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, March 16, please email Mike Barry at michealb@iii.org.
BOB HARTWING AND JIM LYNCH PARTICIPATE IN WORKERS COMPENSATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE CONFERENCE
Bob Hartwig and Jim Lynch will attend the Workers Compensation Research Institute conference in Boston on Thursday, March 10 and Friday, March 11. Bob will be speaking about the sharing economy and workers comp on Friday. Lynch will be live tweeting the event and writing for the I.I.I. blog, Terms + Conditions.
LYNCH FEATURED SPEAKER AT CAS SEMINAR IN ORLANDO
Jim Lynch will be a featured speaker at the Casualty Actuarial Society ratemaking seminar in Orlando, Florida. He will be part of a general session held Tuesday, March 15, looking at actuarial issues regarding price optimization.
PROPUBLICA FEATURES ARTICLE ON FLOOD RISK IN TEXAS
ProPublica ran the article Hell and High Water, Thursday, March 3, which looks at the risk from disasters in Texas. Scientists say, Houston’s perfect storm is coming — and it’s not a matter of “if” but “when.” The city has dodged it for decades, but the likelihood it will happen in any given year is nothing to scoff at.
YOUTH FOOTBALL LAWSUIT FILED IN WISCONSIN
The largest youth football program in the United States is reported to have settled a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Wisconsin by the mother of a former player who claimed that the sport had led to her son’s suicide, according to this Tuesday, March 8 New York Post article. Inside sources report that Pop Warner, based in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, and its liability insurer settled the first and only lawsuit against the program involving concussions for less than $2 million.
WALL STREET JOURNAL/NEW YORK TIMES LOOK AT THE INVESTIGATION OF DECEPTIVE PRACTICES OF VOLKSWAGEN
The Justice Department is reported to have issued a subpoena under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (Firrea) in order to expand its investigation into the deceptive practices of Volkswagen AG (VW) related to emissions testing. The far-reaching law involving bank fraud will allow the Justice Department to charge Volkswagen with possible violations of tax laws. The department appears to be making a novel use of a civil financial fraud law that allowed the Obama administration to obtain record multibillion dollar settlements from large banks after the 2008 financial crisis, according to this Tuesday, March 8, Wall Street Journal article (Subscription required). The inquiry widens to include 17 suspects in the investigation of Volkswagen AG’s (VW) use of illegal software to cheat on emissions tests. Prosecutors had previously said that six people were under investigation. None of the suspects were named because of German privacy laws. A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig, Germany, declined to say what positions the suspects held or where in the company they worked, according to this same day New York Times article.
CHALLENGE TO GLOBAL INSURANCE RULES COULD SLOW OVERHAUL
This opinion piece in the New York Times on Monday, March 7, from David Zaring, an assistant professor of legal studies at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania comments on the greater attention the international regulation of insurance companies has received in the wake of the financial crisis. He says that many U.S. insurers are asking that the rule-making process move more slowly, taking a more trial-type method.
STORIES IN THE WORKS
Bob Hartwig talked with Fox News radio regarding his reaction to Warren Buffett’s observations on the rising frequency/severity of auto insurance claims, and how they’re impacting the auto insurance market.
Bob Hartwig was interviewed by Larry Buhl (323-828-8994) with Inside Energy (www.insideenergy.org), who is doing an audio story on fracking and earthquakes specifically with regard to Oklahoma. He’s also pitching the story to Marketplace though that is not yet commissioned.
Bob Hartwig spoke with National Underwriter regarding the Flood Insurance Market Parity and Modernization Act, which was approved by a U.S. House committee last week.
Jim Lynch spoke with Garland Robinette, host of The Think Tank on WWL radio (an affiliate of the CBS Radio Network, based in New Orleans) about driverless cars and liability.
Loretta Worters will be doing a skype interview later this week with Lindsey Slater, KSPR News, the ABC affiliate in Springfield, Missouri, on flooded cars and auto insurance.
Loretta Worters spoke with New York Times reporter Graham Bowley about umbrella liability policies. Bowley is covering the Bill Cosby case and the seven women who say he defamed them.
Loretta Worters spoke with Susannah Levine with Risk & Insurance magazine. She is doing a story about hospital safety, specifically what carriers look for when underwriting a policy for a hospital that has armed guards.
Mike Barry spoke with InsuranceQuotes.com seeking I.I.I.'s take on the link between moving violations and the cost of insurance.
Mike Barry spoke with Mary Purcell, MoneyGeek.com, on ways to save on auto insurance.
STATES
California
Janet Ruiz is attending the Wildfire Urban Interface Conference Tuesday, March 8 through Thursday, March 10 in Reno, Nevada.
Alabama
Birmingham News reported on Friday, March 4, that deadly tornado clusters like Alabama's 2011 outbreak are becoming the new normal.
Birmingham News on Saturday, March 5, reported near record number of tornadoes in February in Alabama.
Insurance Journal reported on Monday, March 7, that meteorologists can predict tornadoes two to three weeks in advance— a step toward better warnings of storms that kill an average of 80 Americans each year.
Georgia
Insurance Journal reported on Friday, March 4, that President Barack Obama has declared that a major disaster exists in 33 Georgia counties following recent severe storms and flooding that affected the state. The White House announced February 26 that federal aid will be available to state and eligible local governments along with certain private nonprofit organizations in 33 counties and eligible local recovery efforts from Dec. 22 to Jan. 13.
Louisiana
The New Orleans, LA, Times-Picayune had a story on Monday, March 7, asking how high are Louisiana’s car insurance rates going to be. A new report from insure.com ranks Louisiana as the fourth-most expensive state to insure your car. The leaders, in addition to Louisiana, in order of ranking are Michigan, Montana and New Jersey.
Kansas City
The city of Olathe attained the highest rating possible for fire protection service, according to the Insurance Services Office (ISO), an organization that rates every fire protection area in the country. It designated Olathe a Class 1 community. Of the more than 48,000 fire protection areas across the country, only 132 have a Class 1 ISO rating. There are only seven Class 1 communities in Kansas, according to this Saturday, March 5 Kansas City Star article.
Oklahoma
More than 5,200 square miles of central Oklahoma now will be covered under an expanded plan to deal with the state's rise in earthquake activity and the links to saltwater disposal wells from oil and natural gas production, according to the Oklahoman’s Monday, March 7 article. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission released its latest plan that covers more than 400 disposal wells into the deep Arbuckle formation in all or parts of 11 counties. The plan follows an expanded regional plan for northwestern Oklahoma released February 16. Together, those two plans cover more than 10,000 square miles and more than 640 disposal wells.
Two key provisions of the Republican-led overhaul of Oklahoma's workers' compensation law in 2013 have been shot down in recent weeks as unconstitutional, and a trial attorney who opposes key aspects of the law says he expects more of the regulations to be nullified as additional lawsuits proceed through the courts, it was reported in this Saturday, March 5 AP story that appeared in the Tulsa World.
Pennsylvania
The Insurance Department is holding on Thursday, March 10, in Harrisburg, a public hearing on the rising cost of long-term care insurance, as well as specific rate increase requests being made by insurers operating in Pennsylvania.
SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT
The I.I.I. will be hosting a panel Hacking Your Ride, at South by Southwest, Sunday, March 13. The panel will discuss safety and risk and cybersecurity in transportation. I.I.I. President Bob Hartwig will be moderating the panel. Presenters include I.I.I.’s Executive Vice President Andréa Basora, Chief Executive Officer of Zendrive Jonathan Matus and Chief Research Officer of F-Secure Viruslab Mikko Hypponen. To keep track of the event and follow the conversation on social, use the hashtags #SXSW and #RiskyRide.
March 8 marked International Women’s Day. To spotlight the topic of gender and leadership in the insurance industry, the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation will be holding a Women in Insurance Conference Series this June, with regional forums taking place in Chicago, Dallas, LA, and New York. To register for the event and to find out more details, visit their website at womensconference.iicf.org. Be sure to also check out I.I.I.’s Pinterest board highlighting women in insurance for Women’s History Month, as well as our latest press release on insurance advice for women business owners.
ProPublica’s article Hell and High Water from Thursday, March 3, discusses worst case scenarios during the event of a devastating hurricane hitting Texas, and also takes a look at flood insurance and the risk from disasters in the state. The article comes with an interactive version that includes animated hurricane simulations hitting the Houston-Galveston region.
Congratulations to our member companies who made Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work for list, which has been highly publicized on social.
MEDIA MATTERS
Michaela Pereira is moving From CNN’s New Day to HLN and moving back to L.A., according to this Tuesday, March 8, Ad Week story.
Mark Potter is leaving NBC Nightly News after 41 years in the TV news business, this Saturday, March 5 story in Ad Week discloses. Potter joined NBC News in 2004. Before that, he spent 5 years with CNN and was an ABC News correspondent through the 1980s-90s.
Susie Poppick has joined CNBC Online as a writer and editor covering personal finance, according to this Wednesday, March 2, Talking Biz News article. Poppick previously served as associate editor and senior reporter for Money. She can be reached at 201-735-2622.
The San Francisco Chronicle has hired Owen Thomas as the paper’s new business editor. Thomas comes to the publication from ReadWrite, where he served as the editor-in-chief since April 2013. Prior to that, he was the West Coast editor at Business Insider for a year and was the founding executive editor of The Daily Dot, from April 2011 until March 2012. He can be reached at othomas@sfchronicle.com.
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.
