Last, But Not Least: All About CAR

CAR Elects New Governing Committee Chair and Vice Chair At Its 2018 Annual Meeting

A new Chair and Vice Chair of the Governing Committee was elected during the Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers Annual Meeting on November 14th. Mr. Thomas C. DePaulo of Cabot Risk Strategies, LLC was unanimously elected as Governing Committee Chair, while Mr. Thomas A. Harris of the Quincy Mutual Group, was unanimously elected as Vice Chair.

Mr. DePaulo is currently the Vice President of Operations at Cabot Risk Strategies, overseeing Cabot’s Insurance Operations Group. Founded in 2006, Cabot Risk Strategies is an independent insurance agency based in Woburn. Mr. DePaulo succeeds outgoing Chair James S. Hyatt, of the Arbella Insurance Group, whose term had officially ended.

Information on Appointments to CAR’s Advisory Committees

Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers, the industry operated residual market and statistical agent for motor vehicle insurance in Massachusetts, is now accepting all requests for appointments or reappointments to any of the CAR Advisory Committees for the calendar year 2019.

Any and all Massachusetts insurance professionals interested in being appointed to one of the committees must submit a request no later than Monday, December 3rd, 2018.

Interested parties should email their written request to:

For those not familiar with the CAR Advisory Committees or exactly what they do, the following is a list of the main Advisory Committees along with their stated purpose. As always, its best to check directly with CAR about which committee might be the best fit for your expertise:

2018 Advisory Committees

Actuarial Committee

“The Actuarial Committee is responsible for reviewing and making determinations regarding deficit sharing, participation credits, expense allowances, quota share, and various other technical and actuarial subjects.”

Budget Committee

“The Budget Committee bears the responsibility of reviewing the annual operating budget as proposed by CAR’s President, and recommends approval to the Governing Committee. Note: Only Governing Committee members may serve on this committee.”

Commercial Automobile Committee

“The Commercial Automobile Committee is responsible for formulating recommendations relative to rates, manuals of classification, rules rating plans, policies, forms, and other such matters associated with ceded commercial business.”

Commercial Program Oversight Committee

“The Commercial Program Oversight Committee is responsible for oversight of the Commercial Servicing Carrier Programs. The Committee will recommend program requirements to be included in a request for proposal, serve as the selection committee to recommend Servicing Carrier appointments, review Servicing Carrier annual reports and CAR audit results to recommend potential enhancements to program standards that may include further consideration by the Commercial Auto Committee, review of and recommendation to the Governing Committee relative to Servicing Carrier requests for extraordinary expenses, and any other issues that may arise concerning oversight of the programs.”

Compliance and Operations Committee

“The Compliance and Operations Committee considers matter relating to statistical, accounting, data processing and procedural operations. The Committee also develops guidelines relating to Hybrid Audit Plan (HAP) and Commercial Automobile audits and reviews operational compliance relating to the CAR Plan, Rules, and Manuals.”

Financial Audit Committee

“The Financial Audit Committee is responsible for the oversight of the independent review of CAR’s financial statements. The Committee is responsible for the engagement of an independent accounting firm in accordance with CAR’s contracting policy, annually defining the scope of the engagement and for considering the auditor’s findings.”

Information Technology Advisory Committee

“The Information Technology Advisory Committee is comprised of technology leaders from CAR member companies and producers. The Committee provides insight into industry standards and best practices with respect to infrastructure architecture and considers CAR’s role in the marketplace as it applies those standards to make recommendations relative to CAR strategy and execution.”

Loss Reserving Committee

“The Loss Reserving Committee reviews quarterly loss development data for private passenger and commercial ceded business in order to determine the incurred but not reported loss reserves, which are used in the Member Participation Reports.”

MAIP Steering Committee

“This MAIP Steering Committee is responsible for developing recommendations relative to issues involving the Massachusetts Automobile Insurance Plan.”

Market Review Committee

“The Market Review Committee considers marketing issues relative to CAR’s Producer/Servicing Carrier assignment and business relationships, particularly those involving Producers.”

Personnel Committee

“The Personnel Committee is responsible for overseeing matters involving employee compensation, including but not limited to approval of annual salary range movement and merit increase percentages. The Committee also may act in an advisory capacity to staff in all areas of personnel policy and procedures. Only Governing Committee members may be appointed to this Committee.”

The CAR Governing Committee Schedule for 2019

The Governing Committee is responsible for the administration of CAR

The Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers, better known as “CAR”, has published the meeting dates of its Governing Committee for the calendar year 2019. The Governing Committee which is not only responsible for the administration of CAR, but also the preparation and filing of the CAR Plan and Rules of Operation generally meets every other month.

The Committee consists of thirteen individuals who are appointed by the Commissioner to a term of six years. Six members of the committee must come from insurance companies participating in the Plan as well as one more representative from domestic insurer, which the remaining six appointees hail from the associations of insurance producers, with two of those representing assigned risk producers.

The 2019 meeting dates are as follows: