Court Approves Dan Schwartzer's Appointment as
Special Deputy Commissioner for Ambac
Madison, WI—A Dane County Court formally approved the appointment of Dan Schwartzer to serve as the external Special Deputy Commissioner of the Segregated Account of Ambac. In this role Mr. Schwartzer's primary responsibility will be as the Special Deputy Commissioner. Mr. Schwartzer has been serving both as the Deputy Insurance Commissioner and the Special Deputy Commissioner for the Segregated Account since February 17, 2016. With the court's approval of the appointment, Mr. Schwartzer has resigned his position as Deputy Insurance Commissioner. Mr. Schwartzer had served as Deputy Insurance Commissioner since January 4, 2011. In that role, Mr. Schwartzer supervised the regulatory, public information and administrative functions of the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance.
Under ch. 645, Wis. Stat., the Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner has the sole authority to appoint a Special Deputy Commissioner, but because Ambac is the largest rehabilitation in the history of Wisconsin, Commissioner Nickel followed an RFQ process to recommend the most qualified candidates. The process was run by the Department of Administration (DOA) and the panel included a representative of DOA and two outside state insurance commissioners. The selection panel recommended two candidates including Mr. Schwartzer. Commissioner Nickel ultimately selected Mr. Schwartzer, who is currently serving in the role.
Ambac's Segregated Account was put into rehabilitation in 2010 and the Commissioner by statute is the Rehabilitator. The Special Deputy Commissioner's contract and compensation, regardless of who the Commissioner choses as the Special Deputy, has to be reviewed and approved by the rehabilitation court, and all interested parties have the opportunity to state any objections. Since 2011, the compensation is based on a study done to determine the market value of the position. The court today approved the contract, which was nearly 40% less than the prior Special Deputy Commissioner and significantly below the bottom end of the study. Based on the RFQ process, Mr. Schwartzer was also the least cost option. No taxpayer money is used to pay compensation to the Special Deputy Commissioner.
"I'd like to personally thank Dan for all the work we have done together at OCI in the last five years," stated Insurance Commissioner Ted Nickel. "We have worked consistently to improve the environment for consumers including better consumer response times and launching new consumer outreach efforts, while streamlining our regulatory processes to make Wisconsin a better place to do business. Dan has been a key part of all of those efforts."
Created by the Legislature in 1870, Wisconsin's Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) was vested with broad powers to ensure that the insurance industry responsibly and adequately met the insurance needs of Wisconsin citizens. Today, OCI's mission is to lead the way in informing and protecting the public and responding to its insurance needs.