SYNOPSIS ALL INDUSTRY CONFERENCE CALL August 15, 2012

 

If there is a subject you would like to see addressed on Wednesday, August 22, please email Mike Barry at michaelb@iii.org.

 

The I.I.I. is not mentioned in the text but the I.I.I.’s Bob Hartwig and Mike Barry worked extensively with senior writer Jeff Blyskal and CR’s fact checkers prior to its publication.

A Monday, August 13, WSJ article revisited issues which have already been covered, such as whether life insurers should cross-check their databases with ones maintained by the federal government’s Social Security system.

IIHS’s Tuesday, August 14, news release examined 11 vehicles which are either luxury or near-luxury cars.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners announced Vaughan’s plans in this Monday, August 13, news release.  Its Wreck Check mobile app was released the next day.

 

The I.I.I.’s Jeanne Salvatore spoke with Donna Rosato, a New York-based Money senior writer (Phone: 212-522-0989, email: donna_rosato@moneymail.com) on ways a consumer, if given an additional $1,000 to spend annually on insurance, could effectively allocate those monies to make themselves more financially secure.  Lisa Gibbs, a Florida-based Money senior writer (Phone: 954-587-7595, email: lisa_gibbs@moneymail.com) spoke with the I.I.I.’s Steven Weisbart for a story Gibbs is preparing for Money and the Miami Herald on ‘final expense’ insurance, policies aimed primarily at covering a policyholder’s funeral costs.

The I.I.I.’s Hartwig and Salvatore stressed the importance of shopping around for insurance coverage recently with Karen Blumenthal, The Wall Street Journal’s Getting Going columnist, after Blumenthal became interested in a report issued last month by the Texas Office of Public Insurance Counsel (OPIC).  OPIC’s study indicated that “policyholders who have been with the same company for more than eight years could save over 19 percent on their annual auto premiums by switching to a new company.” 

John Weber, on-air host of Best Day News, AM Best’s daily video report, said AM Best is in the market for archival footage of 1992’s Hurricane Andrew to illustrate the storm’s intensity and its aftermath.  The I.I.I. furnished them with a five-minute DVD which chronicled the I.I.I.’s media hits in the weeks after Andrew struck, which included a Today Show appearance.  If your company can help Weber out, he can be reached via either his New Jersey office number (908-439-2200, ext. 5127) or email address: john.weber@ambest.com  AM Best has already received the I.I.I.’s editorial content on Hurricane Andrew.  The hurricane’s 20^th anniversary falls on Friday, August 24, 2012.

 

Since the call, Ron Lieber’s Your Money column on the case, which discusses uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, appeared in the New York Times’ print edition on Saturday, August 18.

Washington Governor Christine Gregoire declared states of emergency in two counties as wildfires continued to rage out of control, destroying at least 60 homes east of Seattle and burning more than 28,000 acres between two national forests. About 400 homes were evacuated between the towns of Cle Elum and Ellensburg.

 

The Miami Herald and The Tampa Bay Times have published two of the three articles they prepared jointly on why many Citizens Property Insurance Corporation policyholders are seeing substantial premium rate increases along with coverage reductions.  The first story, which appeared in their Sunday, August 12, print editions, focused on Citizens’ aggressive re-inspection program while the second piece reported few state legislators are saying anything publicly about Citizens’ efforts to boost its revenues and reduce its overall exposure.  It was prominently placed in their Monday, August 13, hard-copy papers. The third and final article in the series is slated to run on Sunday, August 26.

 

Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has notified QBE-owned Praetorian, a lender-placed insurer, that OIR will reject Praetorian’s bid for a 2.2 percent premium rate reduction, and believes a Praetorian rate cut of about 35 percent is warranted, according to this Friday, August 10, OIR news release.  The Sun-Sentinel covered the story on Tuesday, August 14.

 

Proposition 33, a ballot initiative coming before the state’s voters on Tuesday, November 6, will read as follows: “Changes current law to allow insurance companies to set prices based on whether the driver previously carried auto insurance with any insurance company.  Allows proportional discount for drivers with some prior coverage.  Allows increased cost for drivers without history of continuous coverage.  Fiscal impact: Probably no significant fiscal effect on state insurance premium tax revenues.”  Consumer Watchdog issued a news release on Monday, August 13, to hail a court ruling that kept this language in place, despite a legal challenge aimed at altering Proposition 33’s wording.

 

Some of the state’s labor unions are backing worker’ compensation insurance legislation (Senate Bill 863) aimed at raising “long-frozen benefits for workers with job-related illnesses and injuries and promising employers enough administrative savings to pay for them,” according to this Tuesday, August 14, Sacramento Bee article. 

 

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported on Saturday, August 11, that the DeKalb County district attorney wants to freeze nearly $2.3 million in assets belonging to 36-year-old Andrea Sneiderman because $2 million of those monies were derived from two separate policies on her husband’s life for which she was the beneficiary.  Mrs. Sneiderman was charged last week with conspiring to kill the late Mr. Sneiderman in November 2010, the article states. 

 

The Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation’s board has asked its attorneys to look into settlement options with lawyers for two separate class-action lawsuits filed after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.  Both of them allege Citizens failed to handle tens of thousands of claims properly. Citizens’ CEO Richard Robertson said the board wants to get the claims resolved and move forward, according to this article from the New Orleans Times Picayune’s print edition on Friday, August 10.

The CBS Evening News reported on its Tuesday, August 14, broadcast that the cash-strapped city of Colorado Springs is not in a position to pay the $4 million in unanticipated wildfire costs the city incurred from June 2012’s blazes. 

 

The "derecho" wind storms of late June cumulatively generated claims totaling upwards of $440 million, according to this Monday, August 13, news release from the Ohio Insurance Institute.

 

Rhode Island has the highest rate of insurance claims for metal thefts, per capita, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB). The Associated Press reported the NICB’s findings in a Tuesday, August 14, article.  Rhode Island lawmakers are calling for scrap dealers to retain records of anyone looking to sell metal, and a ban on cash payments for metals worth $500-plus, the AP reports.

 

The big topic this week that is being shared by a diverse crowd, including insurance companies and agents, home contractors, consumer safety groups, disaster and survival experts, and stay-at-home moms, is the release of I.I.I.’s disaster preparedness app.  Twitter is afire with tweets and retweets regarding the app’s arrival.  There have also been numerous posts about it on Facebook.

The need for flood insurance is a trending topic this week with Twitter and blogs written by insurance agents sharing I.I.I.’s press release from last week.  As the busiest time of hurricane season nears, there’s a lot of buzz about the need to protect property and assets.

 

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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