{"id":19608,"date":"2020-09-18T14:19:02","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T18:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insurancenewsnet.com\/?post_type=innarticle&amp;p=5868558"},"modified":"2020-09-18T14:19:02","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T18:19:02","slug":"regulators-begin-personal-discussion-of-race-and-insurance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2020\/09\/18\/regulators-begin-personal-discussion-of-race-and-insurance\/","title":{"rendered":"Regulators Begin \u2018Personal\u2019 Discussion Of Race And Insurance"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"featured-image left pull-box small pull-box hide-md hide-sm\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"448\" height=\"560\" src=\"https:\/\/insurancenewsnet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Hodgen-Mainda-448x560.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium-thumb-post size-medium-thumb-post wp-post-image\" alt><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"448\" height=\"560\" src=\"https:\/\/insurancenewsnet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Hodgen-Mainda-448x560.jpg\" class=\"lazyload attachment-medium-thumb-post size-medium-thumb-post wp-post-image\" alt data-sizes=\"(max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\"><figcaption class=\"text-left\">Hodgen Mainda is commissioner of insurance for Tennessee.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<div><span><span><br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><span><span><br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><span><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Tennessee Insurance Commissioner Hodgen Mainda delivered a simple, eloquent message for his colleagues: &#8220;This is personal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>An African American, Mainda spoke passionately about what the insurance industry needs to contribute to the national movement toward a colorblind society. He addressed regulators Thursday during the initial meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners&#8217; Special Committee on Race and Insurance.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is upholding the dignity and sanctity of human life,&#8221; said Mainda, a native of Nairobi, Kenya, who moved to Tennessee in 1997. &#8220;And that&#8217;s the way that we need to approach it. Put the politics aside. This is about human beings and being inclusive and being accepting of people for who they are.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The two-hour meeting, held virtually, established the committee&#8217;s five work streams and the co-chairs of each work group. They include:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span>Research\/analyze level of diversity and inclusion within and access to the insurance industry and insurance products. Make recommendations on action steps. Co-chairs: Hodgen Mainda and My Chi To, executive deputy superintendent of the Insurance Division, New York.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Research\/analyze level of diversity and inclusion within the NAIC and state insurance regulator community. Make recommendations on action steps. Co-chairs: Kentucky Insurance Commissioner Sharon Clark, and Illinois insurance Director Robert Muriel.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Examine and determine which practices or barriers exist in the insurance sector that potentially disadvantage people of color and\/or historically underrepresented groups in the following lines of business:<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><span>P&amp;C co-chairs: Kansas Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt and Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Andrew Mais.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Life insurance and annuities co-chairs: New Jersey Insurance Commissioner Marlene Caride and Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Mark Afable.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Health co-chairs: Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Jessica Altman and California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Four Charges<\/h2>\n<p>The NAIC Executive Committee established the special committee this summer and gave it four charges and instructions to report back by the end of the year. Ray Farmer, South Carolina insurance commissioner and 2020 president of the NAIC, said the work will take much longer than that.<\/p>\n<div class=\"insur-mobile-body-leaderboard\" id=\"insur-987606645\">\n<div class=\"insur-adlabel\">Advertisement<\/div>\n<p><a data-bid=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/insurancenewsnet.com\/linkout\/5761715\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/insurancenewsnet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Guardian-09-20-728x90-1.gif\" alt width=\"728\" height=\"90\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/insurancenewsnet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Guardian-09-20-728x90-1.gif\" alt width=\"728\" height=\"90\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re playing the long game here and our work over the next few months will merely set the stage for the real work to come,&#8221; Farmer said. &#8220;The role of the special committee in 2020 is to evaluate key areas of focus, provide initial conclusions and findings, and most importantly, perhaps, provide recommendations on how we can structure our engagements on these matters going forward to ensure that we&#8217;re being effective, inclusive and transparent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The committee&#8217;s four charges are:<\/p>\n<p>1.<span> Conduct research and analyze the level of diversity and inclusion within the<\/span><br \/><span>insurance sector;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>2. Engage with a broad group of stakeholders on issues related to race,<\/span><br \/><span>diversity, and inclusion in, and access to, the insurance sector and insurance<\/span><br \/><span>products;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>3. Examine and determine which current practices or barriers exist in the<\/span><br \/><span>insurance sector that potentially disadvantage people of color and\/or<\/span><br \/><span>historically underrepresented groups; and<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>4. Make recommendations to the Executive Committee and membership by year<\/span><br \/><span>end regarding steps: (a) both insurance regulators and the insurance industry<\/span><br \/><span>can take to increase diversity and inclusion within the sector; (b) that should<\/span><br \/><span>be taken to address practices that potentially disadvantage people of color<\/span><br \/><span>and\/or historically underrepresented groups; and (c) to ensure ongoing<\/span><br \/><span>engagement of the NAIC on these issues through charges to its committees,<\/span><br \/><span>task forces and working groups.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Minority Outreach<\/h2>\n<p>The first meeting of the committee was devoted to public comments, with some regulators sharing the successes they have had in their states.<\/p>\n<p>Louisiana has been a leader in minority outreach programs and expanding career opportunities in insurance for communities of color, said Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon.<\/p>\n<p>Working through its Department of Diversity and Opportunity, Louisiana insurance regulators helped develop an insurance program with a concentration in risk management at Southern University, a historically Black college in Baton Rouge, La. Another program, via partnership with the Big I, gives minority students in 14 high schools and universities a chance for internships and job shadowing experiences, Donelon said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t just talk the talk in our state,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We have a guideline that is monitored by the legislative auditor that measures each state state agency for its diversity in minority involvement in its workforce.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Several trade associations spoke and assured the committee that their members are supportive of the committee&#8217;s goals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur common goal should be a modernized regulatory framework that recognizes and incentivizes new and innovative methods of expanding access to Americans across the entire socio-economic spectrum,\u201d said Susan Neely, president and CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers.<\/p>\n<p>She advocated for four key strategies based on access, diversity, education and investment.<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Talent Retention And Acquisition&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>Wayne Chopus, president and CEO of the Insured Retirement Institute, outlined a number of actions that IRI has undertaken, including establishing a board of directors working group; establishing a steering committee comprised of more than 20 diversity, equality and inclusion experts from IRI member companies; and identifying the initial work that will be addressed.<\/p>\n<p>Next steps will be to establish criteria to measure progress and drive adoption of identified best practices.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur initial focus will be on underrepresented minority groups with a special eye toward the unique needs of the Black community, and we\u2019ll be particularly focused on talent retention and acquisition for this population,\u201d Chopus said.<\/p>\n<p><span><em>InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/insurancenewsnet.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#f69c999e98d89e9f9a829998b69f9898909393929497959dd895999b\"><span class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"3d57525553135554514952537d5453535b5858595f5c5e56135e5250\">[email&nbsp;protected]<\/span><\/a>. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><strong>\u00a9 Entire contents copyright 2020 by InsuranceNewsNet.com Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted without the expressed written consent from InsuranceNewsNet.com.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/insurancenewsnet.com\/innarticle\/regulators-begin-personal-discussion-of-race-and-insurance?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=regulators-begin-personal-discussion-of-race-and-insurance\">Read the original article at insurancenewsnet.com <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hodgen Mainda is commissioner of insurance for Tennessee. Tennessee Insurance Commissioner Hodgen Mainda delivered a simple, eloquent message for his colleagues: &#8220;This is personal.&#8221; An African American, Mainda spoke passionately about what the insurance&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19608"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}