Consumer Services and Market Conduct Branch - Deputy Commissioner

Tony Cignarale joined the California Department of Insurance in 1992. Since 2007, he has served as Deputy Commissioner of the Consumer Services and Market Conduct Branch. Tony previously served as Chief of the Consumer Services Division within the Branch. In that role, he directed the statewide activities of the Consumer Services Division, which include the Consumer Hotline and consumer complaint investigation units. Prior to that role, Tony served the Department in the roles of Associate Compliance Officer and Supervising Compliance Officer.

In his role as Deputy Commissioner, Tony directs the statewide activities of the Department’s the Consumer Services Division (which includes the Department’s Consumer Call Center and consumer complaint functions), the Consumer Law Unit (a unit of legal staff dedicated to consumer issues), and the Market Conduct Division (which conducts onsite exams of insurers for unfair rating, underwriting, and claims practices).

In 2004, Tony was the recipient of the Insurance Commissioner’s Leadership and Teamwork Award. In 2021, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara awarded the Insurance Commissioner's Special Recognition Award to Tony "in recognition of his exemplary professional, consumer-focused attitude, and extraordinary commitment to protecting consumers, small businesses, wildfire survivors and their families during a global pandemic and unprecedented catastrophic wildfires in the history of the State of California."

Tony is also a Co-chair of the Department’s Fair Claims Settlement Practices Task Force, which monitors claims settlement practices and effects regulation changes when necessary. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Clarkson University and his Juris Doctor from William Howard Taft University, School of Law.

The Consumer Services and Market Conduct Branch focuses on consumer assistance and protection by educating consumers, mediating consumer complaints, and enforcing insurance laws. The Branch enforces insurance laws during the investigation of individual consumer complaints against insurers and agents/brokers and through on-site examinations of insurer claims and underwriting practices.

The Consumer Services and Market Conduct Branch consists of:

• Consumer Services Division
• Market Conduct Division
• Consumer Law Unit