SYNOPSIS ALL INDUSTRY CONFERENCE CALL December 21, 2011

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, January 4, please email Mike Barry at Michaelb@iii.org

 

Immediately after a paper co-authored by the Consumer Federation of America’s Robert Hunter alleged that property/casualty insurers create “periodic crises where insurance becomes unaffordable or unavailable,” the I.I.I. issued a media advisory and a rebuttal to the arguments in the report. The paper was a project of New York Law School’s Center for Justice & Democracy. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel summarized both sides’ arguments in a Tuesday, December 20, blog entry, as did The Charlotte (NC) News & Observer in a Monday, December 19, article.

The I.I.I.’s Andréa Basora briefed the group on the redesign of the I.I.I.’s website, which was unveiled this week. It has a cleaner, simpler look and allows visitors easier access to the I.I.I.’s Spanish-language content as well as the I.I.I.’s social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter).

To blunt arguments made by Minnesota law school Professor Daniel Schwarcz and other industry critics, the I.I.I. issued a news release on Friday, December 16, offering a primer on what coverages are incorporated into a standard homeowners insurance policy, and stressing the importance of periodically reviewing your policy language.

The IICF’s New York/Northeast division issued a news release reporting receipts from its fifth annual benefit dinner, held on Wednesday evening, December 14, in New York City, and noting there were about 900 attendees. The division has raised more than $5.3 million since the IICF’s first dinner event in 2007.

 

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) announced on Tuesday, December 20, that it had released its Report on Profitability by Line by State in 2010. The report estimates and allocates profitability in property/casualty insurance by state, and by line of insurance. Combined with other information, the document can be utilized to analyze competition and market performance, according to this NAIC news release.

The I.I.I.’s Bob Hartwig taped an interview with Los Angeles-based reporter Eve Troeh of American Public Radio on Wednesday, December 21, regarding the potential homeowners insurance premium rate repercussions of 2011’s severe tornado season in the U.S., an issue explored in this Tuesday, December 20, National Weather Service news release….Adam Belz, a business reporter at The Des Moines Register, will likely incorporate I.I.I. facts and statistics on homeowners insurance premium rates into a story he is filing on how insurance agents in northwest Iowa are hearing that homeowners costs are expected to rise in that part of the state next year, partly because of the April 2011 tornadoes in Mapleton, Iowa.  Belz often contributes to USA Today and may repurpose his Iowa article for a national audience during the week of December 26-30, 2011, he said….Andrea Rock (arock@consumer.org) at Consumer Reports magazine is doing research on how home appliances like dishwashers and refrigerators can often cause home fires; Rock is assessing U.S. Fire Department data to this effect from 2002-2009 and came to the I.I.I. to see if insurers track the cause of household fires. 

A.M. Best (subscription required) reported in a Wednesday, December 21, online article that the NFIP legislation awaits the president’s signature.

 

The Baton Rouge Advocate and the New Orleans Times Picayune reported on theLouisiana state Supreme Court’s Friday, December 16, decision to reinstate a $92.8 million judgment against state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. Insurance Commissioner James Donelon said at a Tuesday, December 20, news conference that he will ask the high court to reconsider its ruling, which overturned a state appeals court decision in 2009. That decision two years ago halted the award of $5,000 apiece to more than 18,000 Citizens policyholders for Citizens’ slow adjusting of claims in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Alabama state Senator Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) has pre-filed a bill for next year’s state Legislative session to modify Alabama’s workers compensation law by increasing weekly payments to injured workers by $20 (to $240 from $220) while limiting long-term benefits to workers who are totally disabled, according to this Tuesday, December 20, Tuscaloosa News article. Senator Orr said Alabama is among the top 10 or 12 states in workers compensation expenses, and that the costs adversely affect Alabama employers and the state’s ability to recruit new businesses.

 

The Tampa Tribune’s editorial board praised on Monday, December 19, a proposed bill offered by state Rep. Bill Hager (R-Boca Raton).  If enacted, it would reduce to $12 billion from $17 billion the size of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund over the next few years.

 

Dan DeWitt of The St. Petersburg Times is readying another story on insurance and sinkholes.

 

The I.I.I.’s Lynne McChristian is writing a news release on how Florida’s consumers need to buy insurance coverage that reflects what it costs to rebuild a property, and not what its value might be.

Three small mutual insurers, who had 41,000 in-force homeowners and fire policies among them as of 2010, became insolvent because of May 2011’s Joplin tornadoes. Their operations will now be overtaken by the Missouri Farm Bureau, according to this Thursday, December 15, Missouri Insurance Department news release. 

 

U.S. Senator Robert Casey (D-Pennsylvania) sent a letter to Insurance Commissioner Michael Consedine, asking the Pennsylvania Insurance Department to do what it can to notify more policyholders that sinkhole-caused financial losses are excluded from standard homeowners insurance policies but that sinkhole-related coverage is sold in Pennsylvania, according to this Tuesday, December 20, A.M. Best article (subscription required). This Sunday, December 4, Morning Call print edition column about a Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania, couple notes sinkholes occur so infrequently they are not deemed common perils.

 

Consumer Watchdog is urging the California Department of Insurance to deny Mercury’s bid for a 6 percent auto insurance premium rate hike, alleging that those monies are needed not to pay future claims but to offset the expenses Mercury incurred for a failed 2010 ballot initiative the auto insurer helped to finance, according to the Sacramento Bee.

 

–Florida’s Sarasota Herald Tribune and Gainesville Sun, as well as Alabama’s Tuscaloosa News, are among the regional newspapers The New York Times Company is on the verge of selling to Halifax Media Holdings, Inc., according to this Tuesday, December 20, article in the print edition of The New York Times.

–Trish Regan, who left CNBC in March 2011, is joining Bloomberg TV effective Monday, January 9, 2012. She will co-anchor their Street Smart program, which airs from 3 to 5 p.m., ET on weekdays.

This week there has been a big spike in bloggers sharing information about how to keep your home safe from thieves and break-ins this holiday season. These posts also discuss the importance of taking a home inventory and having renters insurance. 

 

Another popular topic this week is Governor Rick Scott of Florida, and how he is pushing lawmakers on insurance issues. The I.I.I. was quoted in numerous blog posts and tweets from journalists discussing predictions that no-fault auto insurance fraud could cost Florida’s drivers up to $1 billion this year, although the I.I.I.’s latest estimate puts the 2011 ‘fraud tax’ in the state at $658 million.

 

The topic of social media liability is still going strong this week with the I.I.I. white paper continuing to get attention from insurance experts and companies on Twitter and Facebook.  

 

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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