SYNOPSIS ALL INDUSTRY CONFERENCE CALL June 27, 2012

 

If there is a subject you would like to see addressed on Wednesday, July 11, please email Mike Barry at Michaelb@iii.org

 

U.S. property/casualty (p/c) insurers’ net income after taxes rose to $10.1 billion in first-quarter 2012 from $7.8 billion in first-quarter 2011, with insurers’ overall profitability as measured by their annualized rate of return on average policyholders’ surplus climbing to 7.2 percent from 5.6 percent. The combined ratio—a key measure of losses and other underwriting expenses per dollar of premium—improved to 99 percent in first-quarter 2012 from 103.3 percent in first-quarter 2011, according to joint news release issued on Wednesday, June 27, by ISO, a Verisk Analytics company, the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America and the I.I.I.  I.I.I president Robert Hartwig’s commentary on the results were released on the same day.

“SNL compiled the list of big spenders from reports filed with state-insurance departments earlier this year,” the Monday, June 25, Wall Street Journal online article stated.  “The data firm examined the reports of property-casualty insurers, whatever their business lines.  The insurers are required to tally marketing expenditures for newspaper, billboard and television advertising, as well as expenses for public-relations firms, medals and plaques for agents, mailing lists and a wide range of other things.”

Nearly 200 television stations nationwide mentioned some of the information in this Thursday, June 21, news release on the insurance repercussions of lightning strikes, according to TVEyes Media Monitoring while Ben and Franklin’s efforts to dodge lightning, an I.I.I. production, was touted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Lightning Protection Institute.

The I.I.I.’s Mike Barry interviewed Feinberg at his publisher’s mid-town Manhattan office on Monday, June 25, about Feinberg’s work on the 9-11 Victim Compensation Fund and the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, issues he addressed in Who Gets What: Fair Compensation After Tragedy and Upheaval  (PublicAffairs).  The book was released nationally on Tuesday, June 26, and the I.I.I.’s 13-plus minute interview was already cited in a tweet by the Biloxi Sun Herald’s Anita Lee.

 

The JD Power and Associates report was issued on Monday, June 25, and the I.I.I.’s Claire Wilkinson offered her analysis of their findings on the following day.

 

HLDI is releasing on Tuesday, July 3, a report that looks at the effects of crash avoidance technologies on auto insurance claims.

Neela Banerjee, the Los Angeles Times’ D.C.-based energy and environmental reporter (Phone: 202-824-8259) is readying a story on North Carolina’s recent legislative debate about how the state should assess its projected sea-level rises between now and 2100.  Ms. Banerjee wanted information on North Carolina’s property and flood insurance markets….Leslie Patton, a Bloomberg Markets magazine reporter in Chicago, received from the I.I.I. background information on product recall insurance for a story her publication is preparing on U.S. food safety…Consumer Reports’ New York-based associate finance editor Anthony Giorgianni (Phone: 914-378-2528) has two stories in the works.  One is on whether standard homeowners insurance policies cover sewer/water line breaks which occur between the home and the street.  The other is on the best way college students can insure their property while away at school….Mark Ruquet of National Underwriter interviewed the I.I.I.’s Steve Weisbart on Wednesday, June 27, about what Stockton, California’s bankruptcy filing might mean for bond insurers.

 

The U.S. Senate is expected to pass sometime soon a five-year extension of FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) that could increase flood insurance premiums for vacation homes and commercial properties in areas at high risk of flooding by more than 100 percent over a period of four years, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

 

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams was among the many national news outlets which broadcast stories on Wednesday, June 27. about the evacuation of more than 30,000 people near Colorado Springs, Colorado, due to the region’s severe wildfires.

Tropical Storm Debby has caused severe flooding within the past week in 22 of Florida’s 67 counties. The I.I.I. issued a media advisory and a news release about the storm’s potential insurance repercussions and the I.I.I.’s Lynne McChristian did two live segments on Debby and insurance during Fox’s Good Day, Tampa program on Wednesday, June 27.

 

The I.I.I.’s Elianne Gonzalez answered the insurance questions of Univision’s viewers in Miami earlier this month.

 

Paige St. John, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of insurance issues at the Sarasota Herald Tribune, is leaving that paper to join The Los Angeles Times’ Sacramento bureau.

The Charleston Post and Courier published a multi-part series this month (subscription required) on the state’s coastal property insurance market, giving their readers the impression that hurricanes are unlikely to hit the state and premium rate hikes are driven largely by catastrophe risk modeling firms and lax regulatory oversight.

 

Governor Jindal has signed into law House Bill 1130, allowing drivers effective August 1, 2012, to show proof of auto insurance electronically (e.g., on a mobile device) if a law enforcement officer requests it, according to this Thursday, June 21, New Orleans Times-Picayune article.

 

The U.S. Supreme Court denied on Monday, June 25, a request to review state court rulings requiring Citizens Property Insurance Corporation to pay an estimated $105 million to 18,753 policyholders whose claims from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 were not adjusted in a timely manner, according to this same-day Times-Picayune article.

The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau estimated insurers lost about $2.3 billion while writing w/c coverage in 2011, according to this Tuesday, June 26, Sacramento Bee story

 

TheWorkers’ Compensation Research Institute held on Thursday, June 28, a webinar on how Virginia’s workers’ compensation system compares to others states. 

 

The Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation (OFIR) released on Friday, June 22, its 2011 consumer complaint statistics for insurance companies doing business in Michigan. The statistics include complaints filed against carriers writing accident and health, annuity, auto, homeowners and life insurance policies. The agency received 3,441 insurance company-related consumer complaints in 2011, down from 3,645 in 2010.

 

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee vetoed this week H. 7782A, which would if enacted have allowed auto body shops to take a private right of action directly against an insurer if the insurer did not agree to pay a body shop’s non-negotiable labor rate.

 

This is Lightning Safety Awareness Week (June 24-30, 2012) and, as such, the social media world is electrified with content about lightning safety and mitigation.  The I.I.I.’s Thursday, June 21, news release about how lightning claims cost more than $1 billion per year has received a lot of attention on Twitter from journalists and insurance organizations and even more coverage on blogs where dozens of sites have reposted the content.  Many of these blogs are about gadgets and gaming and talk about the risk to expensive electronics from lightning strikes.  Most of these blogs are written for an American audience, but several British and other European-based sites are also using the I.I.I.’s lightning-related editorial material.

 

Along with all this press on lightning, the I.I.I. has also produced in cooperation with NOAA and the Lightning Protection Institute a new video about lightning safety.  This short and funny animation is already getting great attention on YouTube and we encourage anyone wanting to promote lightning safety to utilize the video.

 

Finally for this week, as expected, Florida’s Tropical Storm Debby is making social media headlines as insurance agents and journalists report on the status of the storm and remind people that hurricane season has begun and they should be prepared.   

 

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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