Risk & Insurance articles from September 2005

Risk & Insurance archives from September 2005

An adverse reaction.
September 1, 2005... By and large, reinsurers like to stay out of the spotlight and leave the nitty-gritty of face-to-face contact with buyers to the primary carriers. Reinsurers like to hide behind brands that evoke partnerships run by Renaissance men capable of...

Objective analysis needed.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2005... Dear Editor: Peter Rousmaniere's articles on state funds, "An Analysis of Arrogance," (Risk & Insurance[R], April 1, 2005, page 28) do not display objective analysis. It appears that the writer had a conclusion in mind and then selectively...

Opinion lacking balance.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2005... Dear Editor: While your concerns about the efficacy and implications of drug therapy in pain management are well placed (Risk & Insurance[R], July 2005, page 14), you appear to dismiss the need for an appropriate prescription of pain...

Judge blasts compliance law.(NEWS & NOTES)
September 1, 2005... Parts of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act prevent states from regulating corporations, according to a Delaware judge. Court of Chancery Vice Chancellor Judge Leo Strine called parts of the law "dubious." The law, designed to improve disclosure...

2Q P&C losses decline.(NEWS & NOTES)
September 1, 2005... U.S. property/casualty insurers are expected to pay homeowners and businesses an estimated $920 million for second-quarter insured property losses from four catastrophes in 25 states--the lowest tally among second quarters in the past 10 years,...

Bush backs TRIA extension.(NEWS & NOTES)
September 1, 2005... Treasury Secretary John Snow told two separate congressional panels in July that the Bush administration would back an extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, but only if it means relying less on taxpayers and more on private insurance...

AIG sells Pipeline Co. to GE unit.(NEWS & NOTES)
September 1, 2005... AIG Highstar Capital LP, a private equity fund sponsored by American International Group Inc., has agreed to sell the Southern Star Central Corp. gas pipeline system to GE Commercial Finance Energy Financial Services and Caisse de Depot et...

Levitt to advise insurance giant.(NEWS & NOTES)
September 1, 2005... Arthur Levitt, the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has been named a special advisor to AIG's board of directors and the board's nominating and corporate governance committee, AIG has announced. The news comes in...

Insurance exec wins award.(NEWS & NOTES)
September 1, 2005... Tom MacArthur, chairman and CEO of York Insurance Services Group Inc., has been named a winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2005. The award, bestowed annually, honors young dynamic regional, national and international...

Terror blitz no match for business continuity plans: Londoners give new meaning to "return-to-work" in the wake of terror attacks, thanks to detailed business-continuity planning and decades of terror drills.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
September 1, 2005... The speed with which the business world returned to business in the wake of the terrorist bombs that exploded on London's transport system Thursday, July 7, killing 56 people, might seem indecent to some. The London Stock Exchange's...

Explosions underscore a city's vulnerability to attack: London has its work cut out for it as multiple explosions, two weeks apart in July, reminded the world that attackers are unquestionably able to strike at the heart of crowded, built-up cities.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
September 1, 2005... On July 6, London went head to head with Paris and won, by a 54-50 vote, the right to host the 2012 Olympic Games. The jubilation seemed like it would last a decade. The following day, however, the celebration turned to horror and...

Spoiling for a fight over TRIA: the Bush administration wants to shift the risk of terrorism losses away from the government and onto the insurance industry. That's not sitting well with carriers, but there appears to be room for compromise.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
September 1, 2005... While the insurance world may have hoped for an easy solution from the Bush administration on the renewal of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, federally backed guarantees connected to terrorism losses, all it got was a nasty fight and a lot of...

Annual spending on software & services for policy administration systems (US$ mn).(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
September 1, 2005... ANNUAL SPENDING ON SOFTWARE & SERVICES FOR POLICY ADMINISTRATION SYSTEMS (US$ mn) Life Health Property/Casualty 2004 $66 $769 2005 $66 $128 2006 $89 $232 2007 ...

Barrels cocked for Hiscox: U.K. underwriter hires veterans to develop the professional indemnity marketplace among midsize and smaller companies in the United States.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
September 1, 2005... Straight out of the gate early next year, Ed Donnelly, named to the newly created position of president of Hiscox USA, undoubtedly will begin to cut a substantial swath through a significant but often untapped sector of the American insurance...

Worth repeating.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
September 1, 2005... "Pay what we owe, not a penny more. not a penny less." Pete Howell, executive general adjuster, Crawford & Co. "So far so good." Georgia Hauffe, general manager of Panama City Beach, Fla.-based Shipwreck Ltd., whose building has...

Appeals court bites down on dental malpractice: Fireman's Fund wins a round of legal wrangling after a court is not amused by a dentist's practical joke.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
September 1, 2005... Placing prosthetic boar tusks into a sedated employee's mouth, taking photographs, and then showing the pictures to the employee once she regained consciousness are not acts covered by an oral surgeon's liability insurance, a state appeals...

Bermuda at risk.(ALTERNATIVE RISK)
September 1, 2005... If, as Dorothy Parker said, the two most beautiful words in the English language are "check enclosed," then the two most horrible words would be "claim denied." Yet more horrible words were added to the lexicon in Bermuda in July, however,...

W.'s memo for the fall: White House interoffice memorandum. Eyes only.(WORKERS' COMP)
September 1, 2005... TO: John Snow, Treasury Secretary FROM: W. Dear John: I am asking you to work up a legislative proposal that I wish to be called Livelihood Insurance. We must get this right. Karl says this will make up for our problems with...

Reflections on changing needs.(RISK MANAGEMENT)
September 1, 2005... The business world is changing at a fast clip. Even Sarbanes-Oxley, as big and burdensome as the law may be, is only part of the changes underway. Powerful sources, ranging from the New York Stock Exchange to the U.S. Securities and Exchange...

Beware of order takers.(RISK PRIMER)
September 1, 2005... It's not clear if brokers have simply become nervous as a result of the war Eliot Spitzer is waging against the insurance industry, or if they have collectively attended one too many errors & omissions seminars. What is dear, however, is that...

When big storms go bad: CAT adjusters are the insurance industry's frontline against natural and man-made catastrophes. In the aftermath of Hurricane Dennis, Risk & Insurance's Matthew Brodsky traveled with adjusters from Crawford & Company. This is his account of how--and why--these can-do men and women took on a storm predicted to be as devastating as last year's Hurricane Ivan.(Cover Story)
September 1, 2005... 10 p.m. CDT, Saturday, July 9 Dennis, a Category 3 hurricane, barrels toward the Florida Panhandle after lashing Cuba. With 125 mph sustained winds, the storm threatens to become to a ferocious Category 4, amazing experts with the speed at...

How we misjudge health risks.(HEALTH CARE)
September 1, 2005... Health and disability insurance risk classification systems, say experts, may be committing a fundamental error by failing to account for successful treatments of chronic conditions. The bottom line is that individuals who are being treated may...

Time to re-act: since Three Mile Island, nuclear power in the United States has imploded into a Dark Ages of development. Recent legislation and strong support from the Bush administration, however, have energized the industry, along with its insurers.(INSURANCE)
September 1, 2005... In 1979, when John Quattrocchi was a young insurance man, he was dispatched to the nuclear accident scene at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. The area was virtually deserted, except for some residents who didn't make it out or didn't want to....

From booze to breakthroughs: higher-education risks still include drinking problems and mental-health issues while universities also grapple with emerging risks from research and technology.(INDUSTRY RISK REPORT: HIGHER EDUCATION)
September 1, 2005... Allen Bova never expected to see his picture on the front page of Cornell University's student newspaper, let alone under the headline, "The Day the Music Died." But that's what happened when the risk management director cancelled the band for...

Armed with knowledge: insurance agent David Lippa rose from the most modest of beginnings in Rochester, N.Y., to become the insurance industry's "man of letters." Just call him "The Designate.".(PROFILE)
September 1, 2005... You'd be ill-advised to give insurance broker, ex-Marine and Vietnam veteran David Lippa any lip. He might just deck you with a left hook. Or, more likely, he could choose to drown you in a reprimand laced with four-letter words--or...

Spreading, the risk: the capital markets have acquired a healthy appetite for insurance-linked securities as a supplement to traditional reinsurance. Proponents say tightening spreads will elicit further interest in these products. Others are less sanguine.(SPECIAL REPORT: REINSURANCE)
September 1, 2005... When insurance-linked securities emerged a decade ago, buyers were largely reinsurance companies that took advantage of the opportunity the bonds afforded sponsors to insure themselves against major, natural catastrophes. Reinsurers, and some...

Discipline this unruly lot! Reinsurers aren't shy about talking up their "disciplined" approach to changes in the marketplace, but their latest performance leaves much to be desired. If only "adverse developments" would just go away.(SPECIAL REPORT: REINSURANCE)
September 1, 2005... It wasn't quite a perfect storm, but a combination of adverse developments on old business and new catastrophes made 2004 a rough year for U.S. reinsurers. Hurt by reserve additions for casualty business written before 2001, losses on...

Who's next? Ratings agencies have a habit--either by design or by coincidence--of releasing ratings reviews when buyers and sellers engage in their annual prospecting rituals in Monaco. The market holds its breath to see who gets upgraded, and who takes a hit.(SPECIAL REPORT: REINSURANCE)
September 1, 2005... Come Sept. 10, 2005, there will be plenty to talk about at the squeaky-dean sidewalk cafes of Monaco. Item No. 1 on the agenda is expected to be the winners and losers in the ratings game. "For the second or third year, all eyes are going...

A step in the right direction: a recent estimate indicates that the average 65-year-old couple retiring today will need more than $190,000 to cover medical expenses over the next 15 to 20 years. Employers want to offer their employees some solutions, but can't afford to pick up the tab. Health savings accounts are a good attempt to address the situation, but drawbacks remain.(BENEFITS)
September 1, 2005... When the Philadelphia Inquirer profiled Bill Brown on its front page in April of this year, it was because Brown was retiring as one of the last people in America to have been with one company continuously for 50 years. The average worker in...

Firing up the paper chase: the world of insurance is built on documents, and a river of paper runs through it. After years of cost-cutting in the soft market, that flood of paper represents one of the few areas that insurers have left to cut costs. That has traditional document-handling vendors, and new entrants, looking at an old problem as a source of new profits.(TECHNOLOGY)
September 1, 2005... While many industries produce hard, metal objects, from automobiles to airplanes, insurers and reinsurers produce paper--a lot of paper. For decades, insurers and reinsurers have looked for ways to cut down on the money they spend printing,...

A glimpse of success: three experts share their experience in improving their claims and benefits administration systems. Here's a hint: it was a lot of work, and retooling an enterprise claims system is never as easy as it sounds.(TECHNOLOGY)
September 1, 2005... Question: How did you go about selecting the right business partners whether it was a TPA, system vendor, or another partner in the process? Bob: We've got a strong group of very tenured professionals both on the claims and nursing side....

Directory: risk management and employee benefits software.(Directory)
September 1, 2005... Below are paid listings of specially software packages for the risk management/employee benefits market. To obtain more information on any of the programs listed, please select the appropriate URL. For more information, please contact Fred...

Willis Group Holdings.(EXECUTIVE MOVES)
September 1, 2005... Willis Group Holdings, the global insurance broker, has appointed DAVID WYNSTRA as executive vice president of their National Healthcare Practice, the firm has announced. He is based in San Francisco. Wynstra was formerly a division president...

American International Group Inc.(EXECUTIVE MOVES)
September 1, 2005... American International Group Inc. has announced that AIG Vice President CHARLES H. DANGELO has been appointed AIG'S senior reinsurance officer. In this role, he will be responsible for all reinsurance relationships involving AIG companies....

McQueary Henry Bowles Troy.(EXECUTIVE MOVES)
September 1, 2005... Independent Dallas-based commercial insurer McQueary Henry Bowles Troy LLP, has recently named MARCUS HUMPHREY vice president and leader of the firm's employee benefits group, the firm has announced. Humphrey's primary responsibilities include...

Aon Corp.(EXECUTIVE MOVES)
September 1, 2005... Chicago-based Aon Corp. announced that three health-care risk-management veterans have joined its national health-care practice. TRIS GABRIEL joins Aon Healthcare as a senior vice president, the company said in a statement. With an...

Aon Healthcare.(EXECUTIVE MOVES)
September 1, 2005... MARY PULLEY joins Aon Healthcare as the practice's director for the state of Indiana. As such, she will lead the company's statewide effort, manage its sponsorship of the Indiana Hospital & Health Association, work to bring new products and...

Michael Zuckerman also joins Aon Healthcare as a senior vice president.(EXECUTIVE MOVES)
September 1, 2005... MICHAEL ZUCKERMAN also joins Aon Healthcare as a senior vice president. In this role he will manage client relationships, support the practice group's alternative risk transfer consulting practice, and provide team training about alternative...

Hayes Plus Inc.(EXECUTIVE MOVES)
September 1, 2005... JOYCE MULLER, R.N., B.S., has been named president and chief operating officer of Hayes Plus Inc., a national, URAC-accredited, independent review organization. She had previously served as vice president of medical review services for the...

Peggy Cullen has joined Aon Corp.'s environmental practice as director of syndication, the firm has announced.(EXECUTIVE MOVES)
September 1, 2005... PEGGY CULLEN has joined Aon Corp.'s environmental practice as director of syndication, the firm has announced. Cullen will oversee Aon's nationwide team of environmental risk experts in the management and placement of insurance policies. She...

ACE INA.(EXECUTIVE MOVES)
September 1, 2005... BRUCE L. KESSLER has been appointed executive vice president, chief underwriting officer of ACE INA. Based in Philadelphia, Kessler will be the senior underwriting officer for ACE in the United States and Canada. Formerly senior vice president,...

MetLife.(EXECUTIVE MOVES)
September 1, 2005... The board of MetLife has chosen C. ROBERT HENRIKSON to succeed Chairman and Chief Executive Robert H. Benmosche, who will retire next spring. Henrikson, 57, was appointed president and chief operating officer in June 2004. The 33-year MetLife...

Workers' comp.(Insurance)
September 1, 2005... The PMA Insurance Group has introduced medical bill review services for injured workers who have received treatment from hospitals and doctors outside PMA's preferred provider network, PMA has announced. This out-of-network program can cut...

Claims.(Insurance)
September 1, 2005... AIG Excess Casualty has introduced a new online database of claim scenarios designed to help insurance buyers and brokers benchmark a particular type of liability, industry or limit, the company has announced. The database, called "xsClaims...

D&O.(Insurance)
September 1, 2005... The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has introduced a new product to protect directors from liability, the firm has announced. The product, called "Priority Protection--IDL," is being marketed at a time when studies show that the supply...

Employment practices.(Insurance)
September 1, 2005... Arrowhead General Insurance Agency Inc. has announced that its Professional Liability Division (www. ArrowheadPro.com) has launched an employment practices liability insurance program for small and midmarket businesses in 47 states. The...

Mapping.(Insurance)
September 1, 2005... CDS Business Mapping LLC a property risk mapping vendor, has added Colorado, Maine and Texas to its Distance to Fire Station report on the RiskMeter Online, the company has announced. By simply typing in an address, RiskMeter Online users can...

Property/casualty.(Insurance)
September 1, 2005... AIG Private Client Group has announced the deployment of its Wildfire Protection Unit, a mobile service designed to mitigate and respond to wildfire exposure of its customers in northern and southern California. The unit can be accessed by...

Occupational health.(Insurance)
September 1, 2005... ISO subsidiary IntelliCorp will provide criminal, driving and other public records to clients of National Diagnostics Inc., a provider of occupational health and employment screening management solutions, the two companies have remounted. The...

Claims processing.(Software)
September 1, 2005... Milliman Inc., a global consulting and actuarial firm, has improved its STEP Solutions transaction processing software through an agreement with vendor Patni Computer Systems Ltd., the firms have announced. "We are confident that our...

Upcoming events.(Calendar)
September 1, 2005... SEPTEMBER 10-12 2005 Big "I" Convention This year's Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America convention will feature keynote speaker Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City. This year's event will be held at the...

14th annual national worker's compensation and disability conference[R] & expo.
September 1, 2005... November 15-17, 2005 Lakeside Center at McCormick Place Chicago CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS Now in its 14th year, the National Workers' Compensation and Disability Conference[R] & Expo is the leading and most comprehensive conference...

An art or science?
September 15, 2005... Something strange is happening. Right now it's Sunday, August 28. We've had more than our share of huge hurricanes already--even after the monsters that hit Florida last year. Now, what looks to be perhaps the mother-of-all hurricanes,...

Nailing the issue.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
September 15, 2005... Dear Editor: I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading your article "Polities Triumph Over Justice," (Risk & Insurance[R], June 2005, page 14) about Michael Jackson, Hank Greenberg and the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. You hit it right on...

Integrity in question.(LETTERS TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
September 15, 2005... Dear Editor: Many of us "four levels below" Roger Egan at Marsh, "Integro: Brokering on Integrity.," (Risk & Insurance[R], August 2005, page 18) sensed something was amiss, and it was discussed openly. We simply never understood why new...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
September 15, 2005... Because of an editorial error, the chart on p. 45 in the August 2005 issue was reversed. The corrected chart is printed below. Risk & Insurance[R] apologizes for the error. Where They Stand Some brokers prefer to disclose commission...

PRIMA picks leaders.(NEWS & NOTES)
September 15, 2005... James E. Huckaby, ARM-P, risk manager for Mesquite Independent School District in Mesquite, Texas, has been elected president of the Public Risk Management Assn., the trade organization has announced. Katharine M. Peeling, ARM, CPCU, risk...

Soft market to continue.(NEWS & NOTES)
September 15, 2005... The 18-month-long soft market may not be near conclusion, according to research on commercial insurance premiums conducted by the Risk and Insurance Management Society Inc. Renewal prices remained flat or increased marginally for some lines,...

Reinsurers reap rewards.(NEWS & NOTES)
September 15, 2005... U.S. reinsurers reported better first-quarter earnings compared with the same period last year, according to a report from risk intermediary Benfield. In addition, the average combined ratio of U.S. companies tracked by the firm decreased by 1...

GE underwrites philanthropy.(NEWS & NOTES)
September 15, 2005... GE Insurance Solutions says it has donated nearly $600,000 to nonprofits in 2005. One-quarter went to events sponsorship, while the rest represented direct grants. The funds were distributed primarily in communities where the carrier has a...

Senate considers chemical risk.(NEWS & NOTES)
September 15, 2005... Congress will consider rules to further regulate the security of the U.S. chemical industry, according to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Only a portion of the 15,000...

Productivity lost in cyberspace.(NEWS & NOTES)
September 15, 2005... American corporations lose the equivalent of $178 billion annually in lost productivity because of "cyberslacking," or employee misuse of the Internet, reports the San Diego-based Websense Inc. The firm defines cyberslacking as the time...

Proof of loss: adjusters "ear" all about expedition's yak loss.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
September 15, 2005... It's one thing to lose a yak crossing a Himalayan gorge. It's quite another proving the loss to an adjuster working for an insurance carrier or broker thousands of miles away in a windowless cubicle--as mountaineer David Breashears explained in...

European risk management lobby readies to diffuse "Spitzer bomb"l while big broker houses are likely to sign on, smaller brokers would rather keep buyers in the dark, The broker renumeration bomb is still ticking for European risk management.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
September 15, 2005... Leaders of the Federation of European Risk Management Associations are expected to push insurance brokers for greater transparency when dealing with buyers, according to FERMA executives. But while FERMA brass can, with a little bit of...

Vermont governor promises to maintain state's leadership position: officials also say no new rules for existing and new captives.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
September 15, 2005... Vermont, which has seen its rate of captive insurance growth slow in recent years, has no intention of relinquishing its top spot as the nation's No. 1 captive insurance domicile, Gov. James Douglas said. "We're going to continue to do what...

Businesses open a security umbrella where danger reigns.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
September 15, 2005... Contrary to what the public might believe, most kidnappings in Iraq are motivated by greed rather than politics. Even so, say security experts, it's still possible for businesses to thrive--and obtain enough K&R coverage--in this embattled...

Worth repeating.(UPFRONT: News, Updates and Other Emerging Strategies from Around the World)
September 15, 2005... "It's nice to have someone else say that about us rather than make it up ourselves...." Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, at the 20th Annual Vermont Captive Insurance Association Conference in Burlington, Vt., in reference to his state being...

My disgust of mud flingers.(ALTERNATIVE RISK)
September 15, 2005... Lately, the insurance markets have been distinguished by mud, and the flinging thereof. Led by the accuser-in-chief, electoral candidate Eliot Spitzer, attorneys general have been throwing subpoenas around in a manner traditionally reserved for...

Uplifting tales of innovation.(WORKERS' COMP)
September 15, 2005... Nursing-home jobs involve lifting and moving of residents. This leads to worker injuries, high staff turnover and lower productivity. "No lift" or "low lift" devices have been marketed for years. Most nursing-home administrators do not buy the...

Defend against a 'loser'.(RISK PRIMER)
September 15, 2005... As valuable as loss data is and in light of every insurer's insistence on having "hard copies of insurance-company loss runs" in order to underwrite and rate a risk, one would think they would be easier to obtain. These days, however, obtaining...

Playing her game: senior executive Samira Barakat is credited with changing the transparency with which GE Insurance Solutions underwrites risk.(Cover Story)
September 15, 2005... Armed with fluency in three languages and decades of management experience honed on three continents, Samira Barakat, senior vice president of risk and underwriting for GE Insurance Solutions, has moved across the Atlantic to aggressively...

U.K. government dilutes corporate manslaughter bill; Tony Blair's third term will see legislation to make prosecution of companies easier, but with directors no longer facing the threat of a jail sentence. In a rush to appear strong on the issue, the labor government may be weakening the law.(REPORT FROM EUROPE)
September 15, 2005... With Tony Blair having won the grudging support of British voters for a third term of office, the U.K.'s new Labor administration will return to a pledge that it made at the last election in 2001--to make U.K. companies more accountable when...

Preparedness key for work abroad.(REPORT FROM EUROPE)
September 15, 2005... Whenever employees are stationed overseas, your emergency plans must include contingency procedures to help maintain their safety. After all, they have left the comfort and safety of their home countries to help your organization expand its...

Executing a balancing act: with the advent of electronic claims transactions, insurers and hospitals say they are working to streamline the medical claims management process to cut costs, while at the same time maintaining patients' privacy and data security.(BENEFITS)
September 15, 2005... Ever since the passage of the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996, the health-care community has been moving toward a more standardized format for handling claims. A key provision of HIPAA, titled Administrative...

On the case: catastrophic nurse case manager Liz Zemke has an intimate understanding of what her patients need--she's been there herself. After losing a limb to a work-related accident a decade ago, Zemke rallied and poured herself into a new career in case management. Zemke uses her own experience to help guide her patients back to the land of the living (and working).(WORKERS' COMP)
September 15, 2005... On a day that seemed like any other day, registered nurse Liz Zemke headed off to see patients at a rural California health clinic. A busy woman juggling a career and family, she was probably pondering the day's minutiae--reports to file, phone...

The network is the risk: in August, the Zotob virus disabled CNN and ABC News, showing how vulnerable computer networks really are. In the financial services world, e-thieves can make off with financial data without leaving a trace. Corporate risk managers are beginning to recognize this exposure, and acting to mitigate it.(INSURANCE)
September 15, 2005... As computer criminals become as sophisticated and swift as the technology they use to commit their crimes, corporate executives are taking a closer look at whether they should invest in network-risk insurance. No longer just the province...

The new rules of (underwriting) engagement: what happens when a midsize insurer gambles on a new rules-based underwriting system? It becomes a nimble competitor in an ocean of larger carriers anchored to their mainframe environment.(TECHNOLOGY)
September 15, 2005... Starting in September, the Armed Forces Insurance Exchange, or AFI, an insurer licensed to write allied coverages, auto liability, fire, inland marine and general liability, began marching in a new underwriting direction. At that time,...

A danger adrift: while pirates on the high seas may inflict injury to a crew and delay shipments, ship owners don't consider pirate attacks a major problem, and few insurance claims have been paid.(SPECIAL REPORT: MARINE/AVIATION)
September 15, 2005... Modern-day pirates using high-speed boats, brandishing automatic weapons and long knives, violently attack ships around the world. They leave crew members injured or dead, the cargo sometimes stolen and the ship east adrift. Actual...

Capacity returns: with cargo insurance capacity now plentiful, buyers are beginning to look at the fine print in their contracts, from concealed-losses clauses to so-called delay coverage.(SPECIAL REPORT: MARINE/AVIATION)
September 15, 2005... It's been four years since the aviation markets plunged, along with the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and insurance capacity for air freight is available once again, for a reasonable price, of course. The mad scramble to find fair...

Telemarketing rules ringing off the hook: faced with ever-increasing state and federal rules and regulations, C-suite executives and risk managers dwell most on their "big three": the Do-Not-Call list, privacy and outsourcing.(INDUSTRY RISK REPORT: MARKETING)
September 15, 2005... It's no secret that telemarketers aren't exactly welcome. They call during dinnertime, they want to sell consumers products or services they often don't need, and these days they're getting through even though millions of people have registered...

Industry risk report marketing.
September 15, 2005... To call or not to call--that's the question that telemarketers and their clients are asking now that a tangle of Do- Not-Call lists and other federal and state regulations stand between them and a successful calling campaign. If they think they...

Beecher Carlson Holdings Inc.(EXECUTIVE MOVES)
September 15, 2005... JANET WARREN was hired as senior vice president and claims practice leader for Beecher Carlson Holdings Inc.'s Atlanta office, the firm has announced. Warren will be responsible for establishing and managing the firm's claims practice. She has...

Beecher Carlson.(EXECUTIVE MOVES)
September 15, 2005... MIKE BLECHER has been appointed managing director of its Los Angeles office, Beecher Carlson has also announced. Blecher will be responsible for increasing the firm's business and expanding its operations in Southern California. Blecher's...

Paul Pachomski.(EXECUTIVE MOVES)
September 15, 2005... The Atlanta-based insurance brokerage and risk management firm also named PAUL PACHOMSKI senior vice president of its national energy practice. Pachomski's responsibilities will include producing, marketing and servicing of energy-industry...