SYNOPSIS ALL INDUSTRY CONFERENCE CALL April 17, 2013

To recap the issues raised during Wednesday’s conference call, here are some of the key media stories, and the messages we’re conveying.

 

If there is a subject you would like to see addressed on Wednesday, April 24, please email me at michaelb@iii.org.

 

The I.I.I.’s Monday, April 15, media advisory, contributed in part to interviews for the I.I.I.’s Bob Hartwig with National Underwriter, The Wall Street Journal, and Politico.com, among others, as reporters focused on the insurance repercussions of the tragedy and the future of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA).

 

The 2013 national edition of A Firm Foundation: How Insurance Supports the Economy provides detailed information on the ways in which both property/casualty and life insurance companies contribute to the U.S. and state economies beyond their core functions of helping to manage risk and paying claims.

The I.I.I.’s Hartwig and Jeanne Salvatore are working to bolster existing relationships and share additional information with FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

The I.I.I.’s Salvatore will be speaking at Philanthropy New York’s annual meeting on Friday, April 26, at the Ford Foundation, 320 East 43^rd Street, Manhattan.  She will be a panelist for a one-hour session starting at 1 p.m. called How The Money Flows. It will examine  the sources of Sandy recovery dollars (government funds, insurance proceeds, philanthropy, private investment), which intermediaries control the money flow, and how those funds are being disbursed. Her fellow panelists will include senior-level representatives from HUD, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank. If any I.I.I. member company has a Sandy-related philanthropic initiative they would like Salvatore to highlight, drop her a line at jeannes@iii.org.

The finding came in the 2013 Insurance Barometer Study, a survey conducted annually by LIFE and LIMRA. The study was released on Tuesday, April 16.

The U.S. Labor Department’s assessment came as part of its monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) report.  The full-year 2012 increase in the cost of auto insurance was 3.6 percent.

Conning’s quarterly report, Property-Casualty Forecast & Analysis by Line of Insurance, was released on Thursday, April 11, and offers industry forecasts through 2015.

The AAA examined four other cost categories—maintenance, fuel, tires and depreciation—when compiling its report, this Tuesday, April 16, USA Today article states.

The I.I.I.’s Salvatore spoke with The New York Post’s Catherine Curan for an upcoming Sunday business section story on renters insurance take-up trends in New York City over the past five to 10 years….the I.I.I.’s Steve Weisbart spoke with The Wall Street Journal’s Lindsay Gellman about the potential life insurance premium rate reductions policyholders might be entitled to after making favorable lifestyle changes (e.g., quitting smoking, losing weight)….the I.I.I.’s Mike Barry spoke with Long Island Newsday’s Lisa Chamoff for a Friday, April 26, real estate section piece on the insurance issues to consider when buying a Sandy-damaged home….Kathleen Lynn, a real estate/business writer at New Jersey’s Record, is prepping a piece on the insurance considerations a homeowner should weigh before renting their residence to out-of-towners attending February 2014’s Super Bowl at MetLife stadium in East Rutherford, NJ.

 

U.S. insurers are generally allowed a deduction for premiums paid for reinsurance, if the reinsurer is one of their non-U.S.-based affiliates. The Obama administration’s 2014 budget proposal calls for ending that tax break, according to this Friday, April 12, article in Bermuda’s Royal Gazette.  The Coalition for Competitive Insurance Rates opposes the White House’s plan.

 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) cited Sandy extensively in a Wednesday, April 10, news release on its proposed $5.4 billion budget for 2014.

 

The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) proposed $1.17 billion budget for 2014 calls for spending $2.5 million to improve USGS’s “early warning and scenario products for earthquakes, eruptions of volcanic ash, landslides and debris flows” as well as $1.2 million to expand the agency’s “seismic networks along the Central and Eastern United States.”

 

Carnival said on Monday, April 15, that they would reimburse the federal government for the expenditures the U.S. made in rescuing Carnival’s crippled Triumph ship in February 2013.

 

Tornadoes touched down in Mississippi and Alabama on Thursday, April 11, prompting this live Today Show segment from South Huntsville on Friday morning, April 12.

 

The I.I.I. issued a media advisory on Friday, April 12, encouraging reporters to contact the I.I.I. when filing stories about the insurance implications of the severe weather.

 

Assemblyman Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata) wants a 4.8 percent surcharge added to every property insurance bill, with the monies raised allowing for the elimination of a $150 charge on rural property owners.  This measure, Assembly Bill 468, was subsequently pulled off the agenda of the state Assembly’s Natural Resources Committee meeting on Monday, April 15.

 

The state Assembly’s Insurance Committee is expected to discuss Assembly Bill 1309, legislation aimed at restricting the payment of workers compensation benefits to NFL players who played for teams based outside of California, at its next public session on Wednesday, April 24, at 9 a.m., at the Capitol Building in Sacramento.  The National Football League Players Association held a press conference in Sacramento on Monday, April 15, to voice its opposition to Assembly Bill 1309.

 

Former New York Giant Marcus Buckley was charged with wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a $1.5 million scheme to defraud Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association Insurance Group (PMA), the Giants’ worker’s compensation insurer when Buckley played for the team (1993-2000), the U.S. attorney in Sacramento announced, on Friday, April 12.

The Tampa Bay Times is examining why homeowners insurance premiums rates are rising even in the absence of a recent hurricane making landfall in Florida.

 

Lawmakers postponed a vote on Senate Bill 1770, amid concerns it would hike substantially the cost of a new Citizens policy, according to this Tuesday, April 16, Palm Beach Post article.

Palm Beach Post editorial page editor Randy Schultz argued in a Saturday, April 13, column that the state Legislature should get rid of no-fault, and have drivers migrate to an auto insurance system built around bodily injury liability coverage, rather than waiting to see how court challenges to 2012’s Personal Injury Protection (PIP) reform law are decided.

 

Des Moines area insurers employed 24,100 Iowans as of December 2012, a 13.4 percent increase as compared to year-end 1992, while Hartford, Connecticut saw a 31 percent decline in its number of insurance jobs over the same time period, this Sunday, April 14, Des Moines Register article, reported.  The I.I.I.’s Hartwig and Steve Weisbart were quoted.

 

Neither the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers nor a contractor it retained can be held legally responsible for the 2005 failure of a floodwall meant to protect New Orleans when Katrina hit, largely because the Flood Control Act of 1928 gives the Corps "virtually absolute immunity,” according to this Tuesday, April 16, Associated Press article on a federal judge’s ruling.

 

The FAIR Plan, the state’s property insurer of last resort, wants to increase its premiums an average of 6.8 percent, the Boston Globe reported, in its Tuesday, April 16, edition.

 

A federal appeals court announced on Friday, April 12, that it had upheld the conviction of prominent trial attorney Richard Scruggs, this same-day Associated Press article reported.

 

The western Omaha metropolitan area was hit by a severe hail storm on Tuesday, April 9, an event that caused one fatality, this same-day Omaha World-Herald story reported.

 

The current way auto insurance premium rates are regulated will remain intact after the state House’s Insurance Committee rejected a reform proposal, this Tuesday, April 16, AP article explains.

The Ohio Insurance Institute estimates the early summer 2012 derechoes caused $845 million in Ohio insured losses, according to a Saturday, April 13, article in the Columbus Dispatch.

 

BancInsure, an Oklahoma City-based insurer, is struggling financially and may be placed into receivership next month, this Wednesday, April 17, Oklahoman story reports.

 

The Competitive Insurance Act (H. 3903) came before the House Labor, Commerce, and Industry Committee’s Insurance subcommittee on Wednesday afternoon, April 17.

 

Tony Bartelme’s Storm of Money series in the Charleston Post & Courier was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting. Bartelme lost out to The New York Times.

 

Rep. Todd Hunter’s (R-Corpus Christi) House Bill 2352, which is aimed at bolstering the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association’s (TWIA) finances, has few supporters because it calls for levying a 3.9 percent premium surcharge on various insurance policies (see pages 10-11), under certain circumstances, this Tuesday, April 16, Corpus Christi Caller-Times article states.

The big story this week is the Boston Marathon bombings, with references to Dr. Hartwig being at the event and the insurance implications of the explosions. Journalists and insurance companies have been tweeting I.I.I. content on this topic as well as numerous stories involving Dr. Hartwig.

 

Another popular topic is the I.I.I. white paper on cyber risk and insurance that continues to get shared on Twitter and Facebook by insurance agents and consumer advocacy groups. This is the second week the paper has received noticeable pickup, most likely because it is being featured on the I.I.I. homepage and now has a video introduction.

 

The I.I.I.’s Monday, April 15, news release on the insurance implications of getting a separation or divorce is being shared by reporters and law professionals on Twitter and appearing on insurance blogs with the tag line “a must read” associated with the content. 

 

CNN president Jeff Zucker addressed the Atlanta Press Club on Monday, April 15, and likened CNN to a “spare tire in the trunk,” according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story on Zucker’s remarks.  About half of CNN’s 4,000 employees are based in Atlanta.

 

The I.I.I. is cited regularly in the media as an authoritative source of insurance information. To access the current I.I.I. press clips, click here

 

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