The Obama administration broke with its usual practice of delaying action on insurance-related matters by moving with due dispatch to fill the slots on the new Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance.

In fact, compared with the lack of urgency with which the administration approached filling the voting insurance seat on the Financial Stability Oversight Council, the speed of the advisory committee appointments was almost blinding. It took the administration less than six months from the initial announcement in early May seeking committee members to announce who those 15 committee members would be.

Among those named to the committee—which is charged with advising the Federal Insurance Office—are some prominent figures in the property/casualty insurance world, such as Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. President and CEO Brian Duperreault. In addition, Scott E. Harrington, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School who has written extensively on insurance regulation, is another welcome choice.

But there remain a couple of areas of concern about the panel.

First, the absence of a risk manager or someone with risk management expertise is an unfortunate oversight. While there is a consumer advocate on the board, there is no one representing consumers of commercial insurance.

The concerns of commercial insurance buyers differ from those of people buying homeowners or personal auto coverage. At least for the time being, the concerns of commercial insurance buyers could receive short shrift.

Second, the Treasury Department has continued to demonstrate a bias toward regulation and regulators. This is to be expected. After all, the administration is of the Democratic persuasion. And the near-financial meltdown of 2008 raised understandable cries for more regulation, which in turn led to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that created the FIO. But filling nearly half of the seats on the committee with regulators may be a bit excessive.

After all, the committee is supposed to advise FIO about insurance matters. While regulators should have a seat at the table, this is a situation where having more rather than fewer voices representing the private sector or academia would be welcome. Private sector representatives in particular would bring domestic and international market knowledge to the panel.

Remember, those who serve on the advisory committee aren't drafting federal regulations. Instead, they're providing advice to the federal government's first insurance regulator, limited as the FIO's regulatory powers are. The more diverse the sources of advice happen to be, the better.

Some concerns aside, Treasury's insurance industry appointments are certainly sound ones. Now, let's just hope they get the attentive hearing their voices should command.