Fort Lauderdale, Jan. 13 2017 – Former Florida Insurance Commissioner Tom Gallagher has joined Deerfield Beach-based People’s Trust Insurance Co. as chief operating officer, the company announced Friday.
Gallagher, 72, served as insurance commissioner in separate stints, from 1989 to 1995 and from 2001 to 2002, then served as state chief financial officer from 2003 to 2007. A Republican, Gallagher also served 13 years in the state House and ran four times unsuccessfully for governor.
For the past five years he has been a consultant for Colodny Fass P.A., a law firm based in Sunrise that specializes in insurance regulation and compliance.
In his new role, Gallagher will oversee all People’s Trust executives, according to a news release.
“Tom is exactly the right man for the job, and all of us at People’s Trust Insurance are delighted to have him on our team,” said George Schaeffer, the company’s Chief Executive Officer. “Tom’s credentials in our industry and our state are second to none, and I know he will help lead us to even greater achievements as we meet the needs of our policyholders.”
Jay Neal, president and CEO of the Fort Lauderdale-based nonprofit Florida Association for Insurance Reform, said, “Tom’s obviously a highly qualified, competent person for that role. I think it’s good for the market. He lived through the last 20 years of history that’s been so trans-formative. I think that’s probably a good move for them.”
Founded in 2008 by Mike Gold, who died in 2014, People’s Trust had 60,453 personal residential policies in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties in the third quarter of 2016 — fifth-most of all property insurers excluding State Farm, which doesn’t allow public release of its market-share data, according to state records.
Statewide, People’s Trust had 150,077 personal residential policies — ninth-most excluding State Farm.
In Florida, the company is recognized as a pioneer of a concept called managed repair, in which policyholders pay lower premiums in exchange for allowing the company to repair damages with its own contractors and materials.
While most companies with managed repair options have contracts with outside vendors, People’s Trust created an affiliated company, the Rapid Response Team, that employs its own crews and stocks repair materials in its own warehouses.
South Florida’s largest home insurer, state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp., has been developing a voluntary managed repair program in hopes of reducing mounting losses from water damage claims and associated lawsuits.
Source: Ron Hurtibise, Sun Sentinel
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