In a recent guest essay, Frederick Haskins lobbed serious accusations of “regulatory capture” and “collusion” at the Iowa Insurance Division and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. While election-year rhetoric often relies on sensationalism, modern insurance regulation demands technical precision and facts.
The piece attempted to use my recent comments to the Financial Times as an admission of regulatory failure. In truth, it demonstrated the exact opposite: agency independence, transparency, and proactive leadership.
Throughout the spring, our leadership team — including Kim Cross, Kevin Clark, Carrie Mears, Mike Yanacheak, and myself — conducted interviews with numerous national media outlets. Our goal was to clarify the increasingly complex regulation of private credit in insurance. Thanks to our staff’s active role in regulating complex entities, we often observe emerging issues early. When our regulatory lens reveals gaps, we often implement guardrails or limitations on Iowa domestic insurers that do not yet exist on a national level. We can then use that knowledge and experience to collaborate with our peers to implement appropriate frameworks more broadly, which occurs through our active leadership positions nationally and internationally.
While our interview noted that we work closely with our domestic insurers before advancing these rules nationally, let me be clear: This is not a regulatory failure. It is the definition of active, forward-thinking oversight.
When private equity firms began expanding into the life insurance sector and shifting assets toward private credit, the Iowa Insurance Division did not look the other way. We were among the first regulators in the nation to step forward, publicly identify the emerging risks of these complex balance sheets, and demand heightened scrutiny. The division hired highly skilled individuals who brought valuable industry knowledge and expertise with them. I am incredibly proud of the technical team that has been assembled during my tenure, and I have full confidence in their ability to protect consumers.
My commitment to protecting consumers is not a recent development, and I did not spend my career in private equity boardrooms. My path in public service began over 40 years ago in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, where as an assistant attorney general and chief counsel, I fought to protect everyday citizens from corporate fraud. My public service experience moved to regulation in Missouri where I also served as securities and insurance commissioner. For more than a decade in Iowa — first as deputy commissioner and for nearly 10 years as insurance commissioner — that consumer-first mission has remained entirely unchanged. I expect and receive the same public protection commitment from team members in this agency. I greatly value the range of experience and knowledge that our technical experts bring to the office, but I have no doubt that we are united in our public service mission.
Haskins mistakes technical collaboration for compromise. He points to our staff’s involvement in national valuation task forces as a conflict of interests, which betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of regulation and the modern financial markets. In the 40 years since Haskins briefly served as an acting regulator, global finance has grown exponentially complex.
If regulators operate in a vacuum, refusing to engage with the market to understand innovative investment structures, we leave consumers vulnerable. Effective oversight requires that state regulators proactively build sophisticated, nationwide rules. We are not “co-authoring industry-friendly rules” — we are standardizing the metrics to ensure these companies maintain the strict solvency required to honor their promises to policyholders.
Furthermore, state insurance regulators, often with the Iowa Insurance Division participating in leadership, have been aggressively working through the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to increase transparency regarding affiliated asset management and to tighten cross-border reinsurance requirements. Our job is to build common-sense regulatory frameworks that balance free-market innovation with absolute structural safety.
Life insurance and annuities represent peace of mind for millions of families. Protecting that peace of mind requires a level-headed, highly technical regulatory approach — not the hyper-adversarial posture suggested by political advocates. The Iowa Insurance Division will continue to use every tool at its disposal to police the market, demand strict financial transparency, and stand firmly on the side of Iowa consumers.
Doug Ommen is Iowa insurance commissioner.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: What Iowa insurance regulators do is proactive oversight | Opinion
Reporting by Doug Ommen, Guest columnist / Des Moines Register
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By Doug Ommen, Guest columnist | USA TODAY Network
