When it comes to Santa’s Naughty or Nice list, Jeff Jackson is trying very hard to raise his status to “nice.” Jackson is the most senior executive of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP.) Jackson extended the deadline for policyholders to file their Hurricane Helene or Milton flood proofs of loss to 180 days.
The FEMA website lists the following about Jeff Jackson:
Jeff Jackson currently serves as the Acting Assistant Administrator of the Federal Insurance Directorate and the interim senior executive of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) within FEMA’s Office of Resilience.
In this role Jeff leads the daily operations of the NFIP, the world’s largest single-peril insurance provider, which serves 4.7 million policyholders nationwide and generates over $3.5 billion in annual revenue.
Under Jeff’s leadership, the organization is improving the NFIP’s customer experience and using innovative approaches that offer policyholders more choice, and a program that aligns with the private insurance market.
Jeff played an instrumental role in FEMA’s 2021 implementation of the NFIP’s updated rating approach. The changes corrected longstanding pricing inequities effecting nearly one million policyholders by eliminating lower risk, lower value homes subsidizing higher risk, higher value homes. He continues to passionately advocate for additional NFIP reforms including the need for a means tested affordability plan to help address pricing barriers for many uninsured Americans.
Prior to his current role, Jeff has held several key FEMA leadership positions including Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Federal Insurance Directorate since 2020, Deputy Assistant Administrator of the National Preparedness Directorate, Deputy Chief Component Procurement Officer, where he oversaw a dramatic increase in procurement demand from $1.6 billion in FY16 to $4.1 billion in Fiscal Year 2018.
I would suggest that readers listen to Jeff Jackson talk about his thoughts about reforming the NFIP:
In the video, Jackson makes the following statement, which is refreshing to hear about a government regulator listening and admitting mistakes:
[I]t’s important to be very customer focused. That’s something that had begun before I arrived, but that we’ve continued there… You know, it’ll shock your listeners to hear that people have been dissatisfied with the performance of government when it comes to ease and usability. So, we really believe government can set the example for how to interface in many cases… Like a lot of things we hear about the bad news, we hear about the missteps….
His thoughts seem progressive. The problem is that several of these reforms require Congress to pass new legislation, and that does not seem possible anytime soon.
Thought For The Day
“Have a goal in life. When water is everywhere, it is a flood, but if it is in between banks, it is a river.”
—Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
