Best’s Review, June 2015 Edition: Breckenridge CEO Tracey Carragher on Regulation

In the June 2015 edition of Best’s Review, Patricia Vowinkel interviewed Tracey Carragher on, among other things, “the impact of overregulation on the insurance industry and being an advocate for the consumer.” Any article on the “impact of overregulation” draws my attention. Combine that with being an advocate for consumers, and it seals the deal. What Ms. Carragher had to say on this topic was very interesting:

“If you are working in areas that are more regulated than most, then you have to figure out how you are going to become a consumer advocate and an advocate for the regulation and take the high road. There’s a good chance that you may assume a lot more expense. You may need to charge more for your product or your service because of the specific regulation. But that’s just a part of doing business today.”

I totally agree that the right approach – the high road approach – is to be willing to accept and advocate for regulation, even if it means charging more. Where we see one of the greatest challenges in this area is in lead generation. Not only is there a perception that compliant leads are more costly, but often more importantly, they are less effective.

We would like to see more producers and insurance distributors taking the approach that Ms. Carragher suggests: “We invite consumer advocates who are pushing for regulation to come in and meet with us and take a look at what we are doing. Because the better we are at what we do, and the more transparent we are, the better off we’re going to be as a company. We’re not going to make ourselves a target that way.” Bravo.

We want to see the insurance industry as a whole, act to protect their business and avoid being a target and we agree with Ms. Carragher that the way to do that is to work with those who would regulate. The more we self-regulate and work with consumer advocates, the less need there will be for external regulations.