Q. Are Hawai'i homeowners and businesses sufficiently insured in the the event of another natural disaster like Hurricane Iniki?

A. From an insurance standpoint, I can tell you that there is definitely insurance available — business insurance and personal insurance. Are we prepared as a company? Yes. The question I have is whether people have enough insurance on their homes and on their businesses. We ask our customers what they think their home is worth, because with increasing cost of construction nowadays and with demand for contractors and the robust economy and housing prices going up ... it's going to be very costly to reconstruct. We encourage people very strongly to look at values of their homes. It's not something that's unique to Hawai'i. It's happening in Florida, it's happening along the Gulf Coast.

Q. How did Iniki affect Island Insurance?

A. We didn't come close to it as far as insolvency or financial impairment. A number of companies were hurt by it. But we came out of it really well. One of the reasons we did is because we are a conservative company and we are in here for the long haul. This is the only state we do business in and strategically, we have no plans in the very near future of going outside the state of Hawai'i. Prior to Hurricane Iniki, we, as many insurance companies did, bought something called reinsurance, which is basically insurance behind the insurance companies. It's a way to spread the risk.

Q. In light of the damage done by the recent heavy rains on the Windward side, what can be done to increase awareness about the need for flood insurance?

A. We're talking with a company that models floods and we are looking at possibly having that company run our (policies) through their software to see which of our homeowners are in a flood zone. We don't write flood insurance, it's written by the National Flood Insurance Program, but we can go out to those customers and let them know if they want to buy insurance, it is available. We want to be proactive in that area because you see what happened on the Windward side and what happened in Manoa.

Q. How would you rate the competitive landscape of insurance industry in Hawai'i?

A. I pulled some statistics from the state insurance department, and there are a total of 950 insurance companies in the state of Hawai'i. Most people don't realize that. Of that, there are 437 life insurance companies and 513 "all other," which are predominately property and casualty companies, which is what we do. As far as competition, if you look at the landscape, there are a lot of companies out there. We are the only locally owned property and casualty insurance company in the state. Some of our big competitors that have offices here are owned by other (Mainland and foreign) companies.

Q. What are some of the advantages of being locally owned?

A. One of the things companies tend to not realize coming into Hawai'i is that people here don't make changes very easily, at least with their insurance, and I don't think they do with a lot of things. They stick with what they know. They stick with what they're comfortable with. A lot of insurance companies have come into the state and what they have found is that the agents, who drive most of the business here, want to see a track record. If you look at what happened after Hurricane Iniki in 1992, a lot of companies left the state. Companies bailed out. One company became insolvent. And agents remember that. And consumers and the businesses remember that.

Q. Island Insurance is privately held. How does that affect the way you approach business?

A. The good thing about this company — one of the things that I enjoy about working here — is that because we are not publicly held, we don't have to focus on the top line and the bottom line and analysts' opinions and all those crazy things that sometimes are out of your control. We're basically focused on trying to do the best job that we can for our customers.

Q. What do you think of the new port-of-entry law that allows foreign insurance companies to base their U.S. operations in Hawai'i?

A. I think any time companies come in, it can be good for the economy. If they set up a local presence, it obviously adds jobs, it adds money to the economy. I think what's important is whether that company is going to stay. They better be committed to not just doing business here, but be committed to stay here for better or for worse. We saw what happened in '92 when the hurricane came through.

Q. State officials also have worked to attract the captive insurance industry, which has become a multimillion dollar business in Hawai'i. Has this been good policy?