SYNOPSIS ALL INDUSTRY CONFERENCE CALL August 22, 2012

 

If there is a subject you would like to see addressed on Wednesday, August 29, please email Loretta Worters at lorettaw@iii.org.

 

The I.I.I.’s Jeanne Salvatore, Bob Hartwig and Elianne Gonzalez conducted dozens of live and taped interviews at D.S. Simon’s Manhattan studio on Thursday, August 16.

Erik Holm wrote in this Tuesday, August 21, Dow Jones article that insurers can learn much about the current media landscape by assessing the way Progressive handled a case involving a 24-year-old Progressive policyholder who died in a 2010 car crash in Maryland.

The segments can be found at bestdaynews.com, a subscription-only site run by AM Best. Hurricane Andrew made landfall in Florida on August 24, 1992.

The RNC is convening in Tampa between Monday, August 27, and Thursday, August 30. Isaac could be making its way through the state’s Gulf Coast around that same time.

Nearly seven years after Hurricane Wilma, the U.S. has not had a Category 3 or plus storm make landfall, and that has some experts concerned about the nation’s hurricane preparedness, according to this Wednesday, August 22, USA Today article.

Private crop insurers may lose more than $5 billion if this year’s drought in the U.S. becomes worse than the one in 1988, according to Standard & Poor’s (S&P). In a report released on August 21, S&P analysts said insurers with higher concentrations of premiums in drought-stricken states such as Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri and Tennessee will face a larger share of the losses, according to this same-day Bloomberg article.

The I.I.I.’s Hartwig has spoken with Jeff Meitrodt, and the I.I.I.’s Mike Barry has sent materials to Jennifer Bjorhus, for a story the Star Tribune is preparing on rising homeowners insurance premiums in Minnesota. The February 2010 edition of Property Insurance Report, which Bjorhous has received, found that Minnesota, Louisiana and Mississippi were the “three least profitable” states nationally in which to write homeowners insurance between 1998 and 2008. The I.I.I.’s Loretta Worters and Barry spoke with The Hartford Courant’s Matt Sturdevant on Wednesday afternoon, August 22, on the lessons Connecticut policyholders likely learned after 2011’s Tropical Storm Irene. The story is slated for publication in the paper’s Sunday, August 26, print edition. Emily Mitchell (email: emily.mitchell@rodale.com) at Men’s Health magazine is writing a piece on whether 20-something-year-old men need to purchase umbrella liability insurance coverage. The Richmond Post-Dispatch is readying an article on the one-year anniversary of the Mineral, Virginia, earthquake (August 23, 2011).

Beginning with the first renewal effective on or after January 1, 2013, existing National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) preferred risk policies will not be transitioned into full-risk rating, according to a news release issued by FEMA on Tuesday, August 21. Instead, they will continue to be issued as preferred risk policies at each renewal, until further notice, FEMA stated.

 

Federal regulators unveiled on Tuesday, August 21, a yearlong project to determine whether smart cars, which communicate with one another through wireless connections, can improve the safety of U.S. highways. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that 3,000 cars, buses and trucks in Ann Arbor, Michigan, would be equipped with data recorders and wireless technology to transmit information about accidents and traffic hazards.

Hundreds of homes in Mendocino, Shasta and Tehama counties, all of which are situated north of Sacramento, are being threatened by a wildfire known as the Ponderosa Fire, according to this Tuesday, August 21, San Francisco Chronicle article.

 

The National Football League (NFL) filed a lawsuit against more than 30 insurers for their refusal to defend the NFL in cases involving former players’ head injuries in a Los Angeles court, according to this Thursday, August 16, Bloomberg article.

 

Premium rates for the state’s drivers should decline noticeably as a result of changes enacted this spring by state legislators, according to an independent actuarial company, But the insurance industry, which called for the legislative changes, is not sure that will be case, according to this Wednesday, August 22, story in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s print edition. Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater issued this Tuesday, August 21, news release on House Bill 119’s implementation and what it should mean for Florida’s drivers.

 

"Beaufort and Charleston counties have three times less risk than places along the Gulf, but their premiums are three times higher," state Senator Tom Davis told the Island Packet, in this Monday, August 20, article. "The problem is, our state Department of Insurance has been accepting at face value the results of private companies’ data models." Senator Davis says he hopes property insurance is high on the agenda when the state legislature reconvenes in January 2013.

The Missouri Department of Insurance (MDI) will require every mutual insurer that provides coverage for homes and businesses to carry enough reinsurance so that future losses would not deplete its surplus by more than 20 percent in one year, according to a news release the MDI issued on Tuesday, August 21. The new regulation takes effect on January 1, 2013.

 

Mortgage companies are responding to the state’s updated flood maps by informing some homeowners that they might now need flood insurance, according to this Thursday, August 16, Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial. The editorial calls for making the letters sent to homeowners by lenders easier to understand.

Twitter is full of mentions of I.I.I.’s new disaster preparedness app, Know Your Plan, with insurance agents and safety organizations sharing the tool in relation to the northern Californian wildfires, which are forcing many people to evacuate their homes. Home evacuation has been a popularly trending topic recently amid the numerous wildfires and the continued potential threat of hurricanes.   

 

Hurricane Andrew is another trending topic this week, with journalists and insurance companies sharing information about the destructive impact of that storm as we approach its 20^th anniversary on Friday, August 24, 2012.

 

There also a lot of buzz about saving money on auto insurance. This is not really associated with any single story but rather an ongoing trend within the insurance social media space, where dozens of auto insurance blogs are posting about how to get the best auto quote and how to keep your payments down by driving safely. The I.I.I. is cited in many of these stories as a source of helpful information for consumers.

Smart Money is going all-digital, and the September 2012 issue was its final print edition. 

 

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

 

For an I.I.I. Blog search, click here.