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Summary
Personal lines P&C insurers, regulators, and consumers are confronting a widening gap between rising risk costs and what many households and businesses can sustainably pay. Insurers point to higher loss costs driven by a mix of factors including catastrophe frequency and severity, inflation in labor and materials, higher vehicle and building repair complexity, and litigation/claim settlement dynamics. All of which translates into higher indicated rates and tighter underwriting.
At the same time, consumer frustration is rising. Many policyholders are facing broad cost-of-living pressures, and insurance can feel uniquely unavoidable: home and auto coverage are often required to secure a mortgage or loan. Affordability concerns are further amplified by perceptions about insurer profitability general confusion about insurance.
Join a panel of industry experts as we discuss:
- P&C industry profitability and pricing trends
- What is really driving affordability and availability challenges
- The wide range of proposed solutions ranging from underwriting discipline to public private partnerships
Speakers
Dave Jones
Director, UC Berkeley Center for Law, Energy & the Environment & Former California Insurance Commissioner
Dave Jones is the Director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) and a former Senior Fellow at The ClimateWorks Foundation.
Dave Jones served two terms as California’s Insurance Commissioner from 2011 to 2018. He led the Department of Insurance and was responsible for regulating the largest insurance market in the United States where insurers collect $310 Billion a year in premiums and have $5.5 trillion in assets under management. Jones led the Department’s response to California’s increasingly deadly and destructive catastrophic wildfires, including the 2015 Butte and Valley Fires, the 2017 NorthBay and Thomas fires, and the 2018 Mendocino, Carr, Woolsey, and Camp Fires.
Scott White
NAIC President & Commissioner Virginia Bureau of Insurance
Scott A. White was appointed Commissioner of the Virginia State Corporation Commission’s Bureau of Insurance in 2018. He was elected NAIC President in December 2025.
White joined the Bureau as a research analyst in 1998. From 1999 until 2011, he worked as an attorney advising the Bureau on all major insurance regulatory and compliance matters. In 2011 he became head of the Commission’s financial services legal division, expanding his practice areas to include securities and banking.
At the NAIC, White has chaired the Financial Condition (E) Committee, the Long-Term Care Insurance (EX) Task Force, and the Southeast Zone. He is a member of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) Executive Committee, Macroprudential Committee, and Insurance Capital Standard Task Force.
White earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia and a law degree from the University of Missouri. He and his wife, Jodi, have two grown daughters.
Plymouth Rock Home Assurance
Bill Martin
President and CEO
Bill joined Plymouth Rock in 2016 and is in charge of the property insurance business and reinsurance programs. Bill has over 30 years of experience in the insurance industry. Bill was formerly President of Bankers Insurance, winning a Celent Model Insurer award in 2014 for simplifying homeowners insurance shopping. He also founded a startup with a new approach to flood insurance and has held senior positions at Farmers Insurance, Progressive and Travelers. Bill is a graduate of Stanford University, with a degree in Survey Data Research. He is a frequent speaker and author on insurance issues and has served on the Institute for Business and Home Safety and other safety organizations. He is an active board member of nonprofits that combat poverty and aid those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. He is an avid sailor, skier and trombone player.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Chris Winter
Associate Director, Insurance
Chris Winter is the North America Insurance solutions lead for S&P Global Market Intelligence. In this role, Chris helps insurance clients utilize the full suite of solutions offered by S&P, such as financial data, credit risk solutions, data feeds, and more, while specializing in the NAIC Statutory and Rate Filings products. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and English from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the College of William & Mary.
Questions?
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