Risk & Insurance articles from January 2005

Risk & Insurance archives from January 2005

The middleman's muddle.
January 1, 2005... With the fallout and wrangling about broker compensation, the issue only seems to get more confusing. But if there is one theme that might help clarify the confusion, it's "who is the customer." For a pure brokerage operation, that's pretty...

Alternative risk.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... Dear Editor: I read with interest and appreciation Roger Crombie's article "Aversion to Risk Breeds Linguistic Absurdity." (Risk & Insurance[R], Sept. 15, 2004, page 11.) However, I must take exception to your reference to the well-known...

Worker's compensation.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2005... Dear Editor: In the article "Red Storm Rising" (Risk & Insurance[R] November 2004, page 44) author Frank X. Altiere III does a good job of highlighting the value provided by the third-party administrator in helping employers minimize their...

Top concerns for life CFOs.(News & Notes)
January 1, 2005... Interest rate risk, market consolidation and the implementation of enterprise risk management, are key concerns for North American life insurance company CFOs, according to the latest survey by Tilling-hast-Towers Perrin. The survey found that...

RIMS announces 2005 speakers.(News & Notes)
January 1, 2005... Joe Plumeri, CEO of Willis Group, will be the keynote speaker at the Risk and Insurance Management Society's 2005 Annual Conference and Exhibition, which will be held April 17-21, 2005, in Philadelphia. Other highlights include a discussion...

AIG installs defibrillators.(News & Notes)
January 1, 2005... American International Group, Inc. has purchased external defibrillators to treat those who suffer from sudden cardiac arrest in the workplace, AIG has announced. AIG intends to train employees in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the use of...

Slips, falls, fires, 'burn' eateries.(News & Notes)
January 1, 2005... Slips, trips and falls by patrons and others are by far the most prevalent claims suffered by full-service restaurants with each such claim resulting in $3,550 in claims costs, according to a study by Restaurant Insurance Corp. The second...

Web log launched.(News & Notes)
January 1, 2005... A new Web log devoted to Internet, technology and media insurance hot topics has been launched by underwriting manager and claims administrator Euclid Managers LLC, the company has announced. Visit www. euclidmanagers.com/ blog.

Reinsurers post stats.(News & Notes)
January 1, 2005... The 27 U.S. property-casualty reinsurers wrote $22.3 billion of net premiums in the three months ended Sept. 30, according to a survey by the Reinsurance Association of America. Reinsurers' combined ratio was 108.3 percent for the three-month...

Quote of the month.
January 1, 2005... "There was a hot list of files, a really hot list, a really, really hot list." TOM ROSENCRANTS, CEO RAVELLO SOLUTIONS, RECALLING HIS EARLY DAYS WITH ZURICH NORTH AMERICA

Insurance buyers cool to carrier web technology: when it comes to the online technology offered by carriers, middle- market insurance buyers find they can't always get what they want, or sometimes even what they need.(Up front: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)
January 1, 2005... Middle-market commercial insurance buyers want easy-to-use online technology to help manage their costs, but the services that carriers currently offer often fall short of expectations. According to a new online mini-survey of Risk &...

Spitzer rains on Lloyd's parade: flexing its new-found financial muscle, Lloyd's looks to pump up further with a high profile debut in the international debt market.(Up front: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)
January 1, 2005... Eliot Spitzer's broadside against the U.S. insurance industry served to relegate news of another major break with tradition by Lloyd's of London to the lower reaches of the financial pages. CEO Nick Prettejohn announced in October that the...

Spitzer blows stronger than Hurricanes: Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne wash out third-quarter profits, but reinsurers at Baden Baden are more worried about "Hurricane Eliot.".(Up front: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)
January 1, 2005... In the German spa town of Baden Baden, all people could talk about this year, while sipping their spritzers, was New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Coming a week before this year's reinsurance gathering in Baden Baden, Spitzer's...

Marsh and regulators expected to settle by February: bargaining points include bid-rigging, restitution and punitive damages.(Up front: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)
January 1, 2005... The New York Attorney General's office and the New York Insurance Department are expected to settle outstanding civil complaints against Marsh by late this month, says a well-placed source. "The goal is to settle all civil complaints and...

Corrections.(Up front: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2005... This data replaces the data listed for Wells Fargo & Co., in the November 2004 issue of Risk & Insurance[R]. * Wells Fargo has more than 6,000 stores. K.C. Kidder is the bank's chief risk executive. The bank uses various brokers, and its...

A cure for the fraud virus.(Workers' Comp)
January 1, 2005... Medical provider abuse and fraud usually involve repetitions of aggressive treatment and billing. Some providers risk jail time by committing outright fraud, but probably more rake it in by going right up to the line. Those criminal...

Toasting the quiet players.(Alternative Risk)
January 1, 2005... Of insurance I sing. Assuming that you also work in the industry in some capacity, you will understand what I am about to say: most people think insurance is deadly boring. You're at a party. Someone you've just met asks casually, "What do you...

Catastrophically dependent.(The Law)
January 1, 2005... After the winds of Hurricane Frances buffeted Florida, dumping more than a foot of rain and destroying homes and businesses just three weeks after Hurricane Charley, the companies that depend on suppliers located in Florida are counting their...

Running man.(Cover Story)
January 1, 2005... New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer spent much of 2004 running against the insurance and benefits industry. Now he's gunning for governor. Supporters hail him as a populist lawyer, willing to uphold the interests of the middle class,...

Playing for keeps: big-name brokers have publicly eschewed contingent commissions, but that's not going to stop them from looking for other sources of revenue such as services that buyers once received for free.(Agents/Broker)
January 1, 2005... Now that major commercial insurance brokers have scrapped the use of contingent commissions, insurance carriers should have a little extra cash on hand. The question is, Who's going to get their hands on it? Because they will no longer...

Small brokers scared of getting whacked: mom-and-pop shops fear large carriers will use the Spitzer investigation to scrimp on commissions and raise service charges.(Agent/Broker)
January 1, 2005... Independent insurance brokers across the country are bracing for what they see as an inevitable--and financially damaging--consequence of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's crusade against the industry: lower commissions from the larger...

Sidestepping a quagmire.(Industry Under Siege)
January 1, 2005... The ripples spreading from the New York attorney general's broadside against the world's largest broking group were quick to reach London. Whether they will swell into waves remains to be seen. Marsh & McLennan's British operation was quick...

Conflicts of interest.(Industry Under Siege)
January 1, 2005... The report, however, did find evidence of a conflict of interest, with a "number of specific examples of brokers being encouraged to use or not use a particular underwriter" because of incentive commissions. Freshfields also found...

Service agreements unpopular.(Industry Under Siege)
January 1, 2005... The publication date for Marsh U.K.'s proposed changes to its practices, likely to coincide with a new business model for its U.S. parents, will be around January 15--the date when British financial sector watchdog, the Financial Services...

Reflections on a seminal week: more than 180 exhibitors and 1,200 attendees show up at the 13th Annual National Workers' Comp and Disability Conference in November. Top subjects of discussion include the changes in California's workers' compensation laws, return-to-work strategies and techniques on disability management.(Workers' Comp)
January 1, 2005... "Going Paperless in Workers' Compensation Claims Management," "Emerging Legal Issues," "60 Tips in 60 Minutes"--these and 25 other seminars provided provocative and thoughtful discussions for the more than 750 participants at the 13th Annual...

Kendall Jackson's toast to safety: the famed winery puts a cork in safety risks, encouraging employees to imbibe in a culture of health maintenance.(Workers' Comp)
January 1, 2005... Reducing a company's rising workers' compensation costs isn't as simple as popping in a safety video and pressing play. For employers to truly benefit from their safety initiatives, they must use a proactive, hands-on approach. Dennis...

Outlook 2005: look out! may Mother Nature spin her wheels in neutral this year, and stay out of the business of inflicting catastrophic damage on the property-and-casualty industry. Regulators and the risk management industry have enough on their plate already, as they must contend with one another.(Risk Management)
January 1, 2005... With insurance-investigation bonfires burning brightly across the country, 2005 is packing some heat. Risk executives with an appetite for keeping public officials on their toes--or is it the other way around these days?--may over the next 12...

Getting their feet webbed: for the past 18 months, Lexington has been automating policy administration in the underwriting process, and as many as nine products are distributed over the Web. The most complex transactions, however, are still paper-based.(Technology)
January 1, 2005... It's no secret that insurance carriers, brokers, buyers and agents want fully automated policy administration. But it's also no secret that many carriers, especially large commercial earners, have yet to move their policy administration to...

A 'marshall plan' for employers: marshaling resources to bridge the needs of individual patients and that of a group of employees encourages companies to focus on the consumption of health care instead of the production of benefits.(Benefits)
January 1, 2005... Faced with rapidly escalating health care costs, employers are focusing on ways to save money by eliminating preventable expenditures. Often, this involves strategies such as educating employees about prevention and self-care. But it also...

Trimming a surplus: only companies with sound balance sheets can absorb the kinds of claims that result from unexpected losses, and that's going to mean consolidation in the not-too-distant future, says Kevin H. Kelley, CEO of Lexington Insurance Co., the world's largest excess and surplus carrier. Risk & Insurance[R] interviewed Kelley in his Boston office.(Special report: excess/surplus)
January 1, 2005... What is your assessment for the markets in terms of capacity and pricing, and where do you see the business going in 2005? I'd say '05 is still pretty much undetermined. What we're seeing in the property side is a market that is in...

E&S rates: a 'tolerable' nuisance: modest increases reported for 2005 could shoot skyward, however, as medical inflation devours any hard-fought gains. Let buyers beware, and make sure they have a policy with insurers who will be around a decade from now.(Special report: excess/surplus)
January 1, 2005... The excess workers' comp marketplace is likely to see "tolerable" increases in premiums in 2005. Those increases, however, could quickly skyrocket because of medical inflation, brokers and underwriters say. "In general the excess market is...

Playing in high-stakes arenas.(Industry risk report: stadiums and arenas)
January 1, 2005... Keep the crowd safe. For stadium and arena risk managers, that means guarding against everything from the threat of a terrorist attack to a stampede to a slip-and-fall incident. Stadiums and arenas have done risk assessments, beefed up security...

Insurance company software directory.(Directory)
January 1, 2005... Below are paid listings of specialty software packages for insurance companies. This guide is not intended to be a complete directory but is an overview of some of the packages available. The software suppliers provided the data. To obtain more...

Correction.(Directory)(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2005... The December 2004 TPA Directory lists CCMSI's gross revenues at $566 million. The listing should have read $51.6 million. Risk & Insurance[R] regrets the error.