Risk & Insurance articles from October 2007

Risk & Insurance archives from October 2007

Speaking with two mouths.
October 1, 2007... The medical industry has a hard time keeping its story straight. On the one hand, hospitals are implementing simulation centers to help encourage doctors and nurses to communicate more openly as a way of reducing medical errors and help save...

Online learning launch.(NEWS & NOTES)
October 1, 2007... Atlanta-based third-party administrator Crawford & Co. launched an online learning tool after reaching an agreement with the Property Loss Research Bureau on the acquisition of ClaimStar.net. The PLRB is a not-for-profit association of...

Shand bands.(NEWS & NOTES)
October 1, 2007... A Markel Corp. company, Shand Morahan & Co. Inc., has acquired Cambridge Alliance. Essex Insurance Co. will place Cambridge Alliance's business in Illinois and New Hampshire, and the Evanston Insurance Co. will serve all other states. The...

Arch fights fraud.(NEWS & NOTES)
October 1, 2007... Arch Insurance Group has teamed up with MJM Inc., a Raleigh, N.C.-based provider of insurance fraud mitigation and claims investigative services. The two have formed a process for executing Arch's suspect claims investigations and surveillance...

New insurer in Hartford.(NEWS & NOTES)
October 1, 2007... Specialty Program and Risk Transfer Alternatives, a newly formed insurer known as Sparta Insurance, has opened shop in Hartford, Conn. The company raised nearly $280 million in private equity capital. It will selling commercial auto, general...

Aviva heads to Iowa.(NEWS & NOTES)
October 1, 2007... Insurance and pension provider Aviva USA plans to build its new national headquarters in West Des Moines, Iowa. Aviva USA, the U.S. unit of London-based Aviva PLC, Britain's largest insurer, said it has purchased 71 acres to shift operations...

Lloyd's gets charitable.(NEWS & NOTES)
October 1, 2007... Lloyd's Charities Trust announced it plans to donate about $110,000 to "a unique fund set up by International Alert to aid companies operating in conflict areas around the world." The donation to International Alert, a nongovernmental...

Softening pandemic.(NEWS & NOTES)
October 1, 2007... School closures and other strategies to reduce an epidemic's spread can save lives, particularly when implemented soon after an outbreak in a community, according to scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the...

Kiln considers move.(NEWS & NOTES)
October 1, 2007... After moving its headquarters to the island domicile of Bermuda this past May, as well as establishing presences in Hong Kong, Belgium and Singapore, insurer Kiln Ltd. is considering another move. It plans to grow in the United States, while...

Forecast fix.(NEWS & NOTES)
October 1, 2007... In early September, the Tropical Meteorological Project at Colorado State University lowered its overall hurricane forecast to seven. It had forecasted eight in early announcements. Four of these hurricanes, according to the experts, would...

The back story.(HALLIBURTON)
October 1, 2007... "At the time I started with B&R in 1988," says James Ferguson, now director of risk management at Halliburton, based in Houston, "they had completely separate insurance offices as well as separate support services--information technology,...

Bloomberg's panel.(IN-DEPTH SERIES)
October 1, 2007... In Sept. 2006, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg set up a panel to examine WTC-related illness. The panel found that treatment could cost $392 million per year. Here are its other findings and recommendations. To access this resource,...

The cleanup failure.(IN-DEPTH SERIES)
October 1, 2007... Scathing, hair-raising, depressing. All of these words can describe the Sierra Club's Sept. 2006 report on how the federal government failed, and continues to fail, at the World Trade Center health crisis. To access this resource, please...

The costs of accommodation.(THE ADA)
October 1, 2007... A cost-benefit analysis of direct and indirect impact of the ADA, to determine its benefits and effectiveness, if any. To access this resource, please visit us on the Web at www.riskandinsurance. com/story.jsp?storyId=27106307

ADA answers.(THE ADA)
October 1, 2007... Some of the best spots on the Web to get the answers to your ADA questions. To access these resources, please visit us on the Web at www.riskandinsurance. com/story.jsp?storyId=27107179

To err is human.(HEALTHCARE)
October 1, 2007... The seminal report that woke everyone up to the extent of medical errors in the healthcare world. To access this resource, please visit us on the Web at www.riskandinsurance. com/story.jsp?storyId=27108399

Med-mal: continuing crisis?(HEALTHCARE)
October 1, 2007... Get a grasp on the current med-mal market, in the context of the overall insurance scene and the past years of crisis and conflict. To access this resource, please visit us on the Web at www.riskandinsurance. com/story.jsp?storyId=27109088

Lloyd's electric warrior: the reforming zeal of Lloyd's chief is still encountering some heavy-duty resistance.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
October 1, 2007... Lloyd's of London chief Richard Ward can boast an impressive track record. Ward's first year as chief executive saw completion of Lloyd's project to achieve contract certainty and was further distinguished by two major achievements: October's...

Reinforcing quake lessons: earthquake expert reports on aftermath of Japan temblor.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
October 1, 2007... Businesses can learn from sifting through the rubble of the 6.8-magnitude Niigata-Chuetsu-Oki Earthquake that occurred in central Japan on July 16, according to an expert recently back from the Pacific. A top lesson taken home by Peter...

Quote of the month.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
October 1, 2007... "In effect, ERM is a sophisticated form of preunderwriting."--BILL MARTIN, CEO OF BENFIELD CORPORATE RISK, THE U.S. OPERATION OF THE LONDON-BASED BROKERAGE

Hard work never killed anybody: unless your office happens to be a coal mine or an airplane.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
October 1, 2007... Fatalities involving certain types of incidents were markedly higher than in the previous year, according to the Department of Labor's "National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2006." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Aircraft-related...

Don't blame the Nexters: report: look to baby boomers, not their children, for added stress on the workplace.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
October 1, 2007... All those workplace anecdotes about young people being difficult to manage aren't finding a lot of traction in reality, according to a report put out this summer by a benefits company in conjunction with a research partner. The...

Next big Katrina decision: the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on New Orleans flooding.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed insurers a victory in its Aug. 2 Katrina Canal Breaches Litigation decision, one that could resonate with lower courts deciding the fate of hundreds of other...

Worth repeating.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
October 1, 2007... "I realized that if I didn't get insurance within a certain period of time Sept. 11 related illnesses were potentially going to become a pre-existing condition that no one was going to treat." Lila Nordstrom, former student at Stuyvesant...

Don't mess with Wortham: Texas-based brokerage gets fourth chairman in 91 years.(BROKERS: People, Ideas and Trends shaping the Brokerage Community)
October 1, 2007... Everything is big in Texas. And indeed Wortham Insurance & Risk Management, based in Houston, is the biggest private insurance brokerage in the Lone Star State and the largest privately held insurance partnership in the country. But the...

Brown & Brown beefs up.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
October 1, 2007... Daytona Beach, Fla.-based insurance broker Brown & Brown has recently completed acquisitions of two companies. Muirfield Insurance Inc., which is based in Lexington, Ky., is staffed by equine insurance specialists who focus on the thoroughbred...

Bollinger buys agency.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
October 1, 2007... Bollinger Inc., a privately held insurance broker headquartered in Short Hills, N.J., acquired William J. Redmond & Associates of Freehold, N.J., an agency specializing in equipment maintenance insurance. Owner William Redmond is now a vice...

Aon fires up.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
October 1, 2007... Specialist vehicle insurance broker Firebond, based in Cambridge, England, has been acquired by Aon Ltd., the London unit of Chicago-based insurance broker Aon Corp. This is Aon's second recent acquisition of an insurance brokering service...

Allied helps Higginbotham.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
October 1, 2007... Fort Worth, Texas-based middle-market insurance brokerage and risk management firm Higginbotham & Associates has been promised $93.4 million by Allied Capital Corp. to support its recapitalization. This investment in North Texas' leading...

Hub's new hub.(BROKER NEWS & NOTES)
October 1, 2007... The Rigg Group Inc. will become Chicago-based insurance brokerage Hub International Ltd.'s new Texas hub. One of the largest Texas-based insurance brokers, Rigg focuses on property/casualty, employee benefits, executive risk management, and...

Let it begin: the 2008 Power Broker Awards.(BROKERS: People, Ideas and Trends shaping the Brokerage Community)
October 1, 2007... For two years running, the Power Broker Awards have been the way for brokers to differentiate themselves from their peers--or should we say, to prove they have few peers. Risk executives say they want their brokers to possess strong...

Chronic pain: getting serious.(WORKERS' COMP)
October 1, 2007... The Washington, D.C.,-based National Academy of Social Insurance reported in August that workers' compensation benefits payments continued their rise in 2005, excluding data from California. The word from NASI and other sources is that injury...

Yes, you, insurance, on the tube.(ROGER ON RISK)
October 1, 2007... I'm still on dial-up, which does not allow visits to video sites, because a short clip might take a month to load. But I recently spent three weeks in hotels in the New and Old Worlds, with broadband connections. This, friends, is where I...

The ghost of Ambrose Bierce.(BROKERAGE)
October 1, 2007... Insurance, n. An ingenious modern game of chance in which the player is permitted to enjoy the comfortable conviction that he is beating the man who keeps the table. This "definition" was one of a series written between 1881 and 1906 by...

Perception and meltdowns.(RISK MANAGEMENT)
October 1, 2007... Long ago, a sage named Nasurdin told a story that relates to the current meltdown of the subprime market. While traveling down the road one day, Nasurdin ran into a man who was depressed following a long string of bad luck and, as a result, had...

New court, new direction.(THE LAW)
October 1, 2007... The 2006-2007 term of the U.S. Supreme Court was anything but business as usual, and the upcoming one promises more of the same. With the addition of a new chief justice (Roberts) and associate justice (Alito), and the loss of a long-time...

Wrestling with a billion-dollar Gordian knot: risk managers and brokers fight hard to untangle the complex web of insurance programs covering Halliburton Co. and its KBR subsidiary.(Cover story)
October 1, 2007... Summary * When KBR was first split from Halliburton, only the D&O insurance program was divided because there were two separate boards. * Replicating the Halliburton program and avoiding the temptation to start fresh was a key factor...

The disease within: disasters like Sept. 11 create hundreds of disease claims, but workers' comp systems are structured to reject these claims. Rescue, recovery and cleanup workers stand little chance of seeing a dime in compensation.(IN-DEPTH: RISK & INSURANCE)
October 1, 2007... Summary * When a workers' comp system fails, workers can be severely disadvantaged as they race to find money elsewhere to pay for medical care and disability. * Virtually all the major claims of rescue and recovery workers have been...

Hard labor: day laborers worked hard to return Lower Manhattan to normalcy in the days following Sept, 11. Many of them were exposed to as much danger as the rescue crews crawling atop "the Pile.".(IN-DEPTH: RISK & INSURANCE)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Every summer, Hispanic men congregate along Flatbush Avenue in the New York City borough of Queens to wait for "pickup work," work that is literally handed out daily in home construction, lawn care and industrial...

Testing the immunity defense: a federal judge allows plaintiffs to go forward with their case against the city and contractors on the grounds of negligence.(IN-DEPTH: RISK & INSURANCE)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If public officials engage a company to help in an emergency, do immunity protections covering these officials extend to the company? A federal judge, looking at the World Trade Center aftermath, said in effect, "It...

Bolting from risk, then running with it: an asthmatic New York City high-school student flees the collapsing World Trade Center towers, and then fights for insurance coverage before her illness is classified as a pre-existing condition.(IN-DEPTH: RISK & INSURANCE)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Lila Nordstrom, only 17 at the time, was a victim of the horrible events that took place on Sept. 11, 2001--going out and coming back in again. Going out started in a classroom on the top floor of Stuyvesant...

Talk isn't cheap: improving communication among doctors, nurses and patients can help reduce medical errors, but doing so sometimes means making sure that strategy triumphs over culture.(INDUSTRY RISK REPORT: HEALTH CARE)
October 1, 2007... Summary * Poor communication among doctors, nurses and patients can sometimes cost lives. * Changing behaviors so that "strategy eats culture" will help reduce the number of medical errors, experts say. * For the positive trends...

Industry risk report healthcare.
October 1, 2007... INDUSTRY RISK REPORT HEALTHCARE Medical malpractice liability may not be the dreaded fear it once was to the industry, but it's still a concern. Even without medical malpractice and professional liability headaches, there's enough risk...

Letter head: more focus on risk management has created more demand for professional education. With the recent release of the newest risk-related credential, we take a look at designations as old as you are and those that haven't been created yet.(EDUCATION)
October 1, 2007... Summary * The Society of Actuaries' designation, the Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst, is the newest risk certification to reach the industry. * The ARM is still a standby designation, but could be getting an enterprise risk...

Squabbling over the ADA: fifteen years after the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the courts and employers are still at odds over how the law should be applied in the workplace. Thus far, the only certainty is that there are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to the ADA.(DISABILITY)
October 1, 2007... Summary * Managing employees with disabilities is far less costly than one might think. * Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings and rulings by lower courts are expanding the definition of a disabled person. * After 17 years of the...

Airborne liability: the Airbus A380 is coming to an airport near you, with increased liability limits on its wings.(AVIATION)
October 1, 2007... Summary * A GE Insurance Solutions study in 2006 found the debut of the A380 would result in a 20 percent increase in maximum airliner hull value. * The industry's average liability loss is expected to jump from $329 million to $359...

Striking a balance: while the Tellabs decision finds middle ground between investors and corporate executives, it is expected to have little impact on D&O coverage.(D&O)
October 1, 2007... Summary * This June, the U.S. Supreme Court found some important middle ground in the field of securities class-action lawsuits. * Don't expect that a single court decision will affect the D&O market, however. * The Supreme Court...

Med Mal lessens its pinch: but allow us to introduce a new malady--medical identity theft.(SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH INSURANCE)
October 1, 2007... Summary * Triple-digit increases in medical malpractice premiums have been replaced this year by reductions in excess market premiums. * Tort reform, better financing, and a drive for patient safety have all contributed to the improved...

Fighting for your healthcare funds: third-party administrators and other members of the self-insured benefits industry claim they are in a war for their very existence. Their enemy--the dreaded BUCAS and the government. Their hope of survival--your self-funded healthcare benefits dollars. Are they worth it?(SPECIAL REPORT: HEALTH INSURANCE)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Lawrence Thompson enters a session room--a session room not unlike any other at a typical insurance trade show--and he transforms it into a battlefield. Dressed in a crisp dark suit to match his proper Jamaican...

Technology.(Directory)
October 1, 2007... TECHNOLOGY Below are paid listings of specialty software packages for the insurance companies, risk managers and brokers. This guide is not intended to be a complete directory but is an overview of some of the packages available....

Upcoming events.(Calendar)
October 1, 2007... OCTOBER 9 CICA Fall Seminar The Captive Insurance Companies Association's 2007 Fall Seminar features case studies of various captives. The event takes place at the Hyatt Regency DFW in Dallas. For more information: CICA, www....

Plugging the brain drain: with the fear in some quarters that intellectual capital is leaving the insurance industry faster than it can be replaced, here are some steps to reduce the impact of retirement and increase employee retention.(VIEWPOINT)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] More than a quarter of the U.S. working population will be old enough to retire in less than three years. Add this flight to an average job stay of four years, and businesses in America are at risk. America is poised...