Our issues

Assurant’s mission and success requires that the laws, regulations, and markets under which we operate supports our ability to innovate, grow, compete, and serve our customer’s best interests. Assurant’s Government Affairs team, in partnership with our business units, provide expert guidance to lawmakers to ensure they understand how proposed ideas and legal changes could help or hinder our purpose. This advocacy is highly regulated and is most effective when supported by a robust employee PAC.

Through Assurant PAC, Assurant’s employees can promote the interests of our company and industry by supporting candidates for state or federal elected office who share our business objectives, the value of the solutions we provide to consumers, and support the jobs we create in their communities. Through the joint efforts of our Government Affairs team and our employee PAC, Assurant can advance our interests and accelerate our results through a transparent, regulated, and fair system of advocacy.

Why and How We Advocate

State and federal governments oversee Assurant’s business activities, product offerings, taxation, and often can be incubators for ideas that may seem helpful, but often have unintended impacts. Assurant’s Government Affairs team monitors this activity across all 50 states and the federal government. When necessary, we take action to educate lawmakers about these impacts and work to address them before they become law. Government Affairs not only works in a reactive manner, but also drives Assurant’s priorities and success through proactive legislative and regulatory initiatives. In all cases, it is our goal to educate lawmakers and the public about the value we bring and why we take the positions we do on certain public policy issues. 

Recent Examples of State Advocacy

Global Home/LPI - LPI Model Act Initiative

The Government Affairs team has led efforts to ensure the enactment of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) Real Property Lender-Placed Insurance Model Act in Florida, Missouri, and Rhode Island. The passage of the Model in Florida was the most significant for the lending solutions team, as Florida represents upwards of 35% of the lender placed market and thereby a substantial portion of our premium. Missouri is a significant insurance state, as well as the home state of the current NAIC president, thus its passage of the Model signals significant approval for the initiative, especially within the broader political context of otherwise divisive struggles which prevented the passage of most of the Missouri legislature’s proposed legislation. Passage in Rhode Island was significant as the state’s insurance commissioner, historically critical of LPI, was supportive of the Model in its entirety, signaling to other states the strength of the Model and its incorporated consumer protections.

Global Lifestyle/Connected Living & Auto - Autorenewal Legislation

The Government Affairs team, along with key industry stakeholders, led the charge to address concerns with 32 bills across the country, and remove Assurant from scope of the negative implications of these proposals. Automatic renewal is when a contract renews automatically at the end of its term without any action taken by the contracted parties and continues indefinitely until an act to cancel takes place. Nearly all subscription services use automatic renewals which have become popular over the last decade with customers choosing the convenience of being automatically charged for continuous service (e.g., magazines, fitness centers, home security, music streaming, etc.) However, this convenience has occasionally been met with consumer frustration at the time of cancellation and/or at the surprise of continuous service when consumers consider a product to be no longer used. As a result, automatic renewal laws, seeking to increase consumer protection, have gained momentum. An increase in legislative activity in this area creates a material risk: a state may adopt an autorenewal law that has burdensome requirements, leading to significant adverse impacts, such as disruptions of current business practices, double regulation, less retention of enrolled customers, and additional operational expenses. The Government Affairs team has also led efforts to ensure positive amendments in enacted state automatic renewal laws. 

Recent Examples of Federal Advocacy

Global Lifestyle/Connected Living & Auto - Federal Trade Commission Proposed Rule

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is pursuing a proposal to expand the scope of its current Negative Option Rule to have it apply to products that automatically renew and free trial offers. If adopted, the proposed "Click to Cancel" rule would create costly new requirements, including two-part affirmative consent and annual consumer notices for Assurant’s extended service contracts, tech support services, trade-in program, and identity and privacy protection services. As the proposal is being considered, Government Affairs is aggressively seeking a full exemption for service contracts. Our approach is a combination of driving trade association comment letters and alignment among organizations, support from a state insurance organization, and Congressional lobbying. 

Global Home - Lender-Placed Insurance

Recent headlines regarding insurance market disruption in states like California and Florida have led to increased federal attention to the rising costs of insurance. These headlines, while focused on homeowners and flood insurance, have resulted in high profile mentions of “force placed insurance” by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), consumer advocates, and in syndicated news stories.  Assurant was well-prepared to respond to these mentions as Government Affairs and the LPI Business team proactively collaborated in 2020 and 2021 to develop a strong informational platform equipped to respond to any public policy inquiries about the nature and value of LPI. The content and strategy developed has proven successful, as our ability to respond to the recent LPI mentions have not resulted in any negative outcomes from LPI.

Enterprise - Global Taxation

Government Affairs has been working closely with our tax team to mitigate a significant new global tax burden on the horizon for Assurant and other U.S.-based multi-national corporations.  Our team has visited Capitol Hill multiple times this year to educate tax writers about our concerns that a new minimum tax regime being implemented by OECD member countries around the globe will create a double tax scenario for US-based companies. This outcome would create a competitive disadvantage for Assurant relative to any of our non-US global competitors seeking business outside of the United States. These efforts are ongoing, but our team has been working to educate lawmakers and lay the groundwork for Congressional action.

Global Housing/Flood - National Flood Insurance Program

Efforts to permanently reform the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) have been on ongoing battle in Washington, DC for many years. For Assurant, our primary objective with any reform bill is to protect against any reductions to Write Your Own (WYO) compensation. These efforts have been successful thus far, but we must remain vigilant.

In the absence of any broader reforms, the NFIP remains subject to an ongoing requirement that Congress re-approve funding the program. The lack of permanent funding is an ongoing source of uncertainty for whether there will be changes to the NFIP or if there will ever be a program lapse. Assurant’s Government Affairs team works closely with our flood insurance team and our industry partners to advocate for certainty and sustainability of our flood insurance offerings.