the industry.

Although the weather has been blissfully non-eventful this hurricane season, the same cannot be said for the quagmire that is Florida's current property insurance market.

The number of licensed public adjusters in Florida increased from about 400 to over 2,500 as eight successive hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 hit the state and homeowners' claims abounded.