Lead CBS Evening News story focuses on combating insurance fraud:
The Tuesday, January 18, broadcast cited I.I.I. data and featured an interview with a National Insurance Crime Bureau spokesperson. The investigative report focused on slip and fall insurance scams in retail shops across the U.S.Wall Street Journal reporter to visit Florida soon to file story on state’s sinkhole problem:
WSJ reporter Leslie Scism has been doing due diligence on the issue, which she last wrote about in September 2010, and has narrowed her search down to 8-10 counties where sinkholes have had major insurance implications in Florida.
I.I.I. president’s overview of the current state of the P/C market is lead story for National Underwriter’s new website:
In a Tuesday, January 18, power point presentation I.I.I. president Robert Hartwigprovided a comprehensive review of the U.S. property/casualty (P/C) insurance industry. A personal lines growth overview was offered, with a focus on auto and home lines nationwide, and by state. Some additional slides illustrated personal lines growth drivers, including exposure and pricing factors. An analysis of personal lines profitability and a discussion of cyclical drivers such as reserving in personal lines are included, and PropertyCasualty360 (subscription required) filed an article on Hartwig’s remarks on Wednesday, January 19.I.I.I.’s Salvatore discusses loss of employment and disability insurance coverage in Univision interview:
The I.I.I.’s Jeanne Salvatore gave a taped interview to Univision, a Spanish-language station serving the New York/New Jersey region. The segment was broadcast on Friday evening, January 14.I.I.I. develops new Issues Update paper on pay-as-you-drive (PAYD) insurance policies:
The PAYD issue has been gaining greater media visibility in recent months.Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) analysis finds link between greater side-impact protection and fewer driver fatalities:
The IIHS issued on Wednesday, January 19,a report saying drivers of vehicles that perform well in IIHS side-impact crash tests are much less likely to die in real-world left-side crashes than drivers of vehicles that do poorly in these same side-impact tests. About 78 percent of all U.S. vehicles have received good side-impact protection ratings, up from approximately 33 percent a few years ago, the IIHS said.Study finds that the cumulative value of the nation’s Top 10 jury awards grew in 2010, marking the third consecutive year that number has risen:
The I.I.I.’s Claire Wilkinson examined in her Wednesday, January 19, Terms + Conditions blog the latest report from Lawyers USA. The 10 largest jury verdicts in 2010 totaled $1.6 billion, a 4 percent increase from the $1.5 billion awarded in 2009’s Top 10 cases. Three of 2010’s Top Ten verdicts were against tobacco companies.Bloomberg Businessweek reports on PCI’s concern about Financial Stability Oversight Council’s (FSOC) lack of insurance representation:
PCI president David Sampson sent this Monday, January 17, letter to President Obama, urging him to appoint two insurance industry representatives to the FSOC, as required under the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform law. The correspondence was mentioned in this Tuesday, January 18, Bloomberg Businessweek article on the Council’s activities to date.
I.I.I. releases its 2011 Fact Book:
The Fact Book includes hundreds of statistical tables and charts related to the size and composition of the insurance industry, including information on the automobile and homeowners insurance markets; the commercial insurance sectors (workers compensation, liability insurance lines, mortgage guaranty insurance and financial guaranty insurance); and cost drivers (litigation, automobile crashes and natural disasters).
Louisiana’s property insurer of last resort wants to raise homeowners rates by 9 percent:
The board of Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation has requested an average 9 percent rate increase for homeowners policies, effective July 1, 2011. After Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon approves or rejects the proposal, the rates must come back to the Citizens board for final approval. Meanwhile, Donelon approved a 2.14 percent rate hike for some 5,000 commercial policies insured by Citizens. Donelon said the new commercial rates will take effect in May 2011 for new and renewing policies. If approved, the new homeowners rate increase would mean that most of Citizens policies above the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway will see increases of about 8.8 percent, compared with 11.8 percent for those below it, according to this Thursday, January 13, New Orleans Times-Picayune article.New insurance commissioners appointed in Pennsylvania, Tennessee:
Michael Consedine, a 41-year-old attorney who was a partner in the Harrisburg law firm of Saul Ewing, is Governor Tom Corbett’s choice to lead the Pennsylvania Insurance Department while 41-year-old Nashville lawyer Julie Mix McPeak, a former Kentucky insurance commissioner, is Governor Bill Haslam’s pick to head the Tennessee Insurance Department.
State Farm announces property insurance premium rate hikes for nearly 30,000 rental properties in Louisiana:
The Times-Picayune also reported in this Sunday, January 16, article that State Farm, which had not changed its rental property insurance premiums since 2004, was also dropping wind and hail coverage in the New Orleans area and other coastal parishes. The move is expected to put financial pressure on southern Louisiana’s smaller landlords, who are already dealing with rising taxes and sanitation rates, according to reporter Becky Mowbray.
Fire Department of New York City (FDNY) holds public hearing on its proposed ‘accident tax’; state lawmaker calls for banning fees:
The New York Daily News filed this article on the FDNY’s Friday, January 14, public hearing in Brooklyn, NY while The New York Post reports state Senator Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) is introducing legislation to keep the FDNY and other New York municipalities from billing citizens directly for fire department services.
Some Ohio lawmakers want state to stop sending 5,000-plus letters each week, asking Ohioans to verify they are carrying vehicle insurance:
But the Columbus Dispatch reported in its Wednesday, January 19, edition that state Representative Jay Hottinger (R-Newark), chairman of the Ohio House Insurance Committee, is not ready to do away with the program because it uncovers about 500 uninsured Ohio drivers every week. The state’s insurance-verification program sends about 5,400 letters each week to random Ohio drivers asking them to mail back proof of vehicle insurance. Those who do not have insurance, or fail to respond after 90 days, get their driver’s license suspended for 90 days and must pay a $125 reinstatement fee, plus court costs. House Bill 4 would eliminate the insurance-verification program, which costs the state about $500,000 a year to administer, the article says.
