If David Altmaier’s first two months are any indication, Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet were right to make Altmaier the state’s top insurance regulator.
Altmaier, who had been a deputy commissioner at the Office of Insurance Regulation, was the compromise choice in May. Scott and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater wouldn’t support the other’s favored candidate, and both had to agree. The concern about Altmaier was that he had worked for the office just eight years after starting out as an insurance agent. He was succeeding Kevin McCarty, who had been Florida’s only insurance commissioner since it became an appointed post in 2003.
Just three weeks after Scott and Cabinet picked him, however, Altmaier said the office would appeal a Leon County Circuit Court ruling that State Farm could keep secret information about how many homeowner policies the company writes in Florida and where. Altmaier’s decision could benefit consumers.
Companies must report these numbers to regulators every three months in a Quarterly Supplemental Report. Since 2014, State Farm has refused to file its report, arguing that the information is proprietary. The company challenged the requirement in court.
