Report: S.C. Insurance Director Kitzman Resigning

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Kitzman resigns as Insurance Department director
Eleanor Kitzman is resigning as director of the South Carolina Insurance Department after two years, according to a published report in The (Columbia) State.

The newspaper did not cite a source for the resignation, but reported Gov. Mark Sanford’s spokesman Joel Sawyer said Kitzman and Sanford met last week about “the need to possibly go in a new direction.”

Kitzman has worked in the insurance industry for two decades. She founded Driver’s Choice Insurance Services in 1999 and sold the business in 2002.

The Insurance Department oversees almost 2,000 companies doing business in the state.

Kitzman has suggested South Carolina expand its “wind pool” insurance coverage, which is a state-run system for homeowners who can’t get wind coverage from private companies because of hurricane risk.

The pool currently covers just a thin band of the coast, leaving a large number of coastal residents facing steep increases in insurance rates.

But Sanford has questioned if the move is necessary or legal, Sawyer said.

Kitzman is the fifth woman to leave a top state job in the past four months.