As he assumes the position of chairman of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, Robert Restrepo has three policy issues he wants to move forward during his one-year term.

The first is to “achieve a bipartisan approach to renewing” the federal terrorism insurance backstop established by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, which is slated to expire on Dec. 31, 2014.

Another facet of that goal is to maintain the National Flood Insurance Program, as reformed by the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, said Mr. Restrepo, who also is president, CEO and chairman of the Columbus, Ohio-based State Auto Insurance Cos.

The second is to educate and preserve underwriting integrity and provide private market solutions to property insurance, particularly in regard to coastal exposures, he said.

The third is to maintain “our successful state-based regulatory system and address the threat to it at both the international and federal level,” he said.

Another operational goal is to maintain the organization's solid standing. “Under David Sampson's leadership, the staff has never been more talented and the financial strength of the organization has never been more sound,” said Mr. Restrepo, referring to PCI President David Sampson.

Mr. Restrepo said one of PCI's ongoing goals is to increase membership. He said PCI is “an attractive trade association for companies that provide niche products. An increasing number of those companies align well with PCI's past as well as future.”

PCI works hard at not only attracting members, but also retaining them, he said, noting that the trade group regrets that Liberty Mutual Insurance Group recently announced it would leave PCI. “They were a large and very well-respected member,” he said.

Mr. Restrepo said the insurance industry “has never been better capitalized and it’s never been more disciplined for a lot of reasons.” He said individual companies are “very much focused on what they can do well.”

The state-based insurance regulatory system is working, he said, as evidenced by how it dealt with the liability crisis of the 1980s and workers compensation issues in the 1990s. “Now we’re dealing with property insurance,” he said.