P/C carrier employment numbers have reached their lowest level in at least 20 years, federal government finds:
Property/casualty insurance carriers employed 461,500 Americans as of October 2010. That number is at its lowest level in at least two decades, according to U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) data on insurance industry employment. The employment picture was brighter for insurance agents and claims adjusters, the government reported. The I.I.I.’s Employment Trends (1990-2010) presentation on Monday, December 6, provided additional context on these issues.
U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear Wal-Mart case could have broad repercussions on whether individual claims can be combined into a class action lawsuit:
The U.S. Supreme Court accepted an appeal this week in a class-action lawsuit based on claims that Wal-Mart had discriminated against women in its employment practices. The case is the largest employment discrimination case in U.S. history and could force the retailer to provide billions of dollars in back pay to hundreds of thousands of women. The appeal does not focus on the question of discrimination but rather on whether the individual claims can be combined in a class action, according to this story in the Tuesday, December 7, edition of The New York Times. I.I.I. president Robert Hartwig focused on the class action implications of the case in a National Underwriter interview, and was also quoted in a Huffington Post columnist’s piece on the matter.
Fitch Ratings releases 2011 Outlook: U.S. Property/Casualty Insurance:
Released on Tuesday, December 7, Fitch’s seven-page document offered a sober outlook for 2011, saying industry prospects are unlikely to improve as “competitive fundamentals continue to promote inadequate pricing, and signs of a meaningful shift in market underwriting capacity are not apparent.”
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has raised its outlook for the U.S. life-insurance sector to stable:
S&P said many life insurers have made significant strides in rebuilding capital and liquidity levels since late 2008. The firm does not expect, however, to upgrade many insurers in the near future, as competition and low interest rates are inhibiting profitability, according to S&P analyst Matthew Carroll. As the economic downturn reduced the number of individuals seeking insurance, competition over the smaller pool of potential policyholders has intensified, too, according to Carroll, who is speaking about key issues impacting the life/health insurance sectors on Thursday, December 16, at S&P’s Insurance Hot Topics Conference in Boston.I.I.I. gives taped interview to D.C. all-news radio station on the dangers of space heaters:
The I.I.I.’s Loretta Worters gave a taped interview on Wednesday, December 8, to Washington, D.C., radio station WTOP. Reporter Hank Silverberg’s piece was pegged to the I.I.I.’s news release this week on the fire risks caused by improper use of space heaters.I.I.I. discusses differing minimum liability standards in the U.S. auto insurance market with Indiana daily newspaper:
The I.I.I.’s Mike Barry spoke on Wednesday, December 8, with the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette in Indiana about how states determine their auto insurance policy minimum liability standards. The broader story is about young woman who was seriously injured while riding a motorcycle, who did not have health insurance.National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to conduct public hearing on the program’s future in Denver, Colorado:
The second of two hearings on Rethinking the NFIP was to be held on Thursday, December 9, in Denver, Colorado. The first one was convened in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, December 2. In a related development, the I.I.I. discussed with an NFIP actuary on Tuesday, December 7, the economic future of the National Flood Insurance Program. The call was initiated by the NFIP.Alabama Congressman named chair of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee:
The Birmingham News profiled U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Vestavia Hills) in a Thursday, December 9, online story, posted a day after he was tapped by the incoming House leadership team for the position. The 62-year-old lawyer has been in the U.S. House for the past 18 years, according to the article, and is the first Republican from Alabama to chair a U.S. House committee since the 19th century. Rep. Bachus issued this news release on Thursday, December 9, with details regarding Financial Services Committee assignments for next year.I.I.I.’s Florida representative gives interview on end of hurricane season to Tampa’s Fox affiliate:
Lynne McChristian spoke about the conclusion of the Atlantic hurricane season, and its implications for Florida’s property insurance market, during an on-air interview with WTVT-TV on Wednesday afternoon, December 8.I.I.I.’s president cited in Orlando Sentinel column on state of Florida’s property insurance market; clarifies views in letter to the editor:
The Sentinel’s Mike Thomas cited Dr. Hartwig in the paper’s Sunday, December 5, print edition. Thomas wrote that the alternative to raising property insurance premium rates is more bailouts and that “we can’t keep suppressing rates and expecting taxpayers to come to the rescue when the big storms hit.” To clarify some of Thomas’s observations, Dr. Hartwig wrote a letter to the editor, which was published on Sunday, December 12, in the Orlando Sentinel. The letter stressed the importance of matching a policy’s premium rate to the risk an insurer incurs (from the link, scroll down to the third letter.)
Sarasota Herald-Tribune features couple who demolished home to save on property taxes, homeowners insurance premiums, during real estate downturn:
The Herald-Tribune offered an analysis of why a South Sarasota, Florida, couple chose to knock down a 13-year-old, five bedroom, four bathroom home they owned and sought to rent. Their calculation: the prevailing rental market would not cover their expenses as landlords. Municipalities tax vacant land at a lower rate, and there is no need for homeowners insurance if there is no home at the site, the Monday, December 6, article notes.
Florida’s outgoing governor to join law firm specializing in personal injury cases?:
Numerous Florida media accounts last week indicated that Governor Charlie Crist will join Morgan & Morgan after he leaves office later this month. The Miami Herald was one of the first to break the news.South Florida Sun-Sentinel notes that First Home Insurance is seeking premium rate hikes of up to 40 percent:
Reporter Julie Patel had some additional details about the Maitland, Florida-based insurer’s application before Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) in this Tuesday, December 7, blog item.
Texas to ban disability, health and life insurer use of discretionary clauses in 2011:
Texas Insurance Commissioner Michael Geeslin announced on Monday, December 6, that disability insurers could no longer insert discretionary clauses into their policies effective February 1, 2011, and neither health nor life insurers may incorporate these clauses into new policies issued after June 1, 2011. The Dallas Morning News published an article on this regulatory change in its Tuesday, December 7, edition. Similar bans on discretionary clauses have been enacted in 22 other states.Debate continues on whether Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) can release publicly information on fees paid to plaintiffs’ attorneys:
The Austin American Statesman had a story in its Wednesday, December 8, edition about the ongoing court battle to determine whether TWIA must release publicly details regarding what TWIA paid the plaintiffs’ attorneys involved in the $189 million settlement the association reached this year with 2,000-plus Hurricane Ike claimants. The legal fee disclosure issue will likely to heat up again on Monday, December 13, in Austin, Texas, when a state legislative panel with windstorm insurance oversight responsibilities convenes.
Federal judge in New Orleans hails progress on clean-up of homes built with defective Chinese drywall:
U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon in New Orleans announced that a test program to repair up to 300 homes in Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, built with tainted drywall made by Chinese manufacturer Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Company, is going well and likely will be expanded. The Associated Press filed a story on the matter. Judge Fallon, who is presiding over consolidated cases against Chinese drywall companies, made his comments about the test program at a court hearing on the state of the litigation in state and federal courts against foreign drywall makers.
Federal judge in northern Georgia rules in favor of commercial insurer, and against Insurance Commissioner, in case involving policy interpretation:
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported on Wednesday, December 8, that a federal judge had denied the claims of a Buckhead, Georgia, property owner who wanted Maryland Casualty Company, a commercial property insurer, to pay the property owner $2.7 million, rather than the $1.3 million Maryland paid, for property value lost when the office building was allegedly damaged by a nearby construction project. Senior U.S. District Judge Robert L. Vining, Jr. ruled for Maryland Casualty, saying, “This matter boils down to simple policy interpretation.” The judge’s decision, however, contradicted a directive Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine issued last spring that favored the property owner, who with his associates had given more than $46,000 to Commissioner Oxendine’s unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign this year, the AJC reported.
Municipal accident response fee program in Quincy, Massachusetts, expected to raise $250,000 a year, is on pace to generate $5,400:
Quincy Fire Chief Joseph Barron told the Quincy, Massachusetts, city council on Monday, December 6, that the city has netted fees totaling $2,700 when charging insurance companies whose auto policyholders “acted negligently, recklessly, or maliciously” within the city’s boundaries, generating a fire department response. The Patriot Ledger had an article on the program in its Tuesday, December 7, edition.
Colorado appoints an interim insurance commissioner:
John J. Postolowski, a deputy commissioner of finance and administration at the insurance division, has been appointed as Colorado’s interim insurance commissioner, taking over for Commissioner Marcy Morrison, whose term ended on Wednesday, December 1, 2010. Postolowski will serve in the top post until Governor-elect John Hickenlooper appoints a commissioner.Former New York insurance superintendent named partner at Debevoise & Plimpton:
Eric Dinallo, who was New York State’s superintendent of insurance between 2007-2009, and who ran unsuccessfully this year in the five-candidate Democratic primary for New York State attorney general, will be based in Manhattan, the law firm’s Monday, December 6, news release stated.
The Tropical Meteorology Project at Colorado State University predicts 2011 Atlantic hurricane season will be very active:
Prominent forecasters Phil Klotzbach and William Gray said this week that an active tropical storm cycle, occurring in the Atlantic since 1995, is continuing. They added it was very unlikely that El Nino conditions will develop in the Pacific next year to suppress storm development in the Atlantic. The team forecasts a season in 2011 very similar to this year, when 19 named storms were recorded. Their extended range forecast predicts 17 named storms in 2011, including nine hurricanes, five of which will be Category 3 or higher, according to this Wednesday, December 8, blog item in The Baltimore Sun.
