SYNOPSIS ALL INDUSTRY CONFERENCE CALL July 3, 2013

 

If there is a subject you would like to see addressed on Wednesday, July 10, please email Mike Barry at michaelb@iii.org.

 

The front page of The Arizona Republic on Monday, July 1, offered details on the previous day’s tragedy.  About half of Yarnell, Arizona’s 500 homes were believed to have been destroyed.

The Sunday, June 30, firefighter death toll was exceeded by only two other wildfires in U.S. history: 1910’s Devil’s Broom wildfire in Silverton, Idaho (86 firefighters) and 1933’s Griffith Park wildfire in Los Angeles, California (29 firefighters).

Property owners whose homes were either damaged or destroyed in the Black Forest Fire are being invited to a Monday, July 8, 6 p.m. “insurance recovery orientation workshop.” It is being held at Woodmen Valley Chapel, 8292 Woodmen Valley View, Colorado Springs, Colorado.  El Paso County has a website dedicated to The Black Forest Fire.

A total of 22,050 fires burned 1.5 million acres across the U.S. this year, as of Monday, July 1, significantly below the 10-year average of 37,350 fires and 2.4 million acres burned, according to this USA Today story from its Tuesday, July 2, print edition.  The NIFC seasonal outlook report, which provided the basis for the article, warns of more wildfires later this year.

Dozens of insurers are no longer offering new long-term care (LTC) policies, and LTC policyholders are seeing significant increases in their premiums, according to this Tuesday, July 2, Wall Street Journal (subscription required) front page article.

New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS) has been conducting an inquiry into how some of the world’s largest reinsurers operate to see if their conduct is in compliance with pending U.S. laws prohibiting business with Iran, according to this Monday, July 1, Wall Street Journal (subscription required) print edition story. 

The Princeton Survey Research Associates International study was commissioned by ThePointsGuy.com, a travel news website, and released on Wednesday, June 26.

The $661 million transaction was announced on Monday, July 1, and also includes CoreLogic’s purchase of DataQuick Information Systems and DataQuick Lender Solutions’ credit and flood services operations.

WSJ columnist David Wessel has spoken to the I.I.I.’s Bob Hartwig and a number of member companies about how U.S. property insurers have adapted to the severe weather events of recent years in the U.S. while WSJ consumer reporter Daniel Lippman (Phone: 347-746-1285, email: daniel.lippman@wsj.com) interviewed the I.I.I.’s Jeanne Salvatore for a story on disaster preparedness and insurance.  The WSJ will distribute the story to its Sunday edition media subscribers on July 13-14…Kim Lankford of Kiplinger’s is examining how much a property insurance policyholder can save on premiums if they’re willing to pay substantial deductibles and Hasan Dudar of Al Jazeera America is readying a segment on how cutbacks in Detroit’s police and fire departments may be adversely impacting businesses in that city by raising their insurance costs.  Former CNN financial reporter Ali Velshi, who just joined Al Jazeera America, will meet with the I.I.I.’s Loretta Worters soon about incorporating I.I.I. content and subject matter experts into his coverage of insurance at Al Jazeera America.

The I.I.I.’s Worters spoke with the Hartford Courant’s Matt Sturdevant about the insurance implications of dangerous July 4 celebrations and New York Times Bucks Blog writer Ann Carrns about developing a story based on the I.I.I.’s Tuesday, July 2, news release on what vacation home renters need to know about insurance.  Meanwhile, the I.I.I.’s Mike Barry spoke on Wednesday, July 3, with Jackson, Mississippi-based Associated Press reporter Jeff Amy about states, other than Mississippi, which have launched electronic auto insurance verification systems.  Amy’s story, slated to hit the AP wire on the weekend of July 6-7, will likely acknowledge Mississippi’s sizable number of uninsured drivers while scrutinizing some of the claims made by Validati, the vendor overseeing the state’s verification program, before the Ohio-based company was retained by Mississippi.

A regulatory filing indicates Prudential Financial Inc. will contest its designation as a nonbank systemically important financial institution (SIFI) in order to avoid additional oversight by federal regulators.  Prudential is the only one of the three companies identified as a SIFI in June 2013 that has contested the designation.  American International Group (AIG) Inc. and the GE Capital unit of General Electric Co. do not plan to appeal their SIFI designations by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), according to numerous published reports.

 

The West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion in April 2013 was discussed at a Thursday, June 27, U.S. Senate hearing on “oversight of Federal Risk Management and Emergency Planning Programs to Prevent and Address Chemical Threats.”

A 3.9 magnitude earthquake struck near Hollister on Thursday night, June 27.  It was felt throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Jose Mercury News reported on the next morning.

 

Two lawmakers introduced legislation in response to the fatal limousine fire this spring on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. One bill would mandate that all limousines made after January 1, 2015, be equipped with at least two doors and two emergency window exits.  The other would require limos to carry fire extinguishers, the Sacramento Bee reported, on Tuesday, June 18.

 

Governor Jack Markell signed into law House Bill 175, a measure which will place tighter controls on workers compensation medical costs while improving workplace safety programs and more effectively encouraging injured individuals to return to work, according to this Thursday, June 27, gubernatorial news release.

 

The I.I.I.’s Lynne McChristian will participate in the Wednesday, July 17-Thursday, July 18, meetings of the Homeowners’ Policy & Claims Bill of Rights Working Group, of which she is a member.  The group was formed by Florida’s Insurance Consumer Advocate, Robin Smith Westcott, Esq., and the sessions will be held in Tallahassee.

The typical Citizens residential policyholder will see a 7 percent rate increase in 2014, and coastal wind-only customers could see double-digit percentage increases, if the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) approves actions already taken by Citizens’ board.  Citizens’ sinkhole rates may soar even higher, this Wednesday, June 26, Palm Beach Post story reports.

 

Sharon Binnum, Citizens’ chief financial officer, is leaving Citizens effective Friday, July 5, to join Jacksonville-based Cypress Property and Casualty Company.

 

Atlanta’s ABC affiliate aired a segment on Monday evening, July 1, about the financial risk an under-insured driver faced after causing a motor vehicle accident which resulted in a claim filing.  The driver involved in this subrogation case received a letter from a law firm, asking her for $20,000.  The correspondence was sent 13 months after the accident occurred.

David Thomas, president and CEO of Indiana-based Silveus Insurance Partners, has been nominated to succeed the retired Richard Robertson as president and CEO of Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation.  Thomas will be presented to the Citizen’s board at its next meeting, according to this Friday, June 28, New Orleans Times-Picayune article.

 

There were 3,184 consumer complaints filed with the state against insurers in 2012, a 7.5 percent drop from 2011, the Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) reported, according to this Friday, June 28, MLive article.  Auto and home insurers were cited in 38 percent of the 2012 DIFS complaints, the story notes.

 

John Franchini will continue as the state’s chief insurance regulator after the Public Regulation Commission’s (PRC) insurance division closes its doors.  Julie Franchini, the superintendent’s wife, resigned as an underwriter with the Independent Insurance Agents of New Mexico to avert a perceived conflict of interest, the Albuquerque Journal reported, on Wednesday, June 26.

 

Arthur Bogoraz is facing a multi-year prison term after admitting he defrauded no-fault auto insurance companies of millions of dollars between 2006 and 2010, according to a Wednesday, June 26, news release issued by Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.  Bogoraz was a fugitive for most of 2011 before being arrested in Puerto Rico.

 

An evacuation order for Fort Plain (Montgomery County) was lifted on Tuesday, July 2.  The community was one of many situated in upstate counties which were flooded after days of heavy rains, according to this Wednesday, July 3, Albany Times Union article.  The I.I.I.’s Barry gave a taped phone interview yesterday to Time Warner Cable’s Your News Now (YNN) television network on the importance of having flood insurance, even for inland homeowners, especially when their properties are near creeks or rivers.

 

More than 75,000 claims were filed after May 2013’s tornadoes, with insurer payouts to date from these events totaling nearly $688 million, according to this Wednesday, June 26, Oklahoma Insurance Department (OID) news release.  The OID’s Recovery from Disaster forums are being held between 6 and 7 p.m. in Moore (Tuesday, July 9) and El Reno (Tuesday, July 16).

West Virginians filed more than 36,000 claims, and insurers paid out $87 million, after the June 29, 2012, derecho, according to this Friday, June 28, Charleston Daily Mail article.

Governor Scott Walker declared a state of emergency in seven southwestern counties—Ashland, Crawford, Grant, Iowa, Richland, St. Croix, and Vernon—on Wednesday, June 26, after days of torrential rainfall fell in communities already saturated with continuous spring rains.  The Associated Press offered additional details in this next-day story.

I.I.I.’s app, Know Your Plan, has been chosen as one of the 10 Best Emergency Preparedness apps according to Crop Life.com.  Insurance agents and digital marketing professionals are tweeting about Know Your Plan and pointing to it as a useful tool for hurricane season.

 

Wildfires is another trending topic this week with the death of 19 firefighters in Arizona spotlighting how dangerous and destructive wildfires can be. Insurance agents and journalists are tweeting on other historic fires and also pointing to I.I.I. stats on wildfires in general. 

The Tribune Company announced on Monday, July 1, that it has agreed to buy 19 broadcast TV stations from Local TV Holdings for $2.7 billion in cash, a deal that boosts Tribune’s presence in key markets and makes the company one of the largest TV station owners in the U.S., according to USA Today.

Ben Berkowitz left Reuters, where he’d covered insurance, to join CNBC Digital as a deputy managing editor.  Berkowitz said that, while Reuters has not filled his position, insurance industry media representatives should keep Reuters’ New York-based Paritosh Bansal on their media lists (paritosh.bansal@thomsonreuters.com; Phone: 646-223-6113) because Bansal will oversee whoever assumes Berkowitz’s previous role.

 

Caroline MacDonald, formerly of National Underwriter, is now with Risk Management magazine.

 

The publisher of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune is in line to become Time Inc.’s next chief executive officer.

 

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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