To recap the issues raised during this week’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, January 21, please email me at michaelb@iii.org.
I.I.I. PUBLISHES ITS LATEST EDITIONS OF THE INSURANCE FACT BOOK, A FIRM FOUNDATION, AND IMPACT MAGAZINE
The details on each can be found in this Wednesday, January 7, I.I.I. news release.
U.S. INSURED LOSSES CAUSED BY NATURAL DISASTERS DROPPED 26 PERCENT IN 2014 AS COMPARED TO 2013, MUNICH RE-I.I.I. WEBINAR REVEALS
Munich Re said natural disaster-caused insured losses in the U.S. dropped to $31 billion in 2014 from $39 billion in 2013. The I.I.I.’s Bob Hartwig delivered this PowerPoint presentation earlier today.
2014 WILL BE REMEMBERED FOR CALIFORNIA’S NAPA QUAKE AND A QUIET ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON, CORE LOGIC SAYS
“Fewer billion-dollar hazard events and an overall reduction in property loss to natural hazards is likely the result of a temporary reprieve due to the vagaries of these forces,” Core Logic concluded, in its year-end Natural Hazard Risk Summary.
FITCH REPORTS P/C MERGER AND ACQUISITIONS ACTIVITY PICKED UP IN 2014’s FOURTH QUARTER
Progressive’s investment in ARX Holding Corp. ($875 million), the sale of Michigan-based Meadowbrook Insurance Group ($433 million), and ACE’s purchase of Fireman’s Fund’s U.S. high net worth personal lines business ($365 million) were cited.
STORIES IN THE WORKS
The I.I.I.’s Hartwig spoke about the economics of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) program with CNBC’s Mary Thompson, The Hartford Courant’s Matt Sturdevant, The Washington Examiner’s Joe Lawler, and Work Comp Central’s Ben Miller.
The I.I.I.’s Jeanne Salvatore gave an interview on home insurers’ use of credit-based insurance scores to Suzanne Cosgrove, a former Chicago Tribune real estate editor. Her story will be published by One Technologies, a Dallas-based credit monitoring company.
The I.I.I.’s Loretta Worters discussed with the Associated Press’ Michelle Price the states that impound cars if a driver has no auto insurance. In addition, Worters briefed The Wall Street Journal’s Rachel Bachman on insuring obstacle runs and the WSJ’s Anna Prior on the difference between a home’s market value and its insured value.
The I.I.I.’s Michael Barry spoke this week with the Raleigh News & Observer’s Virginia Bridges (sharing economy), the Las Vegas Review & Journal’s Jan Hogan (auto insurance discounts), and InsuranceQuotes.com’s Nick DiUlio (pay-as-you-drive auto insurance).
CAPITOL HILL
Since the call, Congress voted overwhelmingly to renew the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) program for six years.
The number of U.S. motorcycle fatalities dropped 6.4 percent in 2013, as compared to 2012 (to 4,668 motorcyclists from 4,986), according to the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration (NHTSA).
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says a $44.5 million investment, funded in part through the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, is dramatically enhancing NOAA’s weather forecasts by increasing the agency’s supercomputing capacity.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration reports the fewest (16) coal mining deaths in U.S. history occurred in 2014. The previous record low was 18, in 2009.
Rep. Michael Grimm (R-New York) is stepping down from office after pleading guilty to a count of felony tax evasion.
STATES
Alabama
Six tornadoes touched down over the January 3-January 4 weekend, with one confirmed EF-2 tornado causing property damage in Crenshaw County.
Arkansas
State Rep. Allen Kerr (R-Little Rock) has been appointed the state’s Insurance Commissioner.
California
Following the renewal of TRIA in Washington, D.C., the California Department of Insurance canceled its Tuesday, January 13, public hearing on TRIA. It was to have been held in Los Angeles.
CNBC’s Jane Wells and other reporters have been asking about the insurance implications of Assembly Bill 60, a state law allowing undocumented immigrants to secure a drivers license effective January 1, 2015.
Florida
The number and severity, of Personal Injury Protection (PIP) claims have generally decreased since House Bill 119 took effect in 2013, the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) found.
The I.I.I.’s Lynne McChristian wrote a blog post at InsuringFlorida.org about the OIR’s PIP report.
Auto, home and business policies issued, or renewed, after January 1, 2015, will no longer include a 1.3 percent assessment for the state’s Catastrophe Fund, a legacy of the state’s 2004-2005 hurricanes.
The storm water infrastructure upgrades needed in the wake of April 2014’s severe Pensacola (Escambia County) flooding could cost anywhere from $200 million to $400 million.
The I.I.I.’s McChristian is meeting next week with The Tampa Tribune’s editorial board (Monday, January 12) as well as the editors at The Tampa Bay Times (Tuesday, January 13).
Georgia
An EF-2 tornado injured nine people, and damaged a few buildings, on Monday, December 29, just south of Valdosta (Lowndes County).
Kansas
Retiring Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger’s last day in office is Monday, January 12. Ken Selzer, elected to the position last November, is her successor.
Kentucky
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a fatal private-plane crash, which occurred on Sunday, January 4, near Gilbertsville (Lyon County). It involved a Piper PA-34 traveling to Illinois from Florida.
Louisiana
The Department of Insurance’s (DOI) redesigned website makes it compatible with mobile devices. The DOI also announced in the same release that it had added 16 cities to its Homeowners Rate Comparison Guide.
Maryland
Insurance Commissioner Therese Goldsmith is leaving that post effective Wednesday, January 21, the same day Governor-elect Larry Hogan is being sworn into office.
Former Insurance Commissioner Alfred W. Redmer, Jr., who held the job between 2003 and 2005 and is a former House Minority Whip, is the incoming governor’s choice to be Goldsmith’s successor.
Mississippi
FEMA reported a total of six confirmed tornadoes on Saturday, January 3, with Covington and Jasper counties said to have been hardest hit. No one was injured.
New York
The Department of Financial Services dropped its data call request of the state’s commercial property insurers after TRIA was renewed.
A presidential disaster declaration made federal funding available to local governments in nine western counties hit by November’s heavy snowstorms.
North Carolina
State lawmakers should resist making changes to North Carolina’s Rate Bureau, according to the Charlotte Observer’s editorial board.
Oklahoma
A businessman’s December 2014 federal guilty plea cited the 2009 insolvency of an insurer, and explains how Providence Property & Casualty was fraudulently purchased.
South Carolina
The Department of Insurance recommended—in separate year-end reports to the General Assembly—the state create neither its own catastrophe model nor a residual flood insurance program.
Washington
Heavy rains, totaling anywhere from 3 to 5 inches, caused mudslides in the western part of the state.
Wyoming
Thomas Glause is the state’s new Insurance Commissioner.
SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT
The Financial Services Roundtable and PCI posted their Congressional letters in support of the TRIA program’s extension while I.I.I. president Hartwig’s TRIA YouTube video already has more than 400 views.
In other news, portions of the doomed AirAsia flight, including one of the plane’s tails, have been found and officials are now trying to locate the black box. AirAsia’s CEO tweeted that if the retrieved wreckage included the tail section’s right part, the black box should be there. On social, the first images of the plane have been widely circulating on the web, and were also posted by CNN.
Finally, the cold weather continues for most of the United States. The current Arctic blast will not hit the west, instead bringing below freezing temperatures to southern and northeastern states. If you’d like to read reactions to this weather, search the hashtag #PolarVortex.
MEDIA MATTERS
CNN launched the result of its $15 million makeover of CNN.com last weekend.
National Underwriter’s parent company, Summit Professional Networks, is being sold to American Lawyer Media (ALM), a New York-based legal industry publisher.
CNBC announced it would no longer use Nielsen ratings to measure the audience for CNBC’s daytime programming.
CNBC’s Sue Herera is the new co-anchor of PBS’s Nightly Business Report. Herera succeeds Susan Gharib, who retired on New Year’s Eve after being with the program since 1998.
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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