Beating the Odds: North Dakota Commissioner Adam Hamm Reflects on Nine-Year Tenure

November 7, 2016 by Susanne Sclafane

Property/casualty insurance executives may be worried about disrupters discovering novel ways to connect with their hard-earned policyholders, but an insurance regulator with a reputation for jumpstarting change sees positive motivations for industry action on the horizon.Executive SummaryFacing some long odds, North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm opened up the state’s health insurance market, which was dominated by one large player when he joined the department nine years ago. Similar successes at the department and the NAIC came as a result of daily hard work and a leadership style that emphasizes consensus-building.

Executive Summary

Facing some long odds, North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm opened up the state's health insurance market, which was dominated by one large player when he joined the department nine years ago. Similar successes at the department and the NAIC came as a result of daily hard work and a leadership style that emphasizes consensus-building.

“What they’re really doing is they are forcing the industry to be very honest with itself, look itself in the mirror and say, ‘We had better meet this challenge. We had better figure out what our policyholders want. We better get from point A to point Z, or we are going to lose them,'” North Dakota Insurance Commissioner Adam Hamm told Carrier Management in a September interview.

Asked about the creation of InsurTech competitors that include peer-to-peer insurers, on-demand coverage providers and underwriting platforms using social networking reputations instead of credit scores, Hamm delivered two calls to action. “It incentivizes the insurance industry to stay on the top of its game. And it incentivizes us as regulators to do the same thing” and to work with the industry, he said.