Risk & Insurance articles from September 2004

Risk & Insurance archives from September 2004

13th Annual National Workers' Compensation and Disability Conference[R] & Expo.
September 1, 2004... November 17-19, 2004 Lakeside Center at McCormick Place Chicago CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS Register Early and Save! SAVE $100.00 when you register by Oct. 1, 2004! Now its 13th year, the National Workers' Compensation and...

Every so often there rises to the surface sentences so clear and prescient.
September 1, 2004... Every so often there rises to the surface sentences so clear and prescient in the gobbledygook of financial services writing that they bear repeating. This month, in our cover story, P. Richard Hackenburg, vice president of insurance...

Title insurance.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2004... Dear Editor: With respect to your recent article, "A Bizarre Bazaar" (Risk & Insurance, June 2004, page 40) the situation is even worse than you portray it. While the buyer/seller incurs the cost of the coverage, the mortgage company is...

Alternative risk.(Letters To The Editor)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2004... Dear Editor: I am a big fan of your Alternative Risk column. I read the May 2004 edition of Risk & Insurance and was surprised that the State of Hawaii was not included in any of your references or comments. Your reference to Nevada as...

RIMS plans London trip.(News & Notes)
September 1, 2004... A group of North American risk managers will travel to London this month, RIMS officials have announced. The trip will include visits to the offices of Zurich Insurance. Marsh and Lloyd's. "There is intense interest in both the London...

Survey: premium costs decline.(News & Notes)
September 1, 2004... Commercial insurance premiums declined by an average of 18 percent for up to half of D&O, property and general liability policies renewed in the second quarter, according to the Risk and Insurance Management Society's Benchmark Survey in July.

Sedgwick-XL claims alliance.(News & Notes)
September 1, 2004... Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc. will provide claims administration services on behalf of XL Insurance, Sedgwick CMS has announced. The agreement, whose programs include workers' compensation, commercial automobile liability and...

Study: firms lack severance policies.(News & Notes)
September 1, 2004... A new study has found that 25 percent of companies do not have an active executive severance policy in place. Of those companies that do, only half define the conditions and terms of the policy, according to a recent study conducted by Hay...

Worker indicted for fraud.(News & Notes)
September 1, 2004... A grand jury in Travis County, Texas, has indicted a janitorial worker for workers' compensation fraud, according to Texas Mutual Insurance Co. Sergio Garcia claimed he had injured his shoulder while working for a food and janitorial service...

Willis to acquire Ireland broker.(News & Notes)
September 1, 2004... Insurance broker Willis Group Holdings has agreed to buy a majority stake in Coyle Hamilton, the largest privately-owned insurance broker in Ireland, Willis has announced. Coyle Hamilton generates annual revenues of $60 million and maintains...

CIAB files suit against P.R.(News & Notes)
September 1, 2004... The Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers has sued the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, challenging a statute that forces nonresident insurance brokers to obtain the signature of a resident agent before doing business there.

Corney hedges weather exposure.(News & Notes)
September 1, 2004... Carney and Barrow Win Bars Ltd. has completed a weather derivative hedge with XL Trading Partners Ltd., to deal with catastrophe and weather-related exposures, the firms have announced. The plan assures that Carney and Barrow will be paid for...

A law's uneven spoils: a certification process to protect companies from liability in the development of anti terrorism products and services appears to favor big firms at the expense of small ones.(Up front: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)
September 1, 2004... Small business owners were excited when the SAFETY Act was signed into law last year. They thought they had government largesse coming to them related to the development of new technologies to protect U.S. soil. Under the law, businesses...

Health summit: costs have nowhere to go but up: experts may--or may not--be able to agree on how to fix the nation's health care ills. Yet they all agree that providing health insurance will keep on getting more expensive.(Up front: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)
September 1, 2004... Health care expenditures are going in one direction: up. The reasons for the rise in the cost of health care are, however, far more complex. Societal affluence, consumer expectations, the public's refusal to consider limits on medical...

Smaller cities turn to software to fight terror: when raising taxes is not an option, the efficient allocation of manpower and resources is a town's best bet.(Up front: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)
September 1, 2004... Seeking to relieve taxpayers of some of the financial burden of protecting cities and towns, some municipal risk managers and emergency response personnel are relying on risk management software to help them do the job. The City of Tampa, Fla.,...

Not-so-cheap sleeps: expensive beds drive a wedge in workers' comp programs: when beds were made of slats and springs and cost a few hundred dollars, tacking the cost of a bed onto an insurance bill was a no-brainer. But with some beds costing as much as $30,000, it pays to think twice before signing on the dotted line.(Up front: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)
September 1, 2004... Mankind's most popular healing tool, a good bed, isn't always covered by workers' compensation insurance. That's not necessarily because compensation bean counters are obsessed with pinching pennies. It's because some beds--costing as much as...

A thirst for brokered services.(Up front: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)
September 1, 2004... A THIRST FOR BROKERED SERVICES North America and the western half of Europe provided the greatest source of brokered reinsurance demand in 2002 NORTH 30% AMERICA WESTERN 26% EUROPE EASTERN EUROPE ...

Worth repeating.(Up front: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)
September 1, 2004... "I want to give students a bigger picture of the industry to persuade them to take a couple of insurance courses They nave the wrong image of insurance as somebody just selling life insurance." Weili Lu, director of the Center for...

It's hip--or HIP--to be healthy.(Benefits)
September 1, 2004... It's never been hip to be fat, or as the health policy experts now call it, "obese." Fat is unattractive, unhealthy and kind of uncomfortable. As an overweight, middle-aged, sedentary journalist, I speak from personal experience. But until...

Musings on the runoff racket.(Alternative Risk)
September 1, 2004... Before readers read any further, I must apologize to Damon Runyon, the American short-story writer, journalist, columnist and humorist best known for writing Guys and Dolls and spending many years with some of the best-known actors working on...

Imagining a Brave New World.(Workers' Comp)
September 1, 2004... What if we could design completely from scratch a workers' compensation system? I communed with Kevin Bingham, an actuary with Deloitte & Touche, to imagine such a Brave New World. There is something for the employer, insurer and workers in...

The CRO: a species at risk: the position of chief risk officer is struggling to find a niche within many organizations. Beyond a few sectors, notably the energy and financial services industries, the need for a CRO is still hotly debated.(Cover Story)
September 1, 2004... Thinking of becoming a chief risk officer? Here's some advice: Forget it. You don't have time for the pain. The CRO position, created only a few years ago at a handful of companies, is in danger of becoming irrelevant outside of two or...

The new scrutiny.(Reinsurance)
September 1, 2004... In July, Risk & Insurance brought together some of the world's largest buyers of reinsurance and asked them to reveal their strategies used to secure reinsurance from reputable suppliers. The discussion was moderated by Rod Thaler, executive...

Vanishing--slowly but surely--into thin air: in 1981, there were 124 U.S. reinsurers reporting to the Reinsurance Association of America. Only 45 of them were left by 2002, according to the RAA, and some of those that are left are now in runoff.(Special Report)
September 1, 2004... Few U.S. reinsurers got out of the last decade alive. Small and midsize independent U.S. reinsurers have almost completely disappeared. Reinsurance subsidiaries of large insurance companies have been sold or put into runoff. Meanwhile, the...

Running off with the cash.(Special Report)
September 1, 2004... About $100 billion to $200 billion in reinsured reserves are in runoff. Due to the enormity of reinsurance capacity in runoff, it tends to resemble a Jekyl-and-Hyde scenario. On the one hand, many professional reinsurers are addressing claims...

Riddled in mystery: the development of insurance products is sometimes shrouded in mystery. Other products and services develop incrementally, without a whiff of a "Skunkworks" mentality. Perhaps most surprising, though, is the role regulators play in spurring firms to develop new products. Some of the most successful products took off in the wake of federal and state laws.(Insurance Products)
September 1, 2004... To many, Winston Churchill's words, "It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma," might as easily apply to the subject of product development and innovation in the insurance business, a process equally shrouded in mystery. ...

Regaining control: vehicle tracking systems have come a long way in the last decade. New systems have features that do even more for the bottom line than just prevent theft. Insurers are taking notice.(Technology)
September 1, 2004... Imagine the proud owner of a brand new 2003 Lexus LX470 SUV leaving home in the morning only to discover that it had disappeared from the driveway in the front yard of the house during the night never to be seen again. What happened to the...

Staking a claim: a spate of mergers and acquisitions activity in the RMIS world shows how difficult it is for independent shops to survive as the marketplace thirsts for "value-added" services.(Claims)
September 1, 2004... It's been a heady year so far for risk management information systems vendors. Big-name brokerages have bought established companies in their bid to beef up their RMIS bona tides. Some independent houses have merged to form one company instead...

Bridging a divide: administrator and educator Weili Lu first crossed the Pacific Ocean bridging China and the United States nearly two decades ago. Now she's hoping to bridge the generational divide by bringing risk management to a generation of young talent.(Profile)
September 1, 2004... Even though it was her first step into the world of insurance inside the United States, the 6,500-mile trip that risk management educator Weili Lu took nearly two decades ago from China to the Midwest was certainly not her most arduous. ...

Proceeding with caution: the consequences of a bad risk management decision in the freight transportation industry can be devastating and freight rails and the motor carriers have had to take a hard look at their risk management practices and their vulnerabilities.(Industry risk report: mail and freight)
September 1, 2004... It's not the risks that have changed for freight transportation companies. It's the consequences. The trucking industry, for instance, has always had to deal with the risks of theft of trucks, highway accidents and spills. But before the...

Risk management & benefits software directory.(Directory)
September 1, 2004... RISK MANAGEMENT & BENEFITS SOFTWARE DIRECTORY Below is a guide to specialty software packages for the risk management/employee benefits market. This guide is not intended to be a complete directory, but is an overview of some of the...

Upcoming events.(Calendar)
September 1, 2004... SEPTEMBER 28-10.1 SIIA Annual Conference & Expo The conference this year, billed as "The Self-Insurance and Alternative Risk Transfer Networking Forum," will offer four tracks: an employer track, a TPA/ management track, a...

Market Corp.'s Investors Underwriting.(Executive Moves)
September 1, 2004... GLEN CURLEY has been appointed president of Market Corp.'s Investors Underwriting subsidiary, the firm has announced. Most recently, Curley was senior vice president for the reinsurance operations of American Reinsurance. Throughout his career,...

Clarendon Insurance Group.(Executive Moves)
September 1, 2004... BRYAN T. MCCULLY has been named senior vice president of claims, the Clarendon Insurance Group has announced. McCully will report to president & CEO Detlef Steiner. He has been with Clarendon since 1997. James E. Taylor has been named the new...

PMA Insurance Group.(Executive Moves)
September 1, 2004... MICHELLE JAMES has joined the PMA Insurance Group as assistant vice president of claims for the southern region, the company has announced. She will be based out of the firm's Charlotte, N.C., office, and will lead the day-to-day operations for...

JMB Insurance Inc.(Executive Moves)
September 1, 2004... BRUCE SCHLESINGER, senior vice president of Schlesinger Associates Inc., which was acquired by JMB Insurance Inc., will lead JMB's employee benefit and financial security practice, the firm has announced. "With Bruce's leadership, the combined...

Cozen O'Connor.(Executive Moves)
September 1, 2004... ANN THORNTON FIELD has been named the new chairwoman of Cozen O'Connor's national insurance litigation department, the law firm has announced. She will succeed Robert R. Reeder, who is retiring. Field has served as a member of Cozen O'Connor's...

Summit Global Partners Inc.(Executive Moves)
September 1, 2004... JERRY L. KIELMAN has been named COO of the Dallas/Ft. Worth region, insurance brokerage and consulting firm Summit Global Partners Inc. has announced. He will be responsible for operations, marketing, sales support and business analysis...

Attorney's Liability Assurance Society (Bermuda) Ltd.(Executive Moves)
September 1, 2004... RALPH B. LEVY has been named the new chairman of the Attorneys' Liability Assurance Society (Bermuda) Ltd., the organization has announced. Levy began his tenure in June. In addition to sewing as chairman of the Reinsurance Committee, bevy is a...

Singing the praises of a federal charter: the patchwork of state rules has left the insurance industry in a dysfunctional straightjacket.(Point)
September 1, 2004... After more than a half-century of leaving insurance regulation largely to the states, Congress is beginning to consider dramatic changes in the way insurance is regulated. What prompts this action is simple and obvious. The current...

A state regulatory system serves buyers best: when a single, national regulator makes a mistake, it will have significant consequences.(Counterpoint)
September 1, 2004... State insurance regulation has proven to be adaptable, accessible and relatively efficient, with rare insolvencies and no taxpayer bailouts. One advantage that state governments possess is the ability to adapt to the unique issues faced by each...

Editor's page.
September 15, 2004... ctuohy@Irp.com ... #$@&%*!)... Click. That's the sound of D&O policy buyers like Sheila Small, Verizon's assistant treasurer for risk management and insurance, and her peers in the telecommunications industry hanging up on their insurance...

Agencies a catalyst for better mgmt. practices.(News & Notes)
September 15, 2004... A survey conducted by Tillinghast reveals that 71 percent of responding life insurance CFOs believe that the demands of rating agencies are driving the need for better risk management practices. The study also showed that 55 percent of...

Insurers to spend $618 million on security.(News & Notes)
September 15, 2004... Insurers will pay close to $618 million on IT security this year, and that number could rise to $772 million by 2006, a consulting firm reports. In a report entitled IT Security Issues in Insurance, Celent Communications discusses insurers'...

Study: 'corporate cholesterol' costs millions.(News & Notes)
September 15, 2004... Inefficiency in the property and casualty insurance industry is costing insurance organizations millions of dollars each year, a study by Exigen Group reveals. The study reports that by cutting back on duplication and a dependence on paper when...

Calif. court rejects "hybrid" theory.(News & Notes)
September 15, 2004... The California Supreme Court has upheld the separation of express warranties and vehicle service contracts. The Court upheld a 2002 ruling in Gavaldon v. DaimlerChrysler that stated that the two were separate and must be treated as such.

Vermont kills PBM disclosure proposal.(News & Notes)
September 15, 2004... Vermont lawmakers have dropped a proposal that would have subjected pharmaceutical benefits managers to new fiduciary and disclosure requirements. The proposal was similar to a bill in Maine past last year that was found to be unconstitutional....

PacifiCare in deal with Harvard Pilgrim.(News & Notes)
September 15, 2004... Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has selected PacifiCare Behavioral Health (PBH) to provide health care benefits for 800,000 members in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island. The move is part of PBH's plan to diversify its customer...

Fire grants totalling $55,000 awarded.(News & Notes)
September 15, 2004... FM Global has awarded 31 fire service organizations and agencies in the United States and Europe more than $55,000 from an arson prevention fund, the company has announced. The funds are aimed at providing prevention and protection against...

Hurricane model certified once again.(News & Notes)
September 15, 2004... The Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology has recertified EQECAT's hurricane model, EQECAT has announced. The model is used by insurers and reinsurers to design strategies for pricing, portfolio management and risk...

The Hartford recognized by standards groups.(News & Notes)
September 15, 2004... The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. was recognized at the ACORD-LOMA Insurance Systems Forum, the annual conference of the standards organizations. The firm was cited for business integration and its impact in the property/ casualty...

Upcoming events.(Calendar)
September 15, 2004... SEPTEMBER 28-10.1 SIIA Annual Conference & Expo The conference this year, billed as "The Self-Insurance and Alternative Risk Transfer Networking Forum," will offer attendees information through four tracks: The conference will...

Vermont captive conference confronts the limits of growth: new education initiative also announced along with special insurance designation for captive profession.(Upfront: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)
September 15, 2004... Molly Lambert, president of the Vermont Captive Insurance Association, wasn't joking when she worried just a bit about the growing success of the annual conference in August in Burlington, Vt. "We have enough hotel rooms now, but it's...

Worker loses arms, goes "bionic": advances in prosthetics make life easier for double-amputee.(Upfront: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)
September 15, 2004... Jessie Sullivan isn't your average amputee. The power linesman who suffered severe electrical burns resulting in the severing of both arms at the shoulder, thought he had lost his limbs forever in the wake of a horrible accident. But lucky...

Employers will come under pressure over the next several years to keep their existing workforce. Here's why.(Disability)
September 15, 2004... 75% The number of (surveyed) manufacturing companies that had immediate concerns regarding the aging workforce. 60% The incidence of short- and long-term disability claims that have increased in the United States in the last...

Insuring the services of a thoroughbred: should smarty Jones fail to produce an heir, insuring him may be more expensive than his owners planned.(Upfront: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)
September 15, 2004... First Season Infertility Cover, like just about all equine coverage, has been subject to the laws of the hard market and rising prices, according to carriers and brokers. And this year's surge of interest in horse racing didn't help matters....

Australian claims drop in wake of legal reforms: injury claims plummet from more than 20,000 to 8,000 and some lawyers have trouble finding work.(Upfront: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world)
September 15, 2004... As a result of the reforms, the total number of claims in the territory of New South Wales dropped, from a record 20,784 in 2001 to just under 8,000 last year. "Time will tell just how long it will last but it's certainly encouraging," says Dr....

Aversion to risk breeds linguistic absurdity.(Alternative Risk)
September 15, 2004... Warning: Reading may damage your eyesight. This column may enrage or bore you. This page may contain advertising. With that done, my attorneys advise me that I may now proceed. At Chicago's O'Hare airport, smokers who make it out of...

For once, a happy ending.(Workers' Comp)
September 15, 2004... In May, 2003 a 51-year-old New Hampshire male mason fell 20 feet from construction staging. Emergency room doctors found a fractured pelvis, fractured rib, contusion to his left knee, and extensive bone fragments in one forearm. By...

Health savings accounts' buzz.(Benefits)
September 15, 2004... If you can't afford to give your employees more expensive benefits, at least give them more opportunity to buy the benefits they want. That's been the pitch of the agents, brokers and insurers that sell voluntary benefits. In an era of rising...

Reality shows push the limits: which is easier--performing a stunt on a reality TV show or insuring the show? Which would you rather do--eat maggots to win $100,000 or insure a reality TV show?(Cover Story)
September 15, 2004... Blame it on "Survivor." At least that's the TV show that most people point to as the originator of today's reality TV programming. And when it hit the airwaves in the summer of 2000, who knew it would not only become an instant, profitable hit...

A 'Tsunami' heaves toward U.S. shores: Using sand-bags to defend corporations against a tidal wave of rising benefits expenses is unlikely to do much good. More drastic measures are necessary, experts say, and employees look as if they most likely will have to bear the burden.(Special report: benefits)
September 15, 2004... Start piling the sandbags now. Employee benefits costs are rising into a tidal wave of corporate risk that threatens to swamp unprepared employers. And the most vulnerable employers in the automotive, transportation and steel industries are...

Enter this market at your own risk: for a long-term care insurance policy form, whose lifetime averages three to five years, the startup sales strategy should target a minimum of $5 million of annual new sales premium, says one long-term care industry expert.(Benefits)
September 15, 2004... What has opportunity knocking vigorously at the front door and past participants running for cover out the back? It could be any number of things, but in this case we're referring to the long-term care insurance (LTCI) industry--an industry...

Why exchanges crashed: exchanges were tried in every industry and the big players like Ariba and Freemarkets are today trading at a fraction of their value five years ago, But these firms were successful mostly in the trading of commodities and raw materials, not reinsurance.(Technology)
September 15, 2004... A lot of people support the idea of reinsurance exchanges. There are some persuasive and well-meaning folk that actively promote the concept. I also know the industry has spent tens of millions experimenting with exchanges. But I must be level...

Save those policies!(Insurance)
September 15, 2004... As courts decide that claims are legitimate for exposures that were never considered valid decades ago, insureds are being hit with monetary demands for these ancient occurrences. But providentially, these unforeseen events are often covered by...

Naked exposure: a new play has the medical community abuzz about what it means to face a world without medical malpractice coverage. Nationwide, very few doctors practice without it. But you can bet that "going naked" has crossed the minds of just about every doctor in the country.(Liability)
September 15, 2004... In Going Bare--a play written by Mary Jane Taegel that has been produced in playhouses across the country--Dr. Jack Ramsay, has dropped his insurance coverage to avoid paying what he considers to be outrageous malpractice premiums. But, when...

Megawatt analyst's Southern glow.(Profile)
September 15, 2004... Southern Co.'s risk management information system used to breeze along at a leisurely pace, tracking historical claims and payments before converting the data for claims administration. But six years ago, Elizabeth Morrell, who used to brief...

Hanging up on D&O and E&O.(Industry risk report: telecommunications)
September 15, 2004... D&O premium hikes and E&O coverage limits dominate the concerns of insurance buyers in the telecommunications sector these days. It's no surprise that many buyers feel like hanging up on their broker or carrier. Underwriters say these firms...

Industry risk report: telecommunications.
September 15, 2004... D&O and E&O coverage in this sector is NOT just a phone call away. When insurance buyers finally get through, their concerns seem to fall on deaf ears. Beyond the frustrations of people like Denise Archer at BellSouth, who says she can't find...

Scoring benefits consumers, regulators and taxpayers: credit scores allow underwriters to accurately assess risks, allowing them to charge a fair premium.(Point)
September 15, 2004... The use of credit-based insurance scoring is the most significant advancement hi cost-based pricing in the past 30 years. Insurance scores are derived from information contained in credit reports and are used to help insurance companies...

Scoring is unfair, unjust and undermines public policy: credit scoring is arbitrary, discriminatory and violates actuarial standards for risk classification.(Counterpoint)
September 15, 2004... You've just been laid off from your job. Or your daughter has a major medical problem that your health insurance (if you have any) doesn't fully cover. Or you've just gotten a divorce. These three life events account for 87 percent of family...