Risk & Insurance articles from August 2006

Risk & Insurance archives from August 2006

Mighty mice.
August 1, 2006... It's hurricane season, but don't expect that new, upgraded CAT model on which your carrier has just spent millions of dollars to tell you how much of corporate values are at risk. No one can tell you exactly. Folks aren't being cagey, you...

Correction.(Correction notice)
August 1, 2006... On the cover and on page 26 of the July 2006 edition of Risk & Insurance[R], there is an error in the caption accompanying the photos of Charles T. McCloskey Jr., executive vice president of Metcom Excess. The caption states that "Metcom is...

Preventing memory lapses.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2006... Dear Editor, Your reflections on sidecars (editor's letter, Risk Insurance[R], March 1, 2006, page 8 reminds everyone of memory lapses. Evidently, everyone in the insurance business assumes Eliot Spitzer and the regulators and revenue...

AWAC wacked.(NEWS & NOTES)
August 1, 2006... Allied World Assurance Co. Holdings Ltd. is under investigation by the Texas attorney general, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission document filed by the Bermuda-based insurer. It has suspended its chief underwriting officer...

Smart move.(NEWS & NOTES)
August 1, 2006... A bill to create a uniform, federal regulatory and taxation system for surplus lines was introduced in the House of Representatives. The Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act of 2006 would end multistate regulation, subjecting nonadmitted...

Doe dumps plan.(NEWS & NOTES)
August 1, 2006... The Department of Energy has suspended its new pension reimbursement policy for one year. In the policy, announced last April, the DOE would have stopped reimbursing contractors for defined benefit pension plan costs for new employees and set...

Upcoming events.(Calendar)
August 1, 2006... AUGUST 8-10 Vermont Captive Insurance Association 2006 Conference The VCIA conference is the largest gathering of captive insurance professionals in the world. This event will be held at the Sheraton Hotel, Burlington, Vt. ...

Quote of the month.
August 1, 2006... "Some people are irreplaceable." --ROB BILLINGS, PROPRIETOR, BILLINGS INSURANCE MANAGERS

WTC workers' comp woes: pressure mounts to end statute of limitations on ground-zero claims.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
August 1, 2006... Advocacy groups seeking removal of the long-past deadline for New York City workers and others to file claims for workers' compensation for injuries or sickness arising from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center have launched...

AIRMIC 2006: a mixed bag: old concerns ease, new emerge.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
August 1, 2006... For a second year, Britain's insurance and risk managers decamped to the seaside in June for their annual conference. The Association of Insurance and Risk Managers chose the south-coast resort of Bournemouth as the venue for this year's...

Domiciles captive to new rules? Rules may encourage offshore captives.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
August 1, 2006... New rules accepted by state insurance regulators may cause smaller companies to register captive insurance vehicles in offshore domiciles instead of onshore jurisdictions, according to captive insurance managers and state regulators. The rules...

Wave of wireless in insurance: security and device management are key.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
August 1, 2006... The plethora of standards and platforms governing wireless communications is enough to drive any sober-minded insurance industry manager batty. Take, for example, the following protocols: CDMA 1xRTT, CDMA 1XEVDO, CDPD, GPRS, iDEN. Those...

Worth repeating.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
August 1, 2006... "Pennsylvania is the home of insurance insolvency. I think we're going to have that on our license plates soon." John Ellison, managing shareholder, Anderson Kill & Olick, at an employment liability seminar "A key salesman, a vital...

More than one way to skin a CAT crisis.(BROKERS: People Ideas and Trends shaping the Brokerage Community)(Interview)
August 1, 2006... R&I: How catastrophic is the CAT market? John Keely: Capacity was not gone by June as some people had feared, except for certain blocks along storm tracks. But programs have become much more patchwork. We have had to sit down with clients...

High honor for broker Bogardus.(BROKERS: People Ideas and Trends shaping the Brokerage Community)
August 1, 2006... John A. Bogardus Jr., retired insurance brokerage executive, writer and commentator on industry issues, has received the Golden Torch Award from the insurance Marketing Communications Association for his lifelong contributions to the insurance...

Collins.(BROKER MOVES)
August 1, 2006... CHARLES "CHIP" OTT was named executive vice president. Ott previously was senior vice president and heads the Collins department handling professional liability, life, and accident and health reinsurance. HEATH FISHER was promoted to...

Copyright judgment.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
August 1, 2006... A Philadelphia jury has awarded $18.9 million to the Philadelphia-based Graham Co. in a copyright infringement suit against USI MidAtlantic Inc. and former Graham employee Thomas P. Haughey, who joined USI in 1991. In a U.S. District Court in...

Willis chief speaks out.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
August 1, 2006... The chairman and chief executive of Willis has called for the United States to adopt a national plan possibly modelled on the U.K.'s anti-terror reinsurance pool to shield the nation against calamities. Speaking in Washington, Joe Plumeri said,...

Quality index launched.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
August 1, 2006... Willis Group Holdings Ltd. is launching a new index to give clients more information about insurers' service and support capabilities during the renewal process. The Willis Quality Index, currently being piloted in London, will consider areas...

Through the fraud vacuum.(WORKERS' COMP)
August 1, 2006... Why do we know so little about insurance fraud? Why, after so many years of effort to control workers' comp fraud and abuse by claimants, medical providers and employers, do we know so little about how we're doing? The articles I read, the...

Optional federal charter now.(BROKERAGE)
August 1, 2006... "Will it never end?" I asked here a couple of months ago, commenting on the issue of federal versus state regulation of insurance, now at least a half-century old. I complained that the whole tired affair was handing me a decades-long headache....

The Roger principle.(ROGER ON RISK)
August 1, 2006... Here's how engineering works: Machinery operates until it fails. The particular cause of the failure is then fixed, and it does not happen again. The machinery then runs until it fails for some other reason. And so on, until a newer model is...

Lessons from Anna Nicole Smith.(THE LAW)
August 1, 2006... The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided Anna Nicole Smith's much-publicized inheritance case. Playboy's 1993 Playmate of the Year married 85-year-old Texas oil gazillionaire J. Howard Marshall in 1994. (He died in 1995.) Marshall left nothing...

Risk-transfer benefits.(RISK PRIMER)
August 1, 2006... For those charged with the responsibility of transferring risks of loss to others, you know it can be a thankless task. Does risk management have a meaningful role in your organization's contracting process, or is it an afterthought? Is input...

In the eye of the storms: Brian Storms pulls Marsh out of the Spitzer quagmire and reinstills in his troops the firm's long tradition of service.(Cover story)(Company overview)
August 1, 2006... When Brian Storms first arrived at MMC Corp. as vice chairman to then CEO Jeffrey Greenberg, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's investigation of the world's largest broker was under way, but no action had been taken. Three months later,...

The new case for value: Gregory case emerges from the shadow of his predecessor as he reshapes and integrates the company.(Interview)(Cover story)
August 1, 2006... In April, Aon CEO Gregory Case celebrated his first year on the job as the successor to Patrick Ryan, Aon's near-legendary executive chairman who grew the company into a huge brokerage powerhouse. Case spent 17 years at McKinsey & Co., the...

Jump-start workers' comp claims: in the past decade, electronic claims transactions have become the standard in the group-health arena, streamlining the claims management process. New regulations being drafted in California and Texas could lead to similar success in the workers' compensation industry.(WORKERS' COMP)
August 1, 2006... The passage of the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 has led to improved efficiency in the group-health claims-handling process as a result of a standardized electronic data interchange format. It has enabled health-care...

The blooming of a better brownfield: with creative use of environmental law and insurance, companies cure environmental liabilities, win awards, polish their image and pull off a cutting-edge rationale for redevelopment.(ENVIRONMENTAL)
August 1, 2006... The story goes something like this: The sun was setting on a fall day in 1997, its rays illuminating the pollution in the sky in shades of purple and red. Michael G. O'Neill, CEO and founder of Preferred Real Estate Investments Inc., was...

Cracking an absurd cycle: to grow, carriers need to enter new markets. But entering new markets means following new rules, stunting growth.(TECHNOLOGY)
August 1, 2006... It's no secret that insurance carriers spend much of their compliance lives in the circular lane. Here's what happens: Pressured by institutional investors, public insurance carriers want to grow beyond their home states, or branch out and...

Selling without borders: retailers of all shapes and sizes must now get their U.S.-based risk management thought processes around their new international reality. Otherwise they open their balance sheets to catastrophe.(INDUSTRY RISK REPORT: RETAIL)
August 1, 2006... The retail business isn't what it used to be. Today, its larger enterprises are almost uniformly global, not only in their brick-and-mortar operations but, through the Internet, in their sales strategies as well. These intertwined...

More devastating than death: the chances of a 45- to 50-year-old individual becoming disabled for more than 90 days is four times greater than the same person's chance of dying prematurely, according to a study. So why haven't more companies covered their executives with disability insurance?(SPECIAL REPORT: DISABILITY)(Company overview)
August 1, 2006... Joe Clark is living life on the edge while his window of opportunity may be closing before his visionary eyes. Clark's company, Aviation Partners, has quietly become one of the most influential players in the competitive aviation industry....

Disability market tightens for sports superstars: pitchers with shot shoulders, quarterbacks with bum knees, head coaches with heart infections--major league sports teams have more reasons for specialty disability insurance than most industries.(SPECIAL REPORT: DISABILITY)
August 1, 2006... Professional sports teams have used specialty disability insurance for years to guard against paying millions of dollars to an athlete who is injured and unable to play. Franchise players like the New York Yankees' shortstop Derek Jeter or...

Third-party administrators.(Directory)
August 1, 2006... Below are paid listings of third-party administrators (TPAs) according to the types of claims they handle: health care; disability; workers' comp; managed care automation; software automation; property; marine/aviation; professional liability;...

CRO: a career moment: should the CEO offer you the job of chief risk officer, take it with no questions asked.(POINT)
August 1, 2006... You've just been given unprecedented power in your corporation, my friend. As the newly appointed chief risk officer, you are now Emperor of ERM Use the power wisely. In your hands is the capability to help your company achieve its strategic...

CRO: the kiss of death: if the gee offers you the job of chief risk officer, say 'no, thank you,' and walk away.(COUNTERPOINT)
August 1, 2006... Congratulations, your chief executive officer has just named you the chief risk officer of your billion-dollar company,, Fortune 500 Inc. You've made a big jump from senior vice president. You've heaved yourself out of the quagmire of corporate...

Captives in Bermuda.(letter of welcome)
August 1, 2006... On behalf of the 46 individual captive management companies that comprise the membership of the Bermuda Insurance Management Association, it is my pleasure to welcome you to this year's Bermuda Captive Conference. When the organizing committee...

Bermuda's value proposition: in the eyes of captive owners, Bermuda is a great place to do business.(feature story)
August 1, 2006... Bermuda's captive management industry provides an excellent captive infrastructure and captive management services, according to risk managers polled in the First Annual Bermuda Captive Conference Risk & Insurance[R] Survey. And 126...

A homegrown initiative in risk prediction: Bermuda's Biological Station for Research fills a need to learn more about Atlantic storms.(feature story)
August 1, 2006... Devastating storms over the past two years have brought more American attention to Atlantic Hurricanes than ever before, and more focus on what is now euphemistically referred to as "Hurricane season." Unlike almost anywhere else, Bermuda...

In praise of your captive manager: captive managers bring real value to risk managers long before the establishment of a captive vehicle, and long after.(feature story)
August 1, 2006... As a frequent insurance conference attendee, I've heard an earful from professional people about why they choose one captive domicile over another. I've heard people--supposedly informed service providers in major U.S. cities--innocently...

2nd Annual Bermuda Captive Conference.(conference schedule)(Calendar)
August 1, 2006... Sunday, September 17, 2006 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Opening Cocktail Reception at Fairmont Southampton Beach Club day 1 Monday, September 18, 2006 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. 8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Captive Owner Breakfast and...

Exhibitors.(Exhibit Map)
August 1, 2006... Exhibitors CE Group #32 www.acelimited.com Appleby Spurling Bailhache #16 www.applebyglobal.com Aon Insurance Managers (Bermuda) Ltd. #1 www.aon.com Bank of Bermuda #19 www.bankofbermuda.bm Bermuda...

Services directory: Bermuda Captive Insurance.(Directory)
August 1, 2006... The following is a list of companies providing services to the captive insurance industry. The list is meant to serve only as a guide and is not meant to be exhaustive. For more information on the companies listed below, please contact the...