Risk & Insurance articles from March 2009

Risk & Insurance archives from March 2009

A communication breakdown.
March 1, 2009... Mark Tenhundfeld, the senior vice president of the Office of Regulatory Policy of the American Bankers Association, speaks quietly and deliberately. He personifies in his bearing exactly what he is, a Yale University graduate and a sober,...

Insurers down in '08.(NEWS & NOTES)
March 1, 2009... A tough fourth quarter rounded out a harsh year for many insurers. The Hartford reported a fourth-quarter loss of $806 million or $2.71 per diluted share, compared with a gain of $595 million or $1.88 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of...

Brokers do better.(NEWS & NOTES)
March 1, 2009... Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. reported its fourth-quarter net income fell 6 percent to $80 million, compared with $85 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. Revenue fell 9 percent to $2.7 billion, while revenue at MMC's brokerage subsidiary Marsh...

Underwriters double-whammy.(ERM)
March 1, 2009... Imagine having to underwrite a fleet. It may be penalized because of the nature of cargo it cantles, the weight of the cargo end the average distance of travel. Whereas the individual factors make a lot of sense in increasing the premium,...

Scoring the hurricane models.(IKE)
March 1, 2009... Listening to some loss-estimate reports from insurance companies, one might get the impression that catastrophe models did not get Hurricane Ike right, To read the rest of this piece, please visit us on the Web at http://www....

How the NFIP, insurance law and climate change could cause the perfect storm.(IKE)
March 1, 2009... Congress faces no easy task in deciding how to reform the NFIP. While weighing the options, Congress should be urged to avoid the path of heavily taxpayer-subsidized insurance coverage, insufficient coverage or no coverage. To read the...

Learning from recent D&O and E&O losses.(PROF. LIABILITY)
March 1, 2009... The litigation aftermath after nearly two years of financial crisis will continue to play out. At the same time, the demand for D&O end E&O coverage has increased in the marketplace. Unless losses take on truly unexpected dimensions, most...

Driving new value chains in an uncertain world.(TECHNOLOGY)
March 1, 2009... Global dynamics are forcing change on an industry rooted in time-tested practices end traditional business culture. As a result, the insurance industry model is subject to global impacts in five key areas. To read the rest of this piece...

Under pressure to get workers' comp costs under control?(R&I WEBINAR)
March 1, 2009... Join us on March 25 for a webinar about drug utilization review: how to cut costs, improve injured worker outcomes and partner with doctors in the pharmaceutical part of your workers' comp program. Sponsored by Progressive Medical, the event...

Post-mortem: bank risk managers know where the risk is, but who will listen?(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the Word)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] So, what went wrong? Banks have risk managers, after all, so what were they doing as the U.S. financial sector careened toward near-disaster these past two years? Participants at the American Bankers...

Earnings plummet at CNA financial: investment portfolio hit hard by market woes, yet core p/c operations remain sound, says new CEO.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the Word)
March 1, 2009... It was a rough re-entry into the property-casualty business for CNA Chairman and CEO Thomas Motamed, Barely a month on the job following a six month hiatus after leaving Chubb Corp. as chief operating officer, Motamed had to explain in his...

Shouldering the burden: the Los Angeles dodgers and the Ace American Insurance Co, square off over an injured pitcher.(UPFRONT: News Update and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the world)
March 1, 2009... When the Los Angeles Dodgers hired three-time All Star pitcher Jason Schmidt in late 2006 they were aware that the 33-year old right hander had a partial rotator cuff tear in his pitching shoulder. So was the Philadelphia-based ACE American...

Forecast: busy cat bond season ahead: guy carpenter's optimistic CAT bond report jibes with word from industry insiders.(UPFRONT: News Update and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the world)
March 1, 2009... If the catastrophe bond market were a hurricane, we'd be getting NOAA reports about how it was restrengthening and soon to return to major storm status on its way to landfall in New York, Bermuda, Munich, Zurich or any of the other reinsurance...

Glory days: these are the good old days for Greg Belton, who became a brokerage entrepreneur at the age of 29.(BROKERS: People, Ideas and Trends shaping the Brokerage Community)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In pointing to a good year for his firm, HKMB HUB chairman Gregory Belton says he is going from strength to strength. And, having just turned 50 this year, the Toronto-based insurance executive has' had all year...

Beecher Carlson: Cliff Simpson.(BROKER MOVES)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CLIFF SIMPSON joined Beecher Carlson as a senior managing director and national team leader for the firm's property practice. Prior to joining Beecher Carlson, Simpson served as executive vice president and national...

Beecher Carlson: Joel Troisi.(BROKER MOVES)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] JOEL TROISI also joined Beecher Carlson's property practice as managing director. Troisi previously served as managing director of the Southern U.S. Complex Property Group for Willis HRH and senior vice president and...

Beecher Carlson: Michael White.(BROKER MOVES)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MICHAEL WHITE was named managing director in Beecher Carlson's national property practice. White previously worked at Willis HRH as complex property marketing manger, Midwest Region. Before that, he served as...

Beecher Carlson: Sarah Waite.(BROKER MOVES)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SARAH WAITE was named assistant vice president in Beecher Carlson's national property practice. Waite previously served as a property broker for Willis HRH, where she managed an extensive book of large complex...

Lockton Northeast.(BROKER MOVES)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MICHAEL TONER joined a new Lockton office in Boston as executive vice president of Lockton Northeast. Toner, an attorney, is a leading expert on the insurance issues faced by companies in turnaround and restructuring...

Marsh: Kenneth Kwok.(BROKER MOVES)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] KENNETH KWOK was appointed chairman of Marsh's operations in Hong Kong. Kwok most recently served as chairman of Falcon Insurance Hong Kong, a unit of Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings.

Marsh: Evan Freely.(BROKER MOVES)
March 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] EVAN FREELY was named global political risk and trade credit practice leader at Marsh. He comes from Willis, where he was responsible for developing and managing that firm's financial solutions team for trade credit...

Quote of the month.
March 1, 2009... "I will share with you, there is stress and strain in our field." --J. PATRICK GALLAGHER, CEO, ARTHUR J. GALLAGHER & CO.

How to winnow the pool.(WORKERS' COMP)
March 1, 2009... Out of thousands of worthy doctors, how do you pick the few to include in a medical provider network, if you're going to pay attention to quality? In the past year, the insurance carrier Zenith's California operation trimmed the phone...

P.G. Wodehouse on reinsurance.(ROGER ON RISK)
March 1, 2009... When those financial coves landed everyone in the soup, Aunt Agatha offered me a choice: marry that awful blister Arabella Devereux-Devereux or take employment in a company selling reinsurance. One does not refuse Aunt Agatha and emerge whole....

The bash crash heroes.(RISK MANAGEMENT)
March 1, 2009... On Jan. 15, at 3:24 p.m., US Air flight 1549 took air leaving New York's LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, N.C. Within two minutes after takeoff, the crew reported that their 80 ton twin-jet plane had struck multiple birds causing the loss of...

Carriers, IT's all up to you.(TECHNOLOGY)
March 1, 2009... I'm not much of a gambler. Call me risk averse, but I'm not the type to just put all the chips down on an all-or-nothing bet for the thrill of it--at least not where my investments are concerned. I'm more likely to stash my money in a nice,...

A confidentiality conundrum.(RISK INNOVATION)
March 1, 2009... A conundrum is emerging with risk management technology and the management of risk data. It has to do with the longstanding, dynamic tension that exists between a natural interest in the protection of sensitive, often confidential data and the...

Aligning budget cuts and business plans; it's tempting for accounting departments to "slash and burn" in this economic climate, but that would hurt a company in the long run.(PERSPECTIVE: Advertising Feature)
March 1, 2009... In today's tough economic times, it's often difficult to balance organizational goals with the need for careful budgeting and smart investments. According to Curt Anderson, CFO of Assurex Global, it's often simple to accuse the finance...

Yikes! An eyewitness Hurricane Ike account of how an adjuster and his clients navigated their way through the early days of a large commercial loss.(Cover story)
March 1, 2009... summary * Commercial claims in relation to Hurricane Ike were much bigger than anticipated. * An adjuster and engineers find that replacing lost piping and damaged fences could come to millions. * And that doesn't even include the...

Settled--sort of: the settlement with Ingenix regarding bill review practices, while changing the way usual and customary rates are calculated, only addresses part of the problem, according to bill reviewers.(TECHNOLOGY)
March 1, 2009... summary * Ingenix skewed rates downward through faulty data collection, AG asserts. * An immediate impact of the settlement will be a change in how rates are calculated. * The settlement has ramifications for group health and...

Learning from ERM's year of living dangerously: the insurance model is not in question, but the risks that struck the financial services industry did so with such severity that some experts wonder how deeply such risks are embedded within corporate processes.
March 1, 2009... summary * Zurich report: Insurance carriers escape the credit crisis mostly unscathed. * Banking disasters highlight the proliferation of "fat-tail events" or low-probability and high-severity risks. * Developing closer alignment...

Managing environmental risk in a financial downturn: three elements matter most when it comes to environmental issues in bankruptcy; understanding one's exposures, assessing the alternatives for resolving environmental liability and coming up with solutions for managing those liabilities.(INDUSTRY RISK REPORT: ENVIRONMENTAL)
March 1, 2009... summary * The trajectory from financially healthy to financially challenged companies shifts risk. * Companies entering bankruptcy with environmental liabilities have four options. * Parties can use any of three risk management...

The big Power switch: Bermuda's competitive edge has switched from less regulation to more as the Bermuda Monetary Authority toughens its rules and hardens its standards.(SPECIAL REPORT: ALTERNATIVE RISK)
March 1, 2009... summary * Hawaii had 165 active captives at year-end 2008, according to preliminary estimates. * The island's captive insurance domicile draws from Asia and the United States. * The legislature has recently passed a tax cap to...

Hawaii calls to East and West: the state continues to grow as a captive domicile and now ranks fifth globally in combined assets.(SPECIAL REPORT: HAWAII CAPTIVES)
March 1, 2009... summary * Hawaii had 165 active captives at year-end 2008, according to preliminary estimates. * The island's captive insurance domicile draws from Asia and the United States. * The legislature has recently passed a tax cap to...

Captive/self-insurance.(Directory)
March 1, 2009... CAPTIVE/SELF-INSURANCE Below are paid listings of service providers to the captive and self-insurance industry. This guide is not intended to be a complete directory. Service provider themselves have provided this data. To obtain more...

Upcoming events.(Calendar)
March 1, 2009... MARCH 17-18 Business Continuity Conference The 8th Annual Business Continuity and Corporate Security Show and Conference helps the business and financial community stay on top of emergency management, business continuity and...

OFAC gets tough: recent cases involving penalties against insurance carriers by the Office of Foreign Assets Control underscore the need for a formal policy.(VIEW POINT)
March 1, 2009... The insurance industry takes great pride in the way its products facilitate all aspects of international commerce. However, it is precisely that global role that may be drawing increased industry scrutiny under the trade sanction program...