Risk & Insurance articles from May 2006

Risk & Insurance archives from May 2006

Versed in an unseemly spectacle.
May 1, 2006... Now behold a most unseemly spectacle unfold; in which our captive regulators act, in effect, as market enablers. He, or she, of public trust looking to sell--no "promote" their domicile--yet also paid by you and me to regulate. At...

Flu prep lacking.(NEWS & NOTES)
May 1, 2006... A new Mercer Global avian-flu survey shows a striking gap between employer concern and pandemic preparedness. According to the survey, some 70 percent of businesses believe a pandemic would damage profitability, but only 47 percent have a...

New health/safety head.(NEWS & NOTES)
May 1, 2006... The U.S. Senate has confirmed Edwin G. Foulke Jr. as assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. Foulke served on the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission from 1990 to 1995, chairing the commission from March...

Zurich settlement.(NEWS & NOTES)
May 1, 2006... Zurich American Insurance Co. has reached a $171.7 million settlement with a group of regulators in nine states to resolve allegations that it engaged in bid-rigging. ZAIC also allegedly paid improper commissions to those who brokered the deals...

Cat study released.(NEWS & NOTES)
May 1, 2006... While North America only experienced 13.6 percent of the total number of natural catastrophes that took place throughout the world in 2005, it suffered 87.1 percent of the worldwide total insured losses of $83.40 billion, according to research...

Katrina litigation.(NEWS & NOTES)
May 1, 2006... A Mississippi federal judge denied Allstate Insurance Co.'s dismissal motion in a wind vs. flood lawsuit stemming from Hurricane Katrina. Insurers are pleased--in part--with the ruling because the judge called flood exclusions "valid and...

Upcoming events.(NEWS & NOTES)(Calendar)
May 1, 2006... MAY 9-11 Self-Insured Workers' Compensation Executive Forum SIIA's Eighth Annual Self-Insured Workers' Compensation Executive Forum includes a strong educational program focusing on such topics as excess insurance and risk...

Workers' comp gains hold steady: S&P: strong results for 2005-2006 could be "as good as it gets.".(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the Word)
May 1, 2006... Results for 2005 for the workers' compensation insurance community will be positive and "will continue to be strong" throughout 2006, according to Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, but because of mispricing and stronger competition,...

Surety market success: the surety market looks to have had a banner year.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the Word)
May 1, 2006... The surety industry, seems to have had a banner year in 2005, according to a recent Surety Report put out by Aon Construction Services Group. For the first nine months of last year, the industry recorded direct written premiums of $3.5 billion,...

Business exclusions defined: recent liability case is a win for energy companies--perhaps all policyholders.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
May 1, 2006... A natural gas company recently won a breach of contract suit against its insurer in a case that could provide guidance for any policyholder trying to get coverage under its commercial general liability coverage. At the heart of the...

Bottom of the cycle: are smaller carriers bait or repellent to reinsurers in a tougher market?(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
May 1, 2006... Reinsurance actuaries have a grip on the current market, so small carriers beware, according to speakers during the "View from the Top" session at the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters Society Reinsurance Section Symposium in March in...

Worth repeating.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
May 1, 2006... "We try not to talk about insurance outside of the office, which is sometimes difficult." Diane Fandrich, general manager, Liberty Mutual Risk Management Information Services, referring to her husband, a health insurance industry...

Outspoken advocate.(BROKERS: People, Ideas and Trends shaping the Brokerage Community)
May 1, 2006... Corbette Doyle, who founded Aon's health care industry practice group, isn't shy about saying what's on her mind. An accomplished public speaker, she's an advocate for diversity in the workplace and admits that insurance brokers and insurance...

Integro.(BROKER MOVES)
May 1, 2006... Integro has announced that SHELDON RANKIN, former chairman and CEO of Marsh Canada, has been named Sheldon Rankin chairman of Integro Canada Ltd. Rankin has 50 years of experience in the insurance industry, having progressed through the ranks...

More fee disclosure in U.K.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
May 1, 2006... Risk managers in the United Kingdom are receiving information about remuneration from their brokers, according to a study. London-based Association of Insurance & Risk Managers found that 64 percent of respondents receive automatic disclosure...

Beecher launches new solution.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
May 1, 2006... Insurance broker Beecher Carlson has launched a new process it claims will help residential developers and builders cut the cost of premiums. The process perfects the integration of brokerage and captive management consulting. "With...

Willis expands jewelry practice.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
May 1, 2006... Insurance Broker Willis Group Holdings is acquiring Gueits, Adams & Co, a New York-based agency specializing in jewelers' block insurance. Gueits, Adams was founded in 1989 and earns about $4 million in revenues annually. Joe Plumeri, chairman...

Broker market share up.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
May 1, 2006... The results of the 2004 market share study by the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America Inc., reinforces the consumer and business acceptance of the independent agency and broker distribution model, the CIAB said. During 2004, the...

New pension plan for Marsh Ltd.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
May 1, 2006... Marsh Ltd., the U.K. arm of Marsh Inc., is replacing its defined-benefit pension plan based on final salary with a plan whose benefits will be calculated on a "career revalued" basis. No details were available about the number of participants...

AG walks away from AIG.(WORKERS' COMP)
May 1, 2006... After looking at the February settlement on AIG's failure to pay its full state workers' compensation assessments in years past, I come away with the feeling that New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer may have left a very large sum of money...

The silence is deafening.(BROKERAGE)
May 1, 2006... Ssshh! If we just hunker down and be quiet, it'll be ok. It'll blow over. Won't it? In fact, it already has. Hasn't it? A year and a half after New York's attorney general barred broker compensation and bid-rigging irregularities, this...

Law & order: Montpelier.(ROGER ON RISK)
May 1, 2006... I hear, on the QT, that CBS is piloting another spin-off from its blockbuster CSI series. Here's the plot for the pilot: It's Christmas Eve. SWAT teams from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and...

Where internal audit falls short.(RISK MANAGEMENT)
May 1, 2006... The risk management department is no longer taking the lead in managing risk. Because of the highly publicized scandals of the past several years, internal audit increasingly enjoys the reputation as being the corporate risk manager. And...

It's just health insurance ...(BENEFITS)
May 1, 2006... It must have been a no-brainer back in post-World War II industry when every employer needed more workers to staff the assembly lines in the booming manufacturing plants. Everyone was buying automobiles, appliances and furniture for their new...

Digging into the work fatality puzzle; it's not so easy to figure out what the most dangerous jobs are, despite what those Top 10 lists say. The key is piecing together the fatality puzzle at your particular work sites, for your particular workers.(Cover story)
May 1, 2006... Beware those published lists of "most dangerous" jobs. From year to year the order may change. And from year to year the lists continue to mislead. The rankings obscure within occupations huge variances and contingencies in fatality risk,...

A question of execution: the success of consumer-directed health plans depends on how they are implemented and how their benefits are communicated to employees.(BENEFITS)
May 1, 2006... In March, One-Stop Calibration Services Inc. of Keene, Texas, began offering health-care benefits to its employees for the first time. As a sole proprietor, James Stiles was unable to afford health-care coverage for his six employees. That...

Brokering catastrophe: CAT models once were black-box technology reserved for reinsurers, insurers and the biggest brokers. Now more brokers of all sizes use them to help current clients, and attract new ones.(AGENT/BROKER)
May 1, 2006... Have you tried to understand what catastrophe risk models actually do? It used to be the only people who did understand them were paid good money by insurers, reinsurers and their biggest brokers to use the technology to estimate CAT exposures...

Headed for a clash: insurance accounting managers face a bewildering contradiction: protect the privacy of data with tighter rules, even as wireless networks liberate the transmission of information.(TECHNOLOGY)
May 1, 2006... When insurance accounting managers belonging to the Insurance Accounting Systems Association gather in Boston next month, there will be plenty of buzz all right--coming from opposite directions. From one side, managers are going to be...

States of change: workers' compensation claims frequency has been coming down steadily, but medical costs are still on the rise, all but obliterating the possibility of getting ahead. Some states are using aggressive strategies to rein in costs.(WORKERS' COMP)
May 1, 2006... Just how much are medical costs rising? In the National Council on Compensation Insurance's latest publication, "Workers' Compensation Market Snapshot," NCCI President and CEO Stephen J. Klingel pointed to a survey by Towers Perrin that showed...

Handling twin takes of ERM: many corporations look to focus on compliance and corporate governance needs today, yet maintain the opportunity to grow the current ERM approach into a more valued, strategic initiative.(SPECIAL REPORT: ENTERPRISE RISK)
May 1, 2006... How many times have risk executives lived through this scenario: You're in a product demonstration of the latest and greatest specialty risk management software product. The software has a slick interface and appears chock-full of useful...

ERM suite talk: a fictional (or should we say frictional) account of what takes place in the C-suite when deciding on what ERM software package to buy.(SPECIAL REPORT: ENTERPRISE RISK)
May 1, 2006... Howard Javies, chief information officer of Act Now Inc., was pumped. This was one meeting he was looking forward to: selecting and implementing an enterprise risk management software application that would best serve the risk management and...

Sky's the liability limit: using personal aircraft for business purposes saves time but exposes an employer to soaring liability and higher insurance costs, many risk managers say.(INDUSTRY RISK REPORT: AIR TRANSPORT)
May 1, 2006... Each day millions of middle managers scurry to airports, board commercial jets and fly off on business. Thousands of others, instead of boarding a commercial aircraft, fly their own plane for business. Or, they sometimes rent. As part of...

Industry Risk Report: Air Transport.
May 1, 2006... Risk managers in the airline industry have a tough job, made more difficult by higher oil prices and prickly labor relations. Add to that risks related to aircraft accidents, and airline executives deserve some credit for keeping their...

Choosing the right track: Diane Fandrich never envisioned herself working for an insurance company when she graduated from college. But 20 years later, that's exactly where she ended up.(PROFILE)
May 1, 2006... Diane Fandrich always wanted to be an engineer. She liked the challenge of solving problems and building solutions. When she enrolled as an engineering major at the University of New Hampshire, she thought her future was set. But upon...

By the numbers: medicine, mayhem & money.
May 1, 2006... $44.11B Net premiums written in 2004 for general liability insurance. $30.23B The direct written property/casualty premium in 2004 by AIG Inc., the No. 1 U.S. property/casualty insurer. $11B Price of Hurricane Ivan, the most costly...