A Date with DFS

October 3rd marks the date of consolidation of the New York State Insurance Department and the New York State Banking Department into the Department of Financial Services, under the leadership of Benjamin Lawsky. The Insurance Advocate has applauded this consolidation, brainchild of the Cuomo administration, as a cost savings and effectiveness — increasing measure. Nonetheless, as with any merger or consolidation, there are challenges faced by the protagonists. In a searching article by our regular feature contributor Peter Bickford, a veteran and most intelligent observer of the New York state insurance regulatory scene, we present several of Peter’s thoughts on the challenges facing the consolidated department. We do this as a means of updating our readers and of pointing out what many are looking for in this consolidation. Again, we praise the Cuomo administration for taking this initiative and trust that the capable people in both departments will make this work…Speaking of consolidations, Cardinal Comp has been sold to AmTrust, we have learned as we go to press. This augurs a multi-state set of relationships which will work to the benefit of Cardinal Comp and its agents and brokers. We wish the Albany based team and their new colleagues all the best…We will be postponing the announcement of ourAgency of the Year due to a death in the family of one of the brokerage’s leaders, to our Thanksgiving issue. We express our nameless condolences here, since we do not wish to give away the name of the agency but, out of respect for the parent of its current chief executive who was also an executive of the firm, we will hold off until November…TheInsurance Advocate and it’s staff congratulates PIA’s new officers and directors— see article in this issue—and we salute the PIA on the latest in its series of events in what has become a most active calendar in the downstate area in New York for agents. We look forward to seeing industry professionals on the 27th in Tarrytown New York for PIA’s next full day conference…On October 14th the matter of New York State Insurance Department and National Association of Commissioners modernization will be weighed during an Insurance Federation of New York, Inc.’s morning session to be held at the offices of Stroock& Stroock & Lavan LLP in lower Manhattan. To find out more information on this write to: g@cinn.com… We were pleased to see that the GNAIE has turned its dialogue on solvency issues to Twitter, which means an expanded dialogue on the new European regulations will take hold here in New York. AIDA U.S. is planning a solvency conference involving the WeiserMazars LLP law firm, the largest accounting firm in France, together with the Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP law firm in the New York. More on this as we get the news…