A professor of contract law promises to bring his plea for greater homeowners insurance policy transparency before a committee of regulators this week--and he is taking his battle to the insurance media as well.

Daniel Schwarcz, a professor from the University of Minnesota Law School is set to speak before the Property/Casualty Committee of the NAIC on Wednesday in Orlando.

In advance of his remarks, he has submitted an opinion piece to National Underwriter magazine--a rebuttal to an earlier opinion written by Insurance Information Institute President Robert Hartwig that was published in NU's Oct. 11, 2010 edition.

Mr. Hartwig gave the industry response to Mr. Schwarcz's presentation at the NAIC summer meeting in August, during which the professor stated that the traditional homeowners insurance policy is no longer standardized among carriers.

In Mr. Schwarcz's rebuttal, which will be published in the Oct. 25 edition of the magazine, the consumer advocate clarifies that he, like Mr. Hartwig, is not calling on regulators to mandate a "one-size-fits-all policy."

Mr. Schwarcz does, however, suggest that "regulators and lawmakers should at least consider setting a minimum floor for personal lines policies" in his written commentary for National Underwriter.

"Doing this would ensure, as Mr. Hartwig claims (with no substantiation), that 'every homeowners policy provides a baseline of essential coverages,'" he writes.

In addition, Mr. Schwarcz reiterated some of the research findings he shared with regulators at the August meeting in Seattle. In particular, he asserted that:

o Insurers refuse to make their policy forms publicly available, only making them available to consumers after they buy coverage.

o Regulators generally do not even have complete copies of policy forms in their files.

o Agents, for the most part, believe that all homeowners policy forms are essentially the same.

o Insurers using captive agents tend to have the most unfavorable policy forms.

The rebuttal calls for greater transparency and readability to correct these problems.

Mr. Schwarcz's complete research paper is publicly available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1687909.