Palm Beach Post Wants Regulatory Actuaries to Get Pay Raise

I wonder if the American Academy will make the guy an honorary MAAA. From a Palm Beach Post blog:

In a sad state of affairs, no one at the state Office of Insurance Regulation could do an updated analysis for legislators meeting in special session. They could have been helpful in helping to determine how much cost savings could be achieved under the two homeowner insurance premium reduction plans in progress.

Dave Foy, chief of staff for OIR, says the problem is the office has no actuaries who could do the work.

One of the three property insurance actuaries who review property insurance rates filings had quit, another was in the hospital and a third was being deposed in a court hearing over regulators denial of a large rate increase for a small Florida insurer.[...]

Actuaries can make hundreds of thousands of dollars working for private insurance companies, but only a fraction of that working for state insurance departments. So it is no wonder that state insurance departments across the United States have always had a problem in hiring and retaining qualified actuaries.