SYNOPSIS ALL INDUSTRY CONFERENCE CALL July 21, 2010

Consumer Reports’ October 2010 edition to include major story on auto insurance:

The I.I.I.’s Jeanne Salvatore reports that Jeff Blyskal, a California-based senior editor for Consumer Reports (see the masthead’s Money section), is writing a story that will focus on how to save money when purchasing auto insurance, accompanied by a CR reader poll chronicling auto insurer claims experiences.  In addition, a number of I.I.I. member companies have received a 29 question survey from CR, seeking auto insurance company views on premium rates, discounts and how the recession has changed the auto insurance market, among other things.

The I.I.I.’s Bob Hartwig spoke with the AP’s Christopher Rugaber, who is preparing an article on industries that are continuing to lose jobs despite some signs of an economic recovery.  The AP wanted to weave insurance industry hiring trends into the mix. The piece will be tied to the federal government’s July 2010 jobs report, which is scheduled for release on Friday, August 6.  In addition, Hartwig sent the reporter the I.I.I.’s monthly insurance industry employment report.  Previous Rugaber stories can be found here.

The I.I.I.’s backgrounder on the nation’s new financial regulatory structure was posted soon after President Obama signed the measure into law on Wednesday, July 21.  Claire Wilkinson of the I.I.I. explored the Dodd-Frank bill’s potential property/casualty insurance industry repercussions in her Monday, July 19, Terms + Conditions blog entry.

The program, hosted by Tavis Smiley, debuted on Wednesday, July 21, and was praised in a New York Daily News column earlier the same day.  The NYDN story mentions that insurers came in for criticism during the one-hour documentary. PBS archived the show’s video trailer.

The U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit decision threw out a rule issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which called for the SEC to regulate equity-indexed annuities as securities.  The ruling was the subject of this Monday, July 19, Wall Street Journal story (subscription required). Some financial advisers are concerned about the effects of the court’s ruling, and an amendment included in the financial reform bill approved by the U.S. Senate on July 15 that called for equity-indexed annuities to be regulated by state insurance departments, as they are today, rather than by the SEC. A coalition of annuity issuers and some state insurance commissioners who opposed the SEC rule welcomed the court’s decision.  The WSJ’s editorial board was pleased with this turn of events, as well.

Progressive’s bid to sell its usage-based MyRate policy in Pennsylvania is facing some regulatory hurdles, according to this Friday, July 16, Philadelphia Inquirer article.  MyRate bases rates in part on drivers’ habits, which are tracked by monitors attached to a car’s computers, offering premium discounts of up to 30 percent to motorists who drive less, stay off the roads at night and avoid hard braking.  Pennsylvania’s Insurance Department says Progressive has not provided enough information to regulators about what data is collected, and how it may be used. Progressive’s MyRate program is currently offered, with variations, in 20 states, according to the story.

Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine needed to be one of the top two vote-getters to qualify for the Tuesday, August 10, run-off election but came in fourth among the seven candidates, according to this Wednesday, July 21, Atlanta Journal-Constitution article.

Georgia State Senator Ralph Hudgens, chairman of the Georgia state Senate’s Insurance Committee, and Atlanta attorney Maria Sheffield, who received the most votes in the Tuesday, July 20, Republican primary election, will face one another in a Tuesday, August 10, runoff, the AP reports.  The victor will face Democrat Mary Squires in November’s general election.

A.M. Best report examines increase in number of financially troubled life/health (L/H) insurers:

U.S. L/H insurer financial impairments in 2009 totaled 12, a high for this decade and a fourfold increase from a decade low of three in 2006, according to this Tuesday, July 20 A.M. Best news release, which links to a 54-page special report on the L/H industry’s impairment track record (1976-2009).

USA Today focusing on the difference between a home’s market value, and the cost of replacing it:

The I.I.I.’s Loretta Worters briefed USA Today columnist Sandy Block this week.  Her questions to Worters are part of Block’s ongoing research for an upcoming story on the U.S. homeowners insurance market.

The Multiple Peril Insurance Act, H.R. 1264, was scheduled to come before the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, July 22, prompting the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America to issue this news release in opposition to the measure on Wednesday, July 21.  Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Mississippi) is one of the primary sponsors of the bill.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune (Sunday, July 18) offered an analysis of the I.I.I.’s Pulse Survey, which found about one-third of Louisiana homeowners believed their homeowners policy would cover flood-caused losses.  Meanwhile, the Biloxi Sun Herald’s Anita Lee (Monday, July 19) wrote a piece on the importance of securing flood insurance, which was preceded a few days earlier (Wednesday, July 14) by an editorial in the paper on the same topic.

Commissioner James Donelon has indicated his choice to succeed retiring CEO John Wortman will be presented to the Citizens board at its Monday, July 26, meeting.  A quick primer on Louisiana’s state-run property insurer of last resort is here.

The launch of TexasSure, the state’s auto insurance verification program, is driving this trend, according to a Friday, July 16, Texas Department of Insurance news release.

Florida state Representative Alan Hays’ critique of the way insurance regulators kept the public apprised of a financially troubled insurer’s status initiated a Tuesday, July 20, Julie Patel blog item in the South Florida-Sentinel.  Patel’s story was pegged to the way in which the OIR handled the April 2010 demise of Miami-based Northern Capital Insurance Company. Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty offered a spirited defense of the OIR’s actions—his response is near the end of Patel’s post.

The actuarial committee of Florida’s state-run property insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, has approved a proposal to raise statewide rates an average 9.4 percent next year for policies on homes, condominium units, renters, mobile homes and vacation or rental property. The committee also okayed a proposal to increase wind insurance rates for condo buildings by up to 12 percent on average for parts of Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. A report prepared by Citizens says insurance rates in some parts of Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Orange counties should be a lot higher than what is proposed but a 2009 state law caps annual premium increases at 10 percent, according to this Monday, July 19, South Florida Sun-Sentinel story.

This two-minute video, a news story broadcast on ABC’s Sacramento affiliate, offers an overview of the debate. The piece aired on Wednesday, July 21, and the insurance industry’s opposition to the measure is noted.

Commissioner Cogswell, who served as Connecticut’s top insurance regulator between 2000 and 2006, died on Tuesday, July 20.  She was 57, according to this next-day story in the Hartford Courant.

USA Today reported on the 6,200 acre wildfire blaze near Yakima, WA, in a Monday, July 19, story.   

I.I.I. issues release after Maryland is hit by earthquake:

A 3.6 magnitude earthquake was felt in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area early on Friday morning, July 16, and had its epicenter in Gaithersburg, Maryland, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.  No damages or injuries were reported.  The I.I.I.’s Mike Barry provided additional information to WUSA-TV, D.C.’s CBS affiliate, relating to this news release.

New York Daily News to get new editor-in-chief; moving editorial offices to lower Manhattan:

The NYDN announced on Tuesday, July 20, that Kevin Convey of the Boston Herald would become its new editor-in-chief, succeeding Martin Dunn.  In addition, the NYDN is moving its editorial offices next year to lower Manhattan (4 New York Plaza) from mid-town Manhattan (33^rd Street), Crain’s New York Business reports.

Houston Chronicle business columnist to write book on BP oil spill:

Loren Steffy sold a book to McGraw-Hill in early July that will focus on BP, tracing “how the current disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is only part of a larger pattern of corporate cost-cutting and image-making that has compromised safety across BP’s operations for years,” according to a statement from the publisher. The New York Times had the details in this story, which appeared in the paper’s Wednesday, July 21, hard-copy edition.

Brown’s three-year stint at CNN came to a close on Wednesday evening, July 21.