SYNOPSIS ALL INDUSTRY CONFERENCE CALL September 12, 2012

If there is a subject you would like to see addressed on Wednesday, September 19, please email Mike Barry at michaelb@iii.org.

 

Formerly known as Volunteer Week, the IICF’s Week of Giving is an opportunity for the insurance industry to take a leadership role in the community through volunteerism and collective giving. The week-long initiative is the insurance industry’s largest annual volunteerism and giving program, engaging thousands of industry professionals across the nation. The 2012 nonprofit beneficiaries are Feeding America, St. Baldrick’s Foundation, Starlight Children’s Foundation and the Wounded Warrior Project. The IICF volunteer registration site is here.

Tornadoes touched down in NYC’s Breezy Point, Queens, and Canarsie, Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon, September 8.  The two twisters caused no injuries and only limited property damage.

Business reporter Jennifer Bjorhus spoke with the I.I.I.’s Bob Hartwig in late August, and again a few days ago, about the reasons some insurers are raising their homeowners insurance premium rates in Minnesota. Property Insurance Report had a front page story in its February 15, 2010, edition which carried this headline: ‘Catastrophe Losses Weigh Down Property Insurers in Minnesota.’  The I.I.I. sent a copy of that publication to Bjorhus. If you have heard from the Star-Tribune for this story, and want to tell us about your interactions with them, please email the I.I.I.’s Mike Barry at michaelb@iii.org.

The I.I.I. issued a media advisory on Tuesday, September 11, prior to I.I.I. president Bob Hartwig’s Congressional testimony on the future of the federal terrorism risk insurance program.

Proposition 33 would change the way auto insurers award discounts to policyholders who have had continuous coverage, should voters approve the measure when they go to the polls on Tuesday, November 6. The proposition was the subject of an article posted to the San Francisco Chronicle’s website on Sunday, September 9.

 

Some victims of the September 12, 2008, train wreck in Chatsworth, California, are running out of money because a federal liability cap left them inadequately compensated for long-term care, counseling and living expenses, according to sources quoted in an Associated Press article. Twenty-five people were killed, and more than 100 injured, when a Metrolink commuter train struck head-on into a Union Pacific freight train four years ago this week.

The Denver Post quoted the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association (RMIIA) and cited the I.I.I.’s Know Your Stuff software and app in a Sunday, September 9, print edition article about the importance of conducting a home inventory. RMIIA reports the Denver Post is preparing another story focused on calculating the potential rebuilding costs of a home.

 

CoreLogic’s 2012 Wildfire Hazard Risk  Report found Colorado is second only to California in terms of the number of homes at “very high risk” for wildfires. The Northern Colorado Business Report filed a Monday, September 10, piece on the study’s findings.

Citizen’s Property Insurance Corporation announced on Friday, September 7, a plan aimed at moving more than 300,000 of its nearly 1.5 million policyholders into the private market.

 

The I.I.I.’s Lynne McChristian worked with The Palm Beach Post for a Saturday, September 15, article on how Hurricane Isaac prompted more Floridians to purchase flood insurance.

 

The state’s Transportation Commission has approved a new speed limit of 85 miles per hour on a 41-mile toll road between Austin and San Antonio, the highest in the U.S., according to this article in the Monday, September 10, print edition of USA Today. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the highest speed limit in 35 states is 70 miles per hour.

U.S. District Court Judge Eldon Fallon refused either to dismiss pending U.S. homeowner claims against Taishan Gypsum, the maker of allegedly defective Chinese drywall, or to vacate a $2.6 million default judgment Fallon levied previously against this same company, according to a Thursday, September 6, story from the New Orleans bureau of the Associated Press.

Lightning is believed to have caused five separate wildfires last weekend (September 8-9) in counties such as Chelan, Douglas, Grant and Lincoln. Some of these blazes forced homeowners to evacuate their residences, according to this front page story in the Tuesday, September 11, edition of The Spokane Spokesman-Review.

 

The Casper Fire Mountain has burned 15,000-plus acres and firefighters are having trouble bringing it under control this week, according to the Casper Star-Tribune.

 

Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart won a four-candidate Democratic primary with 33 percent of the statewide vote on Tuesday, September 11, even though Delaware’s Democratic Party officially supported Mitch Crane, who finished second, three percentage points behind Commissioner Weldin Stewart.  In the general election on Tuesday, November 6, the commissioner will face Republican Benjamin Mobley and Libertarian David Eisenhour.

MEDIA MATTERS
Starting Tuesday, November 13, Roll Call and CQ Today will become a single newspaper called Roll Call. 

SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT
This week there has been a spike in online conversations about the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Dr. Hartwig’s testimony before Congress on the future of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program has been tweeted about by insurance companies, law professionals and journalists. 

Another issue getting some coverage, on Twitter and some blogs written by insurance agents and business owners, is the I.I.I.’s Monday, September 10, press release on supply chain coverage. This topic is being talked about in conjunction with September being the peak month of hurricane season. 

 

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

 

For an I.I.I. Blog search, click here.