Risk & Insurance articles from July 2007

Risk & Insurance archives from July 2007

Sponsor hawks.
July 1, 2007... With insurance carriers coming off one of their fattest years in history, and with surveys pointing to a sustained interest among carriers in upgrading software application systems, there are gobs of money to burn on IT projects. You can...

A columnist's shame.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2007... Dear Editor, I strongly disagree with the position of columnist Philip G. Kircher, concerning the Scooter Libby who was convicted of lying to a grand jury and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. ("Scooter Libby Deserves a Pardon," Risk &...

Risking a definition.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2007... Dear Editor, To me, "risk" always meant the chance of something going wrong. Maybe it's my background speaking. But as Beaumont Vance points out in "Risk: A Term Ill-Defined," (Risk & Insurance[R], April 1, 2007, Page 16,) there are...

Upcoming events.(Calendar)
July 1, 2007... JULY 15-18 DMEC Conference The Disability Management Employer Coalition will focus its annual conference around the theme "Integration Revolution: Workplace Risk and the Employee-Centered Workplace." This event will be held at the...

Quote of the month.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies fron Around the World)
July 1, 2007... "I started in 1973 with $8,400 and a company car and I thought it was the greatest job in the world."--PETER IMBROGNO, COO, CAMBRIDGE INTEGRATED SERVICES, ON HIS FIRST JOB AS AN INSURANCE ADJUSTER

Executives talk of creating data csars: move is seen as a nod to the importance of taking responsibility for and protecting the integrity of data.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
July 1, 2007... The vast amount of data generated by insurance carriers has led some to consider appointing a "data csar," according to insurance executives. The fact that some companies have even considered naming such a C-suite executive is also a...

Weather's hot: trading numbers still up, along with interest and diversification.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the world)
July 1, 2007... Weather-risk-related contracts continue to see higher demand, according to a survey of the industry conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP for the Weather Risk Management Association. The number of contracts traded around the world totaled...

Ice cream man to the rescue: risk and friends volunteer in NOLA, despite kill zone.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
July 1, 2007... No one loves the smell of natural gas in the morning. Especially when you're outside, the gas leak is three blocks away and the stink is still overpowering--and you can hear it too. That means you're in the kill zone if someone should light a...

New parking spot for Bentley: Guy Carpenter exec signs on with modeler RMS.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the Wworld)
July 1, 2007... Robert Bentley traded in an executive parking spot at New York-based reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter & Co. for a new one at Newark-Calif.-based modeler Risk Management Solutions Inc. Bentley left Guy Carpenter as chief operating officer to...

Aligning corporate structures: sweeping managerial vision statements often rest on puny IT budgets, according to analysts. But that might be changing.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
July 1, 2007... Young, new insurance executives have never lacked for inspiring the corporate troops with sweeping visions of new priorities, economic growth and their own ambition. Yet when the time comes to dust off the information-technology budget,...

Worth repeating.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
July 1, 2007... "Pure indemnity transactions appear to be on the wane." Brian O'Hearne, managing director, environmental and commodity markets, Swiss Re, at the Weather Risk Management Association meeting in Miami "If global warming had anything to do...

Tapping the talent pipeline: more graduates will enter risk management straight from school because risk management has broadened its profile, according to HRH's Joel Troisi.(BROKERS: People, Ideas and Trends shaping the Brokerage Community)
July 1, 2007... Ask brokers about their higher education and first career ventures, and you tend to discover that few of them thought they'd end up in insurance. Most started out somewhere else entirely--law, marketing, banking, health care, retail, you...

Lockton's Hostovich honored.(BROKERS: People, Ideas and Trends shaping the Brokerage Community)
July 1, 2007... Teena Hostovich, a senior vice president at Los Angeles-based Lockton Insurance Brokers LLC, was nominated for "Women Making A Difference." an annual event honoring the city's most successful women. The event was held at the Biltmore Hotel on...

Aon CFO calls it quits.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
July 1, 2007... Aon Corp. announced May 22 that David P. Bolger, executive vice president, chief financial officer and chief administrative officer, will leave the company after the appointment of his successor. Bolger, 49, joined Aon in January 2003, having...

Gallagher acquires retail shop Tropp.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
July 1, 2007... Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Tropp & Co., headquartered in Lake Forest, III. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Formed in 1981, Tropp is a retail insurance broker offering risk management, commercial property/casualty and...

Marsh enters Mid-east joint venture.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
July 1, 2007... Marsh Inc. has entered a joint venture with Zubair Group, a diversified business group in Oman. Marsh Oman LLC will continue Marsh's risk management and insurance services business from its Muscat base, where Marsh has operated since 1981.

Professional risks team poached.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
July 1, 2007... In Scotland, Marsh has recruited rival broker Aon Corp.'s Scottish professional risks team. The team will work on client service and development across Marsh's FINPRO National business in Scotland and the north of England. New team members are...

Lockton lands in Bermuda.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
July 1, 2007... Lockton has launched an office in Bermuda to focus on property, energy, financial lines, casualty and health care. Ed Correia has been appointed to lead the development of the new business, together with brokers Philip DiMeglio from JLT Risk...

Kinloch takes on benefits.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
July 1, 2007... New York-based middle-market brokerage firm Kinloch Holdings Inc. has formed an employee-benefits unit through the acquisition of Nystrom, Palumbo Inc. of Melville, N.Y. Nystrom will be known as Kinloch Consulting Group Inc. and will serve as...

HRH scoops up Urman.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
July 1, 2007... Hilb Rogal & Hobbs Co. has signed an agreement to buy Urman Co., a Denver-based retail employee-benefits and property/casualty brokerage. Founded in 1970 to serve the needs of school executives and benefits plans for Colorado school districts,...

TPAs should disclose more.(WORKERS' COMP)
July 1, 2007... You can create a lot of heat by asking employers and consultants how workers' compensation third-party administrators contract with subcontractors or suppliers. More than a few employers are agitated that some TPAs seem to forget their clients...

No legs to stand on.(ROGER ON RISK)
July 1, 2007... Dateline: New Orleans. RIMS 2007. Your correspondent stands smoking outside his hotel in the night air, 20 feet from the glass doors beyond which lies the sumptuous hotel foyer. A taxi pulls up, and from it emerges a man in a gray business...

Small notes from the Big I.(BROKERAGE)
July 1, 2007... It's a curious affair these days. Time was when the "Big I"--officially the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America--was one, make that two, of the major meetings of the insurance convention year: a spring legislative conference in...

Selling a better mousetrap.(RISK MANAGEMENT)
July 1, 2007... Tao Te Ching 2,300 years ago warned that one should "regard favor and disgrace with alarm." The message being conveyed by this ancient text is that any change is unsettling and can bring danger. This admonition to avoid change should be...

Beware the frivolous lawsuit.(THE LAW)
July 1, 2007... OK, which of the following does not belong with the others? * Administrative law judge sues local cleaners for $65 million for "losing" his pants, later found and returned to him with the original ticket. * Woman sues pharmacy for...

Taking time to adjust: executives confirm and deny a current shortage of claim adjusters, but all agree the industry is undergoing a major change in how it recruits, trains and retains its troops.(SPECIAL REPORT: CLAIMS)(Cover story)
July 1, 2007... Summary * The insurance industry fails to agree on whether there is a day-to-day shortage of claim adjusters. * Hurricane Katrina stretched the adjuster pool to its limits, and put a spotlight on the differences between adjusters...

Fighting CAT risk creep: as medical costs remain the largest component of workers' compensation expenses, insurers can now predict which claim will blossom into an expensive headache.(SPECIAL REPORT: CLAIMS)
July 1, 2007... For almost 10 years now, the story in the workers' compensation marketplace has been the ongoing decline in the frequency of claims and the accompanying increase in workers' compensation medical costs. Fewer claims cost more, and medical costs...

Breaking the gridlock: two actuaries explain which benefits were trimmed and which were expanded as part of the deal to reform New York state's workers' compensation laws.(WORKERS' COMP)
July 1, 2007... Summary * Pushed-through changes to New York's workers' comp law included limiting permanent partial disability benefits while expanding the maximum weekly benefit. * The changes will also require New York to close its Second Injury...

'Here's your (ERM) sign': risk managers who want to know whether their firms are executing enterprise risk management ought to be asking some good, probing questions, lest they incur the derision of comedian Bill Engvall Jr.(ENTERPRISE RISK)
July 1, 2007... There are dozens of risk managers working in corporate America today who sincerely believe they are executing enterprise risk management. Yet, when their practices come under the microscope, it turns out that they are doing nothing of the sort....

Clarifying the 'disgorgement' coverage dispute: when does an insured's loss represent disgorgement of improper gain?(D&O)
July 1, 2007... Summary * Carriers raise the disgorgement issue frequently and corporations and their directors and officers must be prepared to address it. * Resolving coverage issues requires a factual record. * Where disgorgement or restitution...

The pain of going mobile: risk managers are encouraged to offer their work force ergonomic training, and to use caution in selecting tools for mobile employees if they want to increase worker productivity.(INJURY PREVENTION)
July 1, 2007... Mobile employees are constantly on the go. Many rely on laptop computers as their primary tools to conduct business, whether it's reporting a claim, assessing storm damage or recalculating an insurance premium. These devices are small,...

Law enforcement in crossfire: when police officers carry out their jobs, confrontation with suspects can lead to tragic outcomes. These often result in lawsuits for the officers' employers, as well as personal crisis for the officers themselves. But training, assessment and accreditation can help manage the risk.(IN-DEPTH: Fourth in a Four-Part Series)
July 1, 2007... Summary * Statistics make it clear that mental illness poses a growing challenge for law-enforcement officers on the street. * The impact of a confrontation between officers and a mentally ill suspect can lead to tragedy--suicide by...

A view on the rooms: the hotel business is changing by leaps and bounds, but risk managers' goals remain the same--protect their good name and get property cover.(INDUSTRY RISK REPORT: HOSPITALITY)
July 1, 2007... A hospitality risk manager gave a travel tip to his peers at a recent industry trade show: Pack a portable ultraviolet light. The device is similar to those black lights that teenagers blaze in their bedrooms. But besides providing purple--haze...

Industry risk report: hospitality/gaming.
July 1, 2007... The hospitality industry includes such disparate operations as hotel, gaming and restaurant companies, but some risks don't recognize these distinctions. Brand management--protecting a company's good name in the eyes of consumers and...

Insurance company software.(Directory)
July 1, 2007... Below are paid listings of specialty software packages for insurance companies, risk managers and brokers. This guide is not intended to be a complete director but is an overview of some of the packages available. Suppliers themselves have...

Climate change: a risk underplayed: enough with the stalling tactics. Rev up the hybrids, and cut the subsidies to big carbon polluters.(POINT)
July 1, 2007... The planet is warming, this much we know. In fact, the enlightened among us, who themselves appear to be headed for extinction along with some species of freshwater dolphins, have known this for at least 40 years. But here's another fact worth...

Climate change: a risk oversold: something is happening with our climate, but making the risk today's political poster child won't help matters.(COUNTERPOINT)
July 1, 2007... I'm no scientist, so when it comes to complicated subjects involving any sort of formula or graph, I defer to experts. Case in point: climate change. I've followed the drumbeat of recent scientific papers connecting melting ice sheets in the...