SYNOPSIS ALL INDUSTRY CONFERENCE CALL November 16, 2011

To recap the issues raised during Wednesday’s conference call, here are some of the key media stories, and the messages we’re conveying.

 

If there is a subject you would like to see addressed on Wednesday, November 23, please email Mike Barry at michaelb@iii.org.

 

The 5^th annual New York/Northeast Division annual Benefit Dinner will be held on Wednesday, December 14, at The Waldorf=Astoria Hotel’s Grand Ballroom. More information about the event can be found at the IICF’s website.  TV personality Katie Couric is the evening’s special guest speaker

The I.I.I.’s Elianne Gonzalez and Jeanne Salvatore worked closely with the Latin American Agents and Brokers Association to organize a Wednesday, November 16, phone bank at Univision’s studios in New Jersey, allowing viewers to call in with questions, and speak with bilingual insurance experts, between 6 and 8 p.m. While in New York during the week of November 14-18, Gonzalez also taped consumer segments for Telemundo and did a live interview with WADO, 1280 AM, a Spanish-language radio station in New York City.

This is the third straight year the I.I.I.’s Claire Wilkinson has won the designation. LexisNexis’ Friday, November 11, news release cited Wilkinson and its other award-winning bloggers.

This percentage was lower than the overall increase in the Consumer Price Index within the same time frame (3.5 percent), according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The A.M. Best white paper was touted in a Tuesday, November 15, news release, and can be found online. 

The I.I.I.’s Mike Barry has furnished Miami-based CBS Evening News producer Pia Malbran with the I.I.I.’s latest no-fault ‘fraud tax’ numbers in states like Florida and New York. 

The I.I.I.’s Steve Weisbart fact-checked passages to be included in an upcoming consumer column in AARP Magazine about pre-need burial insurance.

 

The list of speakers who addressed the U.S. House’s subcommittee on Insurance, Housing, and Community Opportunity on Wednesday, November 16, can be found here, along with an archived webcast of the proceedings. Earlier on that same day, the I.I.I. issued a media advisory, offering reporters access to the I.I.I.’s editorial content and subject matter experts.

 

The Dayton Daily News’s Jill Kelley is writing a six-month anniversary piece, scheduled for publication between November 25-27, on the May 25, 2011, severe weather events in Ohio, which cumulatively caused hundreds of millions of dollars in insured losses, according to the Ohio Insurance Institute.

I.I.I. president Robert Hartwig and I.I.I. Florida representative Lynne McChristian are addressing the 5^th annual insurance summit, to be hosted by the Florida Chamber of Commerce on November 17-18 in Orlando. The conference agenda offers details. McChristian reports the St. Petersburg Times wants the I.I.I.’s latest Florida no-fault fraud tax number (an estimated $658 million per annum, released publicly on Thursday, November 17).  Hartwig unveiled the I.I.I.’s latest New York no fault fraud tax number on Tuesday, November 15.

 

Tulsa World published on Monday, November 14, a major story outlining how the major weather events of 2005-2010 generated significant insurance claims payouts, laying the groundwork for what could be higher Oklahoma homeowners insurance premiums in the future.

 

On Monday, November 14, The Dallas Morning News (subscription required) had a front page story on how 11 of the state’s 25 largest auto insurers—entities defined as companies having more than 100,000 policies—had a complaint index that was higher in 2011 than in 2010. The most common complaints cited were claims processing delays, ‘low-ball’ offers, claim denials, and liability disputes. Old American County Mutual and Fred Loya Insurance were singled out for criticism. The article used Texas Department of Insurance data.

 

An article in the Houston Chronicle on Tuesday, November 15, dicsussed the release of a 14-page white paper from The Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) think tank, which is housed at Rice University. The academics are chronicling the risks the Houston/Galveston area faces from storm surge, and offering public policy recommendations to protect the region in the event of a major hurricane. 

 

The I.I.I.’s Hartwig is testifying on Monday, December 12, in Montgomery, Alabama, before Governor Bentley’s Alabama Affordable Homeowners Insurance Commission.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier of New Orleans has denied efforts by BP and several other co-defendants involved in last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster to dismiss federal complaints by Louisiana and Alabama, upholding their right to seek punitive damages and other compensation under general maritime law and the federal Oil Pollution Act.

The Associated Press filed a Tuesday, November 15, article on Judge Barbier’s decision, released the day before.

Forty-six percent of the 144 post-Irene complaints received by the Connecticut Insurance Department dealt with hurricane deductibles, the Hartford Courant reported on Tuesday, November 15, soon after a joint legislative hearing was held to discuss the insurance industry’s response to Irene in late August and the snowstorm in late October.

 

The Washington National Cathedral reopened on Sunday, November 13, for the first time since the August 23, 2011 earthquake, which had its epicenter in Mineral, Virginia, caused an estimated $15 million in uninsured damages to the structure of the Cathedral, according to this Monday, November 14, Washington Times article.

 

Teresa Miller is stepping down from her current post as Oregon’s top insurance regulator effective Wednesday, November 23. She will become a senior advisor to the director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. Miller’s new health insurance-related position is housed within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to this Tuesday, November 15, article in The Hill.

–David Evans of Bloomberg Markets magazine was givenColumbia Journalism School’s John Chancellor Award on Wednesday, November 16, in New York City.

–Sean Carr, A.M. Best’s D.C. bureau chief, left the company on Friday, November 11, and the I.I.I.’s Loretta Worters has learned since the call that Carr will be joining SNL Financial. Meanwhile, A.M. Best’s Diana Rosenberg, who works out of the company’s New Jersey headquarters, has announced that her last day there is Friday, November 18.

 

–According to an annual study from the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, social media usage has slowed among Fortune 500 companies in 2011, with insurance companies only slightly increasing their Facebook, Twitter and blogging efforts. There is also evidence of change in the adoption rate of these tools by the industry. Moreover, in some cases, there are clear signs that these technologies are not part of a company communications strategy. While the changes are only slight, this may signify a slowdown of business adoption of social media, the study indicates. 

 

–There is continued social media interest in deer collision statistics, primarily amongst reporters on Twitter.  Another popular topic as Thanksgiving weekend approaches is rental car insurance, with insurance agents sharing information about being properly insured when renting a car. The I.I.I. featured rental car information on its home page and this generated a lot of attention to the issue on Twitter.

 

–State Farm has released a video featuring William Shatner warning about the dangers of turkey fryers. It is getting a lot of tweets and a growing audience on YouTube.  

 

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