Utah Insurance Department
Department Leadership:
D. Kent Michie, Insurance Commissioner
Mission Statement:
The mission of the Utah Insurance Department is to protect all insurance consumers through quality, responsive, state based regulation of the business of insurance.
Overview
The Utah Insurance Commissioner has two distinct and different roles in Utah 's ten billion dollar insurance industry. He protects Utah citizens by actively regulating the insurance marketplace and by liquidating insurers whose assets are insufficient to provide protection to their policyholders.
In 2006, the insurance marketplace generated $10,084,759,833 in premium income for the insurers doing business in Utah . This premium volume, in turn, generated $138,481,640 in premium tax income for Utah 's general fund. Premium tax income has increased an average of 8.28% over the past seven years.
Producer Licensing
Data Source: Insurance
Why this is important:
Most insurance is sold to Utah consumers through a licensed individual producer. It is important to Utah consumers to have confidence that the producers licensed in this state are competent, trustworthy, and professional.
What we're doing about it:
Individual producers are licensed efficiently and timely through the use of electronic licensing processes. Approved continuing education courses include insurance product courses and ethics courses to assist producers and to protect consumers.
Market Regulation
Data Source: Insurance
Why this is important:
Consumers must be protected from unscrupulous and dishonest persons in the business of insurance. Insurance is a business of trust and those persons in the industry that are dishonest need to be investigated and removed from the industry.
What we're doing about it:
The department has been keeping statistics in this area since December 2006 to ensure that investigations are conducted and resolved in a timely manner so that insurance consumers are protected.
Customer Service
Data Source: Insurance
Why this is important:
One of the vital sub-missions of the Department is to ensure that insurance claims are settled accurately and timely. If consumers feel that their claim has not been resolved to their satisfaction, they can come to the department for assistance.
What we're doing about it:
The department has been keeping statistics in this area since December 2006 to ensure that consumer complaints are resolved in a timely manner so that insurance consumers are protected.
Captive Insurers
Data Source: Insurance (current as of Sept 07)
Why this is important:
Captive insurers provide high paying jobs and bring millions of dollars of assets to Utah financial institutions.
What we're doing about it:
Utah is aggressively pursuing captive insurers to bring their business to Utah . The department's excellent service continues to attract new captive insurers.