Florida’s Insurance Regulator Buried a Completed Report That Raised Red Flags About Insurer Affiliate Profits
Yesterday’s testimony before the Florida House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee ripped the cover off a story that’s been brewing for years: the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) under David Altmaier had a completed, paid-for, red-flag-waving report about insurer affiliate transactions showing hundreds of millions of hidden profits for the insurance industry — and simply chose to ignore it.
Jan Moenck, the expert from Risk & Regulatory Consulting who authored the “draft” Insurer Affiliate Study, testified under oath that the report was complete. She made clear that the “draft” label was a standard placeholder so OIR could request minor edits, but in her professional opinion, her findings and recommendations were final. Moenck said she followed up several times with OIR after delivering the report but received no request for changes, no request for further work, and — most tellingly — no further communication. OIR paid her bill in full. That was the end of it.
The result? Legislators, who spent the two years debating the need for massive insurance reforms, were kept completely in the dark about a study that could have changed the entire conversation.
One legislator flatly said that the OIR lied to them in the last hearing. And let’s be clear: the responsibility sits squarely on former Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier’s shoulders. Altmaier, who left the post in 2022 to become a lobbyist for insurance company interests, had the report sitting in his inbox while lawmakers scrambled to understand skyrocketing premiums and insurer insolvencies. His successor, Michael Yaworsky, only took over after Altmaier’s departure.
The political optics are brutal. While homeowners lost coverage and paid premiums through the nose, Florida’s top insurance regulator had a professionally prepared report hinting at profits being siphoned off through affiliate companies, MGAs, TPAs, and reinsurers — and did nothing with it.
But today’s hearing didn’t just end with finger-pointing. Florida House leadership promised action: The Chair of the committee announced that the Florida House would hire the best forensic accountants available to audit the affiliated company transactions themselves. Instead of trusting the OIR, the Florida House of Representatives is now doing the job insurance regulators failed to do.
That means insurers, along with their captive MGAs, TPAs, and affiliated reinsurers, are about to get a full financial examination — this time with public accountability.
Lawrence Mower was the investigative journalist who uncovered the report through a freedom of information request. His article about yesterday’s hearing, Florida Regulators Didn’t Follow Up on Insurance Profits Study, Author Says, reported that this investigation is going to have major implications for how Florida regulates property insurers moving forward. I agree.
If this report had seen the light of day when it was completed — back when lawmakers were told they had “no choice” but to pass insurance industry-friendly reforms — the insurance debate and legislation in Florida might have looked very different. It begs the question of whether Altmaier was already acting as a lobbyist for the insurance industry before he officially left his position as insurance commissioner.
Stay tuned. This investigation is taking time. But the next few chapters of this investigation promise to be even more explosive.
For those who did not see the last hearing, I’ve attached a copy of the transcript so you can see exactly what former insurance commissioner David Altmaier said about the buried report.
Thought For The Day
“It’s not the crime that gets you—it’s the cover-up.”
– Richard Nixon
