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With a dose of competitive bravado, some execs at USAA like to point out that Allstate is not in all states and Nationwide is not nationwide.
There's only one property and casualty insurer that writes homeowners and auto policies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia . . . and that's USAA, the San Antonio, Texas, insurance agency, which is structured to serve insurance needs of the U.S. military, their dependents and others with family links to the armed services.
That helps explain why USAA, which employs 1,600 at a major regional center in Tampa, is leading the charge for a single federal charter for insurers and a national insurance regulator. Currently, insurance licensing, discipline and oversight is handled by insurance commissioners in each state.
"We're forced to go through the regulatory and licensing processes in each jurisdiction, leading to massive bureaucratic red tape and oftentimes increased costs," said Scott Mason, USAA executive director of public affairs.
Some states, including Florida, have limited agreements to recognize insurance agents licensed in a handful of other states. But as a group of USAA executives conceded in a recent visit to Tampa, forging consensus for a single national licensing system is an uphill battle.
Especially in an election year.
Banks, another industry that objects to state-by-state rules, have an advantage over insurers because national regulators are already in place: the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Unlike the insurance industry, there isn't a need to create another bureaucracy, which Congress may be loath to consider.
Moreover, if USAA or another insurer wants to make a pitch for a regulatory change of national scope, their likely audience outside Capitol Hill is the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. That group is made up of state officials who, presumably, are not eager to give up their fiefdoms.