SYNOPSIS ALL INDUSTRY CONFERENCE CALL August 7, 2013

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

 

If there is a subject you would like to see addressed on Wednesday, August 14, please email Michael Barry at michaelb@iii.org.

 

The WSJ’s Monday, August 5, edition (subscription required) examined the growing interest in this technology while FBN’s The Willis Report sought a car expert’s views on the WSJ article.

Polk found the volume of vehicles on U.S. roadways, aged six to 11, is declining while vehicles older than 12 years is rising, according to this Tuesday, August 6, Polk news release. CNBC was among the outlets that covered Polk’s findings.

 

Consumer Reports’ Allison Kade interviewed the I.I.I.’s Jeanne Salvatore for a detailed piece Kade is writing on renters insurance. Kade has indicated she will be contacting insurers that sell these policies to see if they offer policyholders a claim filing app, too….Bloomberg’s Megan Hickey spoke with the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s Frank Scafidi about car theft trends in the U.S. after Progressive issued a Wednesday, August 7, news release on the states where stolen cars are most likely (Washington) and least likely (Michigan) to be recovered….The I.I.I.’s Loretta Worters spoke with Best Review’s Lori Chordas on the auto insurance implications of driverless cars. The story will appear in the October 2013 edition of that magazine. Worters also discussed insuring hybrid cars with John O’Dell of Edmunds.com, and insuring a home against water damage with Josh Sens of Yahoo! Finance. In addition, Andrea Fuller of Gannett Digital (afuller@gannett.com) wants to hear from sources who have historical data going back decades on the location and severity of U.S. earthquakes for a map Gannett is compiling

CNN will broadcast a story on Thursday, August 8, on the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s report on the performance of certain cars in small overlap front crash tests.

 

The West, Texas, fertilizer plant explosion in April 2013, and the storage of dangerous chemicals, were discussed at a U.S. House subcommittee hearing on Thursday, August 1.

 

FEMA announced on Thursday, August 1, it would allocate $2.8 million to construct temporary classrooms while West, Texas, repairs its damaged school buildings.

 

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the federal government received more than 4,000 complaints about defective drywall between 2008 and 2013, and 86 percent of the impacted properties were in Gulf Coast states such as Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, this Wednesday, July 31, GAO report found.

 

Homeowners in eight counties are eligible for federal grants totaling no more than $5,000, with the monies to be used to protect their homes from severe weather, according to this Thursday, August 1, article in The Mobile Register. Governor Robert Bentley issued a news release on the initiative the day before.

 

Plains All-American, the parent company of a firm constructing a 45-mile crude oil pipeline through Mobile County, chose last year to self-insure against damages to their facilities caused by natural disasters, a Tuesday, August 6, article in the Mobile Press Register reported.

The Falls Fire in Riverside County has burned more than 1,500 acres, threatening homes in and around Lake Elsinore, according to this Monday, August 5, article in The Riverside Press-Enterprise. NBC’s Los Angeles affiliate offered an update on the blaze that same day.  FEMA said on Tuesday, August 6, it would reimburse 75 percent of the local firefighting expenditures.

Four people were indicted for allegedly submitting fraudulent applications to life insurance companies by “intentionally omitting or falsifying the applicant’s net worth, income or source of premium payments,” according to this Thursday, August 1, news release from the U.S. attorney Laura Duffy. The statement generated this article in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

 

Californians driving to Las Vegas should obey I-15’s 70 mile per hour speed limit to avoid getting pulled over, according to this Thursday, August 1, Los Angeles Times article. 

Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater wants Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty to explain why lower reinsurance rates have not resulted in property insurance premium reductions, the Associated Press reported, in this Wednesday, August 7, article.

 

House Speaker Will Weatherford is a founding member and former director of U.S. Cat Adjusters, a Texas company that has received more than $826,000 from Florida’s state-run property insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, over the past five years, according to a Friday, August 2, story posted by The Miami Herald. 

 

Citizens netted an additional $151 million in premiums after re-inspecting 400,000 policyholder properties to see if they were eligible for mitigation discounts, a front page story in the Sunday, August 4, Palm Beach Post (subscription required to read full story) reported. 

 

Governor Rick Scott has tapped state Rep. Mike Fasano, an insurance industry critic, to fill the vacant Pasco County tax collector’s job, according to this Tuesday, August 6, article in The Tampa Bay Times.

 

Bill Gibson of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’sWashington, D.C., bureau is preparing an article on the 2012 Biggert-Waters Act and its impact on NFIP premium rates in Florida.

The Baton Rouge Advocate reports that FEMA’s David Miller, who oversees the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), is meeting on Thursday, August 8, with local officials to discuss FEMA’s new levee analysis and mapping procedures (LAMP) program, and how it could impact the cost of NFIP policies for the region’s property owners.

FEMA administrator Craig Fugate needs to get NFIP’s house in order before the president considers appointing Fugate to succeed Janet Napolitano as the Homeland Security Secretary, the state’s two U.S. Senators have told the White House, according to this Monday, July 29, New Orleans Times-Picayune article.

 

The I.I.I.’s Worters attended on Wednesday, August 7, the Hurricane Sandy Small Business Recovery and Matchmaking Summit at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. Small Business Administration (SBA) administrator Karen Mills and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan delivered the welcoming remarks.

 

The NFIP has paid out $3.5 billion in New Jersey Sandy claims to date, according to this Monday, August 5, FEMA news release.

 

Horace Mann, an elite private school in New York City, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, August 6, to recoup from three insurers at least $1 million in legal fees, damages and settlements the school paid to two sexual abuse victims. The New York Times posted this same day story on the institution’s legal action.

 

The Insurance Department is hosting on Saturday, August 17, a Recovery Roundup  at Southmoore High School, in Moore, to help residents dealing with insurance issues involving the May 2013 tornadoes. Oklahomans have filed nearly 88,000 claims since the first tornado struck on May 19, totaling more than $945 million in insurance payments, OID reports.

Renters insurance is a popular topic this week, with a Monday, August 5, I.I.I. news release being shared on Twitter by insurance agents and industry experts. The focus of the conversation is how only 35 percent of renters have purchased this coverage, and coming up with ways to encourage renters to buy coverage.  

 

Another topic that is popping up is boat insurance, pegged to the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. The conversations are on Twitter and Facebook with I.I.I. content being shared along with the posts. 

Erik Holm of Dow Jones is no longer writing about insurance; Holm is now covering the commodities markets. No successor to the insurance beat has been named as yet.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is purchasing The Washington Post for $250 million.

 

The Boston Globe was sold to John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox.  Henry toured the Globe’s newsroom on Monday, August 5.

 

Newsweek was purchased by IBT Media.

 

Starting next month, Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff will co-anchor PBS’s NewsHour program and serve as its managing editors, PBS announced on Tuesday, August 6.

 

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