Risk & Insurance articles from October 2003

Risk & Insurance archives from October 2003

Recording industry turns up the volume on copyright infringement.(up front)
October 1, 2003... Employers had better confiscate those MP3 players at the front lobby or they'll likely be hearing from the Recording Industry Association of America whose member companies began filing suit in September against people who illegally download...

Worth repeating ...(up front)
October 1, 2003... "There is more insurance capital in Fairfield County (Conn.), and in New York City, and in Switzerland than there is in Bermuda, but those places don't have feel of a marketplace. Insurance is not what people at the next table are talking about...

Fronting agreements lose their appeal.(up front)
October 1, 2003... Rate increases and tough underwriting standards are pushing companies in record numbers to explore captive insurance. But captive "fronting" agreements, which many companies favor because they have the benefit of an insurance company-issued...

WC still a trouble spot for agents and brokers.(up front)
October 1, 2003... While there's generally good news about the property-and-casualty marketplace, the same can't be said for workers' compensation. The latest survey of agents and brokers shows increasing problems with the availability of coverage, especially in...

From the Editor.
October 1, 2003... While the worst hurricane in decades was bearing down on Bermuda in early September, another kind of hurricane washed ashore at the annual Rendez-Vous de Septembre in Monte Carlo. All of the major players in the reinsurance market gathered in...

Copiers growing too smart for the office.(up front)
October 1, 2003... It used to be that photocopy machines were just plain dumb. Users would slam the lid on a document and the machine would spit out a replica in black and white, or color if users were lucky. But beginning in 1999, manufacturers like Canon,...

St. John's University and its School of Risk Management have awarded five scholarships to undergraduate students from Bermuda studying insurance and risk management or actuarial science.(News and Notes ...)
October 1, 2003... St. John's University and its School of Risk Management have awarded five scholarships to undergraduate students from Bermuda studying insurance and risk management or actuarial science. Damir Armstrong, a graduate of Warwick Academy, was...

The International Finance Corp., the private sector arm of the World Bank, and Zurich Emerging Markets Solutions, the political risk and credit insurance unit of Zurich North America, have created a risk sharing facility, the companies have announced.(News and Notes ...)
October 1, 2003... The International Finance Corp., the private sector arm of the World Bank, and Zurich Emerging Markets Solutions, the political risk and credit insurance unit of Zurich North America, have created a risk sharing facility, the companies have...

As many as 65 percent of respondents in a recent poll claim they are involved in an ongoing Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) project, according to the consulting firm META Group Inc.(News and Notes ...)
October 1, 2003... As many as 65 percent of respondents in a recent poll claim they are involved in an ongoing Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) project, according to the consulting firm META Group Inc. Another 25 percent of the respondents in the same poll say they are...

Travelers Bond, a division of Travelers Property Casualty Corp.(News and Notes ...)
October 1, 2003... Travelers Bond, a division of Travelers Property Casualty Corp., has extended its fiduciary liability policies for civil fines and penalties assessed under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). --Compiled by...

The insurance implications of the Northeast power failure are likely to be modest, due to the fact that the event was of limited duration, according to the Insurance Information Institute in New York.(News and Notes ...)
October 1, 2003... The insurance implications of the Northeast power failure are likely to be modest, due to the fact that the event was of limited duration, according to the Insurance Information Institute in New York. Most commercial insurance policies exclude...

Insurance costs in 2002 rose 62.5 percent per available room for all full-service hotels over 2001, according to the Hotel Operating Statistics Study.(News and Notes ...)
October 1, 2003... Insurance costs in 2002 rose 62.5 percent per available room for all full-service hotels over 2001, according to the Hotel Operating Statistics Study, conducted by Smith Travel Research. Insurance costs rose 14 percent from 2000 to 2001. ...

Conseco has selected Universal Conversion Technologies.(News and Notes ...)
October 1, 2003... Conseco has selected Universal Conversion Technologies, an insurance industry data conversion vendor, to reduce the number of health administration systems from four to two. Conseco executives say the conversion is expected to take 16 months....

The price of progress.(Workers' Comp)
October 1, 2003... Productivity improvements occur in bits and pieces, often flowing from the economy's leading sector, information technology. The full impact is very difficult to perceive, however, wherever you sit. A case study can awaken us as if jolted...

'My grains' of wisdom.(Benefits)
October 1, 2003... Asthma and diabetes are chronic diseases that can generate thousands of dollars in health claims per employee per year, and many health plans attack those costs and the disease complications with special disease management plans. These...

It pays to be up front with your insurance carrier.(Property)
October 1, 2003... It's funny how things that look so innocent can get you into so much trouble. An agent is urgently seeking advice on how to handle a claim one of his clients just submitted. The problem is, the client is just now coming clean about a prior...

Fiesta in Bermuda.(Bermuda Angle)
October 1, 2003... Latin America, shunned by former vice president Dan Quayle because he didn't speak Latin, is coming to Bermuda, which doesn't speak Spanish. One recent Wednesday, at noon, the Bermuda press corps gathered at the Cabinet Office, the gray...

Calendar of upcoming events.
October 1, 2003... October 22-23 Workers Compensation Research Institute The WCRI's Annual Issues & Research Conference will be held at the Westin Copley Place, Boston, Mass. For more information, call the Workers Compensation Research Institute, 955...

Past is prologue: the early American insurance marketplace had its own version of Sept. 11, and there is no doubt that the industry will survive future challenges, just as it has overcome obstacles in the past.(major feature)
October 1, 2003... In developing the book, Spreading the Risks Insuring the American Experience, as an American business story, I wanted to take into account the social, political and economic factors that influenced the industry's expansion. Early American...

Roil Haven: official waffling on term limits leaves insurance industry executives wondering how serious Bermuda is about keeping workers. If the island lags in supplying the industry with qualified labor, there's always Cuba, once the regime of Fidel Castro passes into history.(Special Report: Bermuda)
October 1, 2003... It's the $64 billion dollar question: Will Bermuda scupper its insurance industry by insisting that foreign employees leave the Island permanently after a period of employment'? In the wake of an unexpected change of government and the rise to...

Scorching results: Bermuda companies go "gangbusters" and turn in stellar results in the first half.(Special Report: Bermuda)
October 1, 2003... The Ancients believed that when planets aligned, magic ensued. The alignment of the planets has little influence in an industry driven by computer models, but what happened to insurance companies in Bermuda in the first half of 2003 was magic....

Bermuda outlook: though a good place to do business, insurers and reinsurers will not hesitate to go elsewhere--Cuba, for example--should the need or the opportunity arise, executives say.(Special Report: Bermuda)
October 1, 2003... In July, Risk & Insurance brought together a group of key players in the Bermuda reinsurance market to assess the state of the industry. They included W. David Brining, executive vice president of Max Re; James P. Bryce, president and CEO of...

Controlling losses--in 3-D: for risk managers in the market for diagramming software, it pays to do some research, especially with regard to the needs of their own companies.(technology)
October 1, 2003... If you're a loss-control manager like Ken Fischer, and wish for electronic versions of building diagrams, you're not alone. For years, loss control managers have dreamed of three-dimensional images of buildings popping up on their laptops at...

Legal eagles: risk managers who take on legal duties work harder but help lower costs to their organizations.(litigation)
October 1, 2003... Christine Sheedy, a risk manager at lighting manufacturer Osram Sylvania, faces the typically intense challenges every risk manager faces these days: brutal cost control, a tenacious hard market and persistent competition from foreign...

Managing costs: shedding light on the Byzantine world of PBMs.(benefits)
October 1, 2003... Pharmacy benefit managers have come under more scrutiny due to recent litigation initiated by organizations alleging that PBMs are benefiting from undisclosed financial arrangements with drug manufacturers. These issues, along with annual...

Branching out: the expanded use of environmental insurance covers mergers and acquisitions risks, stimulates property redevelopment and helps corporations offset environmental liabilities.(environment)
October 1, 2003... Many risk managers would be surprised at the multiple uses for environmental insurance these days. Beyond the textbook definition of the coverage and the obvious protection it provides, environmental coverage is an essential component in...

Loss management.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... Gain better insight from your property and casualty loss data. The Affinity and ReservePro family of solutions helps you react sooner to changes in loss experience so you can budget more accurately. ReservePro's new Enterprise Edition...

Safety and W.C. software.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... PerDatum's PROGNOS product line provides software tools for managing safety, workers' comp, occupational health, and disability programs. Single-user to enterprise solutions include quick and easy data entry features, sophisticated tracking and...

Medical bill review software.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... WebMBR by @Global Inc. reduces medical bill review expenses by rip to 75 percent by consolidating all state fee schedules, UCR databases, pharmacy AWP rates and preferred provider networks into a real-time transaction processing system. The ROI...

Claims administration.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... WLT provides automated, Windows-based claims administration and billing systems for medical, dental, vision, drugs, managed care, Flex, COBRA, HIPAA, capitation, workers' compensation, bill review, provider bill editing, commissioning and...

Risk management software.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... Claims management/risk management software for workers' compensation, general liability, auto, property and casualty, and professional liability. Features include claims management, loss-run analysis, scheduler, spell check, diary notes, check...

Risk management software: STARS is Marsh's comprehensive risk management information system that compiles, tracks and analyzes a wide range of information.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... STARS is Marsh's comprehensive risk management information system that compiles, tracks and analyzes a wide range of information relating to incidents, claims, policies, properties, and exposure values. In addition to STARS, Marsh also offers...

Web-based claims software.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... Native Web-based software for P&L, workers' compensation, STD/LTD, group health. All aspects of claims management, bill re-pricing and adjudication, built in PPO's and pharmacy benefit manager, case management, UR, electronic banking, EDI for...

Risk management software: ATS continues the tradition of innovative RMIS solutions.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... ATS continues the tradition of innovative RMIS solutions. True Internet-based and back-office Windows products define the standards that go to the heart of this tradition. In achieving certification as the first RMIS developer to transmit...

MFX.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... MFX delivers Web-based solutions designed by insurance pros to meet real world demands and accelerate claims handling at all levels. RiskVault gives TPAs, risk managers, and insurers an independent, easily accessed, Web repository for all...

Powering claims management.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... iVOS[TM], browser-based claims management software from Valley Oak Systems, is designed for multiple lines of insurance. Built on solid, scalable Java architecture, iVOS can be installed on your network or hosted on ours. Features include...

Aetna.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... Aetna is a leading national provider of insurance coverage. We offer a broad range of benefits including dental, life, pharmacy, disability, long-term care, group and, of course, health. No matter what the size of your business, you can meet...

PMA management.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... The PMA Insurance Group, a property and casualty insurer, is an expert in workers' compensation and integrated disability management, offering risk control, claims and managed care services to clients with access to data in customized ways. PMA...

National bill review software.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... StrataCare provides national bill review software solutions and service for the workers' compensation industry, including insurance companies, employers, third-party administrators, and bill review companies. StrataCare's mission is to provide...

Claims management.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... File Handler is an integrated, multiline claims management system. File Handler and File Handler.com allow clients the flexibility of using the Internet, intranet and client/server configurations, or a combination of all three. JW Software has...

Outsourcing solutions.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... Trumbull provides comprehensive outsourcing and system solutions for property and casualty insurance. Our people and the technology we use, help improve processes and profits throughout the insurance industry. Our services--including commercial...

Risk management.(technology literature review)
October 1, 2003... Use location to plan, prepare and price for risk. MapInfo is a global software company integrating software, data and services to provide location-based business information. In insurance and risk management, MapInfo solutions provide an...

Richard T. Laughead has been promoted to vice president of accounting, and Lois Hogya to vice president of underwriting, Princeton Insurance Co. has announced.(Executive Moves)
October 1, 2003... Richard T. Laughead has been promoted to vice president of accounting, and Lois Hogya to vice president of underwriting, Princeton Insurance Co. has announced. Laughead will be responsible for general accounting functions such as quarterly and...

Cynthia M. Certo has been elected as a partner of Rawle & Henderson LLP.(Executive Moves)
October 1, 2003... Cynthia M. Certo has been elected as a partner of Rawle & Henderson LLP. the firm has announced. Certo graduated cum laude from Villanova University in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in economics and earned a law degree in 1994 from Temple...

Eric Lien has joined AQS Inc. as director of marketing, the firm has announced.(Executive Moves)
October 1, 2003... Eric Lien has joined AQS Inc. as director of marketing, the firm has announced. He will be responsible for marketing, branding and communications. Lien previously worked in sales and engineering jobs for Allen Bradley/ Rockwell Automation in...

Licensing agreement.(Insurance Coverages)
October 1, 2003... Mississippi Insurance Managers (MIMS) will be licensing QualCorp Inc.'s FormsPlus XP to automate its surety bond program, Allen Beggs, president and co-founder of QualCorp Inc., has announced. MIMS will use FormsPlus XP to give its agents...

Professional liability.(Insurance Coverages)
October 1, 2003... E.L.M. Insurance Brokers Inc., a specialist in professional liability, is offering to place miscellaneous professional liability risks for actuaries, business brokers, benefit plan administrators/ TPAs, credit bureaus, freight forwarders,...

Life Insurance.(Insurance Coverages)
October 1, 2003... NeoStem Inc., an Agoura Hills, Calif., company which develops adult stem cell therapeutics, has introduced a new product branded as "True Life Insurance" for independent insurance agents. This new form of insurance enables individuals to pay...

Claims applications.(Software & Systems)
October 1, 2003... The Chubb Croup of Insurance Cos. has introduced a new Web-based application called ClaimVista. It allows agents and brokers to offer real-time information about their customers' insurance claims. ClaimVista, available on Chubb's...

Property valuations.(Software & Systems)
October 1, 2003... Reed Construction Data (formerly CMD), has launched a new suite of property valuation software for insurance professionals. The Means CostWorks Valuator software employs RSMeans cost data to prepare replacement cost valuations of residences for...

Agency management.(Software & Systems)
October 1, 2003... AMS Services Inc. has introduced two new products for managers of insurance agencies. AMS 360, built around Microsoft's .NET platform, is a new agency management system designed for agency profitability and competitiveness. TransactNOW links an...

The PBM model: major reforms necessary: the standard model, too reliant on a single source of revenue from drug makers, must be revamped to recognize which drugs present the best overall value for the plan, payer and their members.(point/counterpoint)
October 1, 2003... The landscape surrounding Pharmacy Benefits Management (PBM) needs a major renovation-The traditional model may still work effectively for PBMs in allowing them to maintain their margins; however, the model clearly falls short of adequately...

The PBM model: minor adjustments needed: pharmacy benefits management companies need only commit themselves to properly aligning their business goals with that of their clients.(point/counterpoint)
October 1, 2003... The Pharmacy Benefits Management (PBM) industry has enjoyed tremendous success over the past 10 years largely because of its unique ability to manage the rising costs of prescription drugs on behalf of payers. As PBMs have grown, Wall Street...

A royal retreat.(up front)
October 15, 2003... In the bull market of the late 1990s, when stock prices reached absurd heights and congressional deregulation encouraged the largest financial services companies to get even bigger, executives weren't shy about touting "turnkey" solutions and...

Reinsurance 2004: players change, pricing and terms stay much the same.(up front)
October 15, 2003... Insurance carriers looking to North American and British reinsurers to take on a portion of their risk can expect prices and terms for 2004 renewals to look much like they did in 2003, brokers say. While brokers expect little change in...

Worth repeating ...(up front)
October 15, 2003... "The downgrade primarily reflects a re-evaluation by Standard & Poor's of reinsurance industry risk, and of Munich Re's position within that industry following the historic relative underperformance in its nonlife underwriting profitability."...

Legal Jihad launched.(up front)
October 15, 2003... Dozens of insurance companies, acting as members of five large insurance groups--Chubb, American Re, Zurich American, One Beacon and Crum & Forster--have filed suit against al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations to recover billions of...

From the Editor.(up front)
October 15, 2003... It was a surprising juxtaposition. At the XL Capital Congress 2003 last month, European risk executives related the importance of long-term relationships with their insurance carriers. More than a handful traced their relationship with...

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Boston office and the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety have formed a strategic alliance.(News and Notes ...)
October 15, 2003... The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Boston office and the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety have formed a strategic alliance for sharing safety research information and best practices to identify causes of and reduce...

Increasing its presence in Russia, American International Group Inc. has announced the creation of a cooperative joint venture with the Interros Holding Co. of Moscow.(News and Notes ...)
October 15, 2003... Increasing its presence in Russia, American International Group Inc. has announced the creation of a cooperative joint venture with the Interros Holding Co. of Moscow. The joint venture permits AIG companies and Interros to invest in rapidly...

XL Capital Ltd. has completed its purchase of the remaining 33 percent of Le Mans Re, held by Les Mutuelles du Mans Assurances Group.(News and Notes ...)
October 15, 2003... XL Capital Ltd. has completed its purchase of the remaining 33 percent of Le Mans Re, held by Les Mutuelles du Mans Assurances Group. Le Mans Re was formed as a joint venture in 1999 between XL and MMA. XL increased its stake in Le Mans Re from...

Property and casualty insurers' net claims arising from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks reached $9.3 billion by Dec. 31, 2002, compared to $8.5 billion reported through December 31,2001, according to Weiss Ratings Inc., an independent provider of ratings and analyses of financial services companies, mutual funds and stocks.(News and Notes ...)
October 15, 2003... Property and casualty insurers' net claims arising from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks reached $9.3 billion by Dec. 31, 2002, compared to $8.5 billion reported through December 31,2001, according to Weiss Ratings Inc., an independent provider...

Philadelphia Insurance Cos. has been selected for the Ward's 50 Benchmark Group of the top performing property/casualty insurance companies in the industry for the third year in a row.(News and Notes ...)
October 15, 2003... Philadelphia Insurance Cos. has been selected for the Ward's 50 Benchmark Group of the top performing property/casualty insurance companies in the industry for the third year in a row. Ward Group, based in Cincinnati, completed the in-depth...

According to a new survey by Booz Allen Hamilton, 14.2 percent of CEOs of top insurance firms left office in 2002.(News and Notes ...)
October 15, 2003... According to a new survey by Booz Allen Hamilton, 14.2 percent of CEOs of top insurance firms left office in 2002. The departure rate of insurance industry CEOs in 2002 was among the highest of all sectors. Departure rates in the...

Development: a public risk.(The Law)
October 15, 2003... Municipal development decisions have become a treacherous field of land mines. It's now common for a lawsuit claiming a violation of constitutional rights to follow any adverse decision affecting the developer or landowner, even if the decision...

Time to face new realities.(Workers' Comp)
October 15, 2003... New, compensable conditions enter the workers' compensation system from time to time, yet one millennia old condition is still not adequately accepted: post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Until it is, our workers' comp system serves as...

Not all ERPs created equal.(Risk Primer)
October 15, 2003... A claims-made insurance policyholder may need to purchase an extended reporting period (ERP) if coverage is terminated and not replaced, switched to an occurrence form or if the renewal claims-made policy will not afford prior acts coverage....

In the name of a claim.(Property)
October 15, 2003... A risk manager is looking for help with definitions, and the way he put the question has all the earmarks of a search for additional coverage on a claim that has blown policy limits. To the risk manager's dismay, insurance companies know all...

Multiple exposures: using software to run an enterprise in the 21st century has its risks, the least of which is insuring against potential losses with coverage designed to protect companies against threats from the 20th century.
October 15, 2003... George Haitsch, vice president of corporate risk at SAP America Inc., is well aware of the risks facing technology companies today. As a leading provider of business software solutions, SAP focuses on managing its professional liability...

In bytes we trust.(technology)
October 15, 2003... The coat of arms of the London Institute of Insurance is inscribed with the words Uberimma Fides ("utmost good faith"). This is a reminder that commercial insurance has special origins that we ignore at our peril as we move forward into an age...

M&A's mixed messages: a thinning of the "broker herd" will demand that risk managers ask some "hard questions," before buying or renewing their property-casualty policies.(Special report: agents & brokers)
October 15, 2003... The ABC's of today's merger and acquisition scene in the property-casualty distribution system are really quite simple. It is (a) frenetic, (b) fast and/or (c) flat. It just depends on who you talk to. By all accounts, though, merger and...

A hard living: brokers, beholden to "a fragile market," are finding it more difficult to earn their keep than they did several years ago.(Special report: agents & brokers)
October 15, 2003... Though we've slipped into the year's fourth quarter, the 2003 edition of "The Hard Market" remains a work in progress. As the talc unfolds, we read of stabilizing prices, robust premium growth, lower combined ratios in most lines, and...

How brokers can help themselves choosing a vendor.(Special report: agents & brokers)
October 15, 2003... Just as employers look to brokers to offer relevant advice on what system to implement, brokers turn to benefit technology providers to find that special mix of technology and personal service. By partnering with a benefit technology provider,...

Silent risks: the privacy minefield: risks related to privacy are open to interpretation.(liability)
October 15, 2003... These words strike terror into the hearts of employers: "Privacy is the slip-and-fall issue of the decade." Will it ever end? First there was COBRA. Then there was FMLA and now HIPAA. While employers with less than $5 million in claims are...

Liability insurance levels decline, survey shows.(liability)
October 15, 2003... Faced with escalating insurance costs and a soft economy, U.S. businesses, Fen average, have reduced their level of liability insurance purchased. Meanwhile, costs associated with injuries and court awards continued to rise, resulting in a...

The risks of service: as the risk manager of a professional services firm you know well all the risks facing your business today. Here is a reminder to re-evaluate the basics of your plan.(liability)
October 15, 2003... These are the issues that have always confronted risk managers and yet are the ones most often overlooked in day-to-day business operations. Regardless of economic conditions, cyber attacks or corporate-governance scandals, basing your...

How risk managers can secure the best D&O liability available.(liability)
October 15, 2003... D&O underwriters are in the midst of securities litigation explosion and have reacted to the crisis in varying ways. Some have modified the traditional A,B,C policy with coinsurance and other restrictions. Others have moved to an...

Tuning up for torts: at least three major bills under consideration by congress are aimed at tort reform. With support from both sides of the political aisle, class-action reform is expected to pass. Asbestos reform is also expected to pass, though in modified form. The fate of the other bills is anyone's guess.(legislation)
October 15, 2003... Congress is facing a full agenda of pending legislation as it returns from summer vacation. Foremost on its docket is President Bush's appeal for an $87 billion appropriations bill needed to help rebuild Iraq and fight the war against...

Blowing into Chicago: experts to unravel Medicare connection. LRP Workers' Comp and Disability Conference and Exhibit 2003.(workers' comp)
October 15, 2003... Confused about Medicare and its recent impact on the workers' compensation system? An upcoming conference might help sort it out. Three experts will provide insights and offer a step-by-step outline to comply with the program. Attorneys...

Technology buyers' guide.(Buyers' Guide)
October 15, 2003... Technology Buyers' Guide Below is a guide to 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...

Munich re: S&P downgrade baseless: executive says the company will speak with the ratings agency about its "unconvincing" and "regrettable" decision.(point/counterpoint)
October 15, 2003... Munich Re considers the downgrading announced by S&P from AA- to A+ (strong) outlook "stable" to be unjustified and the reasons given lot this measure to be unconvincing. The group's equity funds increased in the second quarter 2003 by around...

S&P: why Munich re deserved a lashing: analyst cites the "underperformance" of the nonlife unit and its effect on the reinsurer's ability to replenish its capital base.(point/counterpoint)
October 15, 2003... Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has lowered its long-term counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on Munich-based global reinsurer Munich Reinsurance Co. and related core subsidiaries of the Munich Re group to 'A+' from...