Columns
Adjusters take different approaches to resolving these questions; however, they are prerequisites to the proper disposition of each and every claim. The absence of any one of them will negate a...
Risk management is not just a commercial line thing. Homeowner-insureds have to practice risk management also. No work should be engaged, no contractor or sub-contractor allowed to begin, until there...
Last month, our resident image-breaker addressed the vulnerability of the national infrastructure to both lack of maintenance and threats of terrorism. Our experts say that terrorist attacks are not...
If you recognize these abbreviations, chances are you are familiar with instant messaging (IM) as an Internet communication tool. E-mail is the killer app that facilitates communication. How about...
Block walls have been used in basement construction for years. In unsupported basement block walls, concrete blocks are laid to form the wall, which supports the building structure (Figure 1)....
Last month (June Issue) our image-smashing columnist explored how the flat world described in Tom Friedman’s best seller, The World Is Flat, might affect the world of claims. One writer even suggests...
Doubtlessly, ample time will spawn second-guessing of the administration of Virginia Tech in minute detail about what it could have done or should have done. Much will be filtered through the lens of...
In this eight-part series, Carl Van shares his thoughts on the characteristics of the awesome adjuster. The series is to serve as a sort of road map for those interested in knowing what it takes to...
It was very wet in Norman Rockwell Land the Saturday of the first week of April. It had rained for days, off and on. Chilly, miserable lion weather that everybody wished would go out like the...
A few Claims readers and contributors I know subscribe to an insurance/risk management Internet chat-line called Riskmail. I was out of town during most of January but, when I got back, there were a...
CPAs adhere to standards embodied in something called GAAP, generally accepted accounting standards. Are there generally accepted adjusting standards for claim file content and documentation? Does it...
A long time ago (1982), I walked into the National Underwriter Co. offices on Fourth Street in Cincinnati and, having heard that the FC&S Bulletins had a staff writer position open, applied. Eugene...
Hurricane Katrina, the storm that ruined the Big Easy, was a bit like my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Miller. She was harsh, strict, and demanding, but we learned. Boy, did we ever learn. She taught us...
Drug giant Merck will not see such television programming, but it may have seen stars after getting hit with a $253-million jury award on Aug. 19. A product liability trial against its Cox-2...
Sound familiar? I am sure that every adjuster in the insurance industry can relate to these issues when working with their investigation vendors. Yet, few really are addressing the underlying issue:...
Our insured bred a litter of puppies. One of the puppies has tested positive for a congenital condition. The new puppy owner has sued the insured for delivery of a defective product. Is there...
Until the early 1980s, this publication was known as Insurance Adjuster magazine. Even those of us who were independent adjusters at the time worked primarily for insurance companies and were...
So chants Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback Peyton Manning in a recent television commercial for MasterCard, heralding everyday jobs. Has the adjusting profession now arrived? Is this our 15 minutes of...
This is almost laughable, it is so obvious: “Business income can be confusing, to say the least.” One of the FC&S expert analysts wrote this in August’s FC&S Dec Page, which lets its users know what...
Professional water-damage restoration is a complicated business, requiring a careful, scientific approach with frequent monitoring of relative humidity, temperature, and moisture readings of contents...
If you are an insurer who is using direct repair providers or third party administrators to settle automobile damage claims, please take note. Recently, I conducted a survey comparing desk audits by...
Over the last three months, this columnist has addressed threats to the infrastructure from terrorism and other hazards, as well as the fact that our nation, and its insurance industry, is extremely...
Dream Job was an ESPN reality show in which young slackers and sports nuts vied to become a real-life Sports Center newscaster. The winner got a one-year contract and the right to shout “Boo-yah!”...
Following a structural fire, a fire department may or may not investigate its origin and cause. This decision will vary depending on how the department defines its responsibility for investigation,...
In this eight-part series, Carl Van shares his thoughts on the characteristics of the awesome adjuster. The series is to serve as a sort of road map for those interested in knowing what it takes to...
Recently, an Ohio FC&S reader wondered, more specifically worried, whether liability-based theories involving progressive damage could be applied in first-party property loss situations. That is not...
For claim professionals, the scenario is always the same: swamped with claims, constantly on the road, barely keeping up with demands. And yet another demand lurks on the horizon: mandatory...
Commercial entities have a number of choices regarding security. These range from providing none at all to securing themselves and their employees and customers behind locked gates and high walls...
Remember when the dividing line was clear between adjuster work and lawyer work? We all knew who did what and when. Adjusters handled cases so long as they remained claims. If a case entered...
Cream rises, hope floats, and poor performance … sinks the claim department. One key talent for effective claim managers lies in the ability to coach an under-performing adjuster or staff member. We...
Of course, a person doesn’t know that his identity has been stolen just by looking in the mirror. Usually he finds out when he is turned down for a loan because of unpaid bills he knew nothing about,...
Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving’s 1820 tale attributed to old Diedrich Knickerbocker, tells of a rather lazy New York Dutchman named Rip who resided in the Catskills. He drank too much at the...
Innovative, unique best practices are the cornerstone in establishing a competitive advantage in the claim marketplace. Organizations that want to achieve and sustain a leadership position are...
A roof may be considered many things. It could be an airstrip for Santa and his reindeer or an oasis for James Taylor or the Drifters when this old world starts getting them down. But, can it be a...
I read an article a few years back about technology in business. Several company executives were lamenting the small productivity increases realized despite massive (and expensive) technological...
Bridging the Industry is the title of the Claims Conference of Northern California this September, at their two-day meeting in Sacramento. Exactly how one “bridges” an industry, and precisely which...
Insurance company Insco insures a technology company that makes parts for computers. The company sells those parts to Compco for incorporation into Compco’s computers, which are then sold in the...
What makes truly exceptional risk managers successful? One feature: they know how to think like businesspeople and understand a business’ needs. Most importantly, the “go-to” risk manager is...
“Flight risk” is a term that resonates more with bail bondsmen than with claim managers. Nevertheless, flight risk imperils claim operations nowadays. The real assets of insurance companies and claim...
When Amtrak’s Vermonter passenger train headed toward Putney, Vt., on the tracks of the New England Central (NEC) at 3:40 a.m. on Oct. 9, 2005, there was no way that the engineer could have known...
“Boss, got a second? I have three interviews set tomorrow and I need some advice. They are on three completely different kinds of accidents. One is a meat cutter who cut his hand badly on a band saw,...
In this eight-part series, Carl Van shares his thoughts on the characteristics of the awesome adjuster. The series is to serve as a sort of road map for those interested, at least at this stage, in...
It was a dark and stormy night. The rain dripped from my fedora, as I sat at my lonely desk, looking out over the skyline (you would think that I could afford a place with a ceiling). I could see...
New York’s attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, spoke to the National Press Club in February, discussing the recent business scandals on which he has launched a crusade. He cited the businesses in...
Sophisticated insureds looking for ways to reduce their insurance premiums often elect to purchase liability insurance that is subject to a deductible or self-insured retention. Typically, liability...
Although such an apocalyptic event should not be the catalyst inspiring risk managers to dust off their disaster recovery plans, South Asia’s recent tsunami underscores the need to ponder and enact...
In this, the first of a three-part series, the Iconoclast examines the factors that make this country’s infrastructure vulnerable to terrorist attacks, and what effect such attacks might have on the...
We get some pretty interesting claim scenarios at The FC&S. But then, you must too. Remember “the tree was suddenly there in the middle of the road, so I hit it?” This is the insurance industry,...
When adjusters are faced with the coordination of water or mold damage claims, ambiguous and conflicting procedures may be required. The ambiguity arises from a lack of industry standards and,...
Driven largely by skyrocketing medical costs and lack of controls for utilization, workers’ compensation insurance costs have risen 50 percent nationwide in the last three years, with the greatest...
Numbers are in vogue. Scanning recent bestseller lists, we see that numbers are popular in book titles. In fact, numbers and lists seem to dominate the charts. These include Ten Stupid Things that...
A golfer steps up to the tee box, places his ball, and surveys his surroundings. Licking one finger, he sticks it in the air and notes a slight south-easterly breeze. Factoring in this information,...
The Iconoclast is always happy when someone responds to a column. It assures him that at least one or two claim professionals still read print publications and, better yet, spend a moment or two...
Ivory soap is renowned for being 99.44 percent pure. In the advertising realm, that is an impressive percentage. In corporate liability and risk management, however, 99 percent effectiveness and...
Claim professionals—like most business people—are drowning in a tsunami of e-mail. They get e-mail from agents, brokers, co-workers, underwriters, defense attorneys, policyholders, and vendors....
Can you name a coverage that represents $25B-$30B in annual claim payouts, represents more than 90 percent of an average nine-month claim cycle time, yet has seen little-to-no investment in...
In March, Menu Foods recalled dog and cat foods produced at two of its facilities and sold under a number of different brand names. Menu Foods since expanded the recall and several other companies...
Editor’s Note: The Iconoclast suggests that Tom Friedman’s The World is Flat should be mandatory reading for all of us, as it tells us how our 21st Century world might look. (One suspects, however,...
We are handling a claim that involves an error made by a bank when it provided a car loan payoff. The bank gave the insured (an auto dealership) a car loan payoff amount that was much lower than the...
In this series, the Iconoclast has been exploring terrorism and its potential targets, as well as short-term and long-range methods of addressing the risk. In this final part of the series, he...
Top-flight risk managers are not one-trick ponies. Historically, they have confined themselves to property and casualty risks. They did not touch areas like accident and health benefits, life...
In this eight-part series, Carl Van shares his thoughts on the characteristics of the awesome adjuster. The series is to serve as a sort of road map for those interested in knowing what it takes to...
I recently attended the National Association of Independent Insurance Adjusters annual conference in Palm Springs. It is not easy to get into or out of Palm Springs. Because the last flight out to...
Last month, we began looking at security issues involving employees. Many security and safety issues focus on employees, and hiring and retaining the best employees is a major concern of all...
Subrogation is the transferal of the right of legal restitution from one party to another. In most first-party property coverages, insurance contracts give insurers the right to pursue recovery on...
Topper Shutt is the unlikely name for a lead TV weatherman in the Washington, D.C. area where I live. My family calls him “Topper Shutt Up.” We grit our teeth as he prattles about barometric...
One way to take your claim management to the next level is by devising a reliable monthly claim management dashboard. What data is important to you to have on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis?...
A former boss always said that business-interruption claims were the most difficult type of claims to handle. And he was right about that, at least partly because of the convergence of issues that...
If claim association membership is any indication, from the few claim club lists this writer has seen recently, the most active members are independent property adjusters. Where are the insurance...
Hurricane Katrina stands as the single most costly U.S. natural disaster. Insured property loss payments in the six states impacted are estimated to exceed $40.6 billion. Damages resulting from...
Insurer and consumer had a war of words on Nov. 15, 2007, at the National Underwriter Company’s first two-day virtual conference and expo. Billed to be a “Battle of the Bobs,” the debate featured J....
Many of the questions coming to FC&S deal with whether or not overhead and profit (O&P) should be paid on a loss when less than three trades are involved. Others deal with whether O&P should be...
In October of 2006 America’s population reached 300,000,000. Every 11 seconds another American is born, arrives, comes home, or otherwise becomes a statistic. Net? A baby is born every seven seconds,...
Pending before the Texas Supreme Court is a significant construction defect coverage case, Lamar Homes, Inc. v. Mid-Continent Casualty Co., which could have national implications. This is one of the...
Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company needs a risk manager! The fictitious corporation is portrayed in NBC’s hit comedy, The Office. Office Manager Michael Scott—played by actor Steve Carell (a.k.a. the...
Hold on, though. Let’s think about this. A 22-year claim expert departed last week, and that represents a huge loss for both the department and company. He was a real crackerjack but took a job...
The title of my class at Emory University this autumn is “The Ethics of Risk.” Basically, it is a philosophical look at risk management, as it focuses on a variety of risks to society, including...
The NAIC model regulations and act were designed to ensure that the claim process was transparent, moved promptly, and reached an equitable result. All of the adopting states imposed upon carriers...
There has been a large increase in the amount of questions received recently by FC&S concerning the damage to property and damage to your work exclusions on the commercial general liability (CGL)...
Last month your resident image-smasher took a look at the bane of all auto claim adjusters, the low impact soft tissue (LIST) claim, where claimants or insureds who could not conceivably have been...
Recently, an insurance publication bestowed the honor of Risk Manager of the Year on Deborah Griffith, risk manager of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) near Dallas, Texas. We have all heard the Boy...
Corporate attitudes toward employees and customers can affect everything from the productivity of the employees to the quality of the products or services that they produce. Screening, alone, may be...
Fashionistas exist not only on the Paris runways and in the pages of Vogue; even risk management has its fashionistas. For example, it is fashionable to say that risk managers who are “merely”...
One area of puzzlement results from trying to apply one section’s policy language to another part of the policy or to a completely different form. For instance, one FC&S subscriber submitted the...
This fall, Americans face a double whammy: hurricane season and elections! Both involve a whole lot of wind. And both are likely to cost us a lot of money, regardless of where the hurricanes hit or...
The stakes are high. Trial is scheduled for next week and negotiations are at an impasse. You have already offered more than the case is really worth, but you recognize the risk that a jury might...
Directors & Officers liability insurance pricing, terms, and availability are headaches for risk managers. Fortune 500 companies have seen premiums jump 200 to 400 percent. A recent poll conducted by...
When asked, “What do you like least about your job?” many claim managers reply, “Personnel issues!” Often, claim managers like developing business, servicing clients, and leading a claim team. This...
From skunks, to opossums, to raccoons, to squirrels, the animals like to come inside. While they may be cute on the nature channel or at the zoo, when a homeowner finds a skunk in a crawl space or a...
Carriers often make the mistake of pressuring claim and customer service departments to reduce internal expenses at the cost of quality. This is especially common during softening market cycles like...
It was unusual for me to purchase a “rare book” through a used book store, a first edition at that, but it was one that I had been seeking for years and could never find, so I ordered it from some...
Most of us look forward to our annual vacations, time away from the office, winding down, and relaxing in the sun. Many will travel with the minimum of insurance coverage, often as part of package...
In this eight-part series, Carl Van, author of The 8 Characteristics of the Awesome Adjuster, shares his thoughts on those characteristics. The series is to serve as a sort of road map for those...
For many years, I labored in the “food services” division of the claim industry, dealing with pickles and jams, and helping to prepare crow for those who must dine upon that feathery black bird....
In the recent movie, The Incredibles, the main character is an animated superhero who must retire from that role due to lawsuits filed by the people he was trying to rescue. His presumed comedown in...
An insured homeowner suffered $5,000 worth of covered wind damage to his roof as a result of a hurricane. The insured was paid for the loss on an actual cash value basis, but did not repair the roof...
There I sat at a round table in Beijing’s Great Wall Hotel dining room some 21 years ago, with a vice chairman of the People’s Insurance Company of China on one side and an attractive young lady, who...
Perhaps not since the invention of the Gutenberg press has there been as revolutionary an information tool as the Internet. Increasingly popular forms of expression on the Internet are web logs — or...
In this eight-part series, Carl Van shares his thoughts on the characteristics of the awesome adjuster. The series is to serve as a sort of road map for those interested in knowing what it takes to...
There are lies — and then there are statistics. Sometimes they can be identical. The Insurance Information Institute recently sent me their latest edition of Fact Book 2005. The details are very...
Does your company or organization need a chief risk officer? Some companies have taken the role of risk manager to another level. Think of the risk management job on steroids and you have a chief...
When insureds complete improvements or repairs around their properties themselves, the question arises whether actual cash value would be calculated differently than if contractors did the work....
I probably have seen the movie Fiddler on the Roof half a dozen times. Along with Guys and Dolls, that great Damon Runyan tale about Nathan Detroit and the Boys, it is one of my favorite musicals. It...
I know the answer to neither question. Do not ask me why, but I entered college long ago intending to major in philosophy. A friend pleaded with me, asking, “What will you do with a philosophy...
Cracks are an inescapable, undesirable feature of many buildings. Some cracks are the result of wear and tear, while others are related to construction or design defects. Expansion and contraction of...
As certain as the fact that apples are green before they turn yellow or red, there will be structures and possessions damaged this hurricane season by wave wash and storm surge. Those owners who did...
Risk management is a portable skill. We can take it from job to job, company to company. Is it possible, though, that many professional risk managers leave their skills at their desks at the end of...
Many states have passed laws allowing their citizens to carry concealed weapons, and the National Rifle Association (NRA) seems intent on having state legislatures pass laws empowering citizens to...
The State of Florida has experienced a significant rise in the demand for appraisal in disputed property settlements as found in homeowners’ and commercial policies. Florida represents a special-case...
It should not be surprising information, even for those on the coastline, that hurricane damage can be prevented. Most prevention is obvious — build high, build solid, and don’t build on a barrier...
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks and her friends, the three bears. The bears lived in a cabin in the woods. Fearing windstorm and hail damage, but wanting to save money in...
In this eight-part series, Carl Van shares his thoughts on the characteristics of the awesome adjuster. The series is to serve as a sort of road map for those interested in knowing what it takes to...
Infrared thermography, long used with success by the military, law enforcement agencies, research and development engineers, manufacturers and broadcasters, to name a few, is finding increasing use...
Around the World in 80 Days. In today’s world of high-speed transportation and electronic communication, such a long trip sounds sort of quaint. As the world continues to shrink, modern risk managers...
Security — the state of feeling safe, free from anxiety or fear — has become big business, both for commercial and governmental entities. From the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to the new...
Quickly dashed off e-mail sent from hand-held devices whilst we are listening to voices on speaker phones in “other matters” seem par for the multitasking that efficiency gurus mandate in our...
“There is probably more dissatisfaction over business interruption insurance than about all other types of insurance combined,” according to James Costner, senior vice president of Willis Risk...
When a security guard said explosives were on fire, 911 failed to ask, “What kind?” It was 20 years ago, but the early morning fire that led to the death of six firemen and the destruction of two...
Is it just me, or is it getting hotter in here? Recent scientific studies about global warming indicate that the Earth’s temperature may rise anywhere between two degrees and 11 degrees Fahrenheit....
Our insured has coverage under the CP 00 10 policy (the commercial property policy) with the CP 10 10 (basic) causes of loss form. At the time that the policy was issued, the insured had purchased a...
The four hurricanes that devastated much of Florida last year were well covered by the news media, but the storm of controversy that followed has been largely ignored. Thousands of property owners,...
The civic action group MoveOn is enlisting the aid of celebrities to publicize its online housing location service. Tim Robbins, Green Day, John Cusack, and REM are among the actors and musicians who...
“Insurance companies will pay billions of dollars in business interruption losses as a result of Hurricane Katrina, but how many billions is still anyone’s guess,” analysts for Advisen wrote in a...
While speaking with a local insurance company adjuster the other day, he told me that he was awaiting word on a trial in another state. I asked him about the case, and he said that it was a toss-up,...
Trends in liability insurance often are a direct result of what is happening within the tort system. The law is changing constantly in response to society’s needs and its discernment of what is fair...
Katrina was a nightmare. Unfortunate risk managers and property owners in the hurricane’s wake were schooled firsthand in the art of property loss recovery. As in many schools, some pass and others...
Marshall Field, the namesake of the retail giant, is often credited with paternity for one of the hoariest business slogans, “The customer is always right.” Some say that, in business, only two...
It has been more than two years since Hurricane Katrina’s violent winds and water left in its wake the damaged and destroyed homes of tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents. Yet who is ultimately...
I confess to being a bookie. No, I can’t place your bets on the horses, but I will bet that maybe at least one reader is also a bookie: someone who loves books. I just can’t understand how the modern...
These days, we hear a lot about accident reconstruction and its contribution to the claim process. Traffic collision investigation and litigation often require a clear view of the events surrounding...
In this eight-part series, Carl Van shares his thoughts on the characteristics of the awesome adjuster. The series is to serve as a sort of road map for those interested, at least at this stage, in...
Jake takes a break from his drill press at the employer’s appointed time, heads down the steps to the company break room for a Coke, slips on the last step, and breaks his ankle. Is he in the course...
Many, if not most, adjusters may feel confident that they rarely will have to deal with serious hazardous material claims. After all, unless their insurers write environmental impairment liability...
Fraud exacts a financial toll that raises the coverage tab for all risk managers. The insurance industry estimates that insurance fraud represents 10 to 15 percent of each premium dollar. Others...
This one just doesn’t meet the “acid test” of insurance contract interpretation, pun intended. Sulfuric acid and the commercial property policy’s rust or wear and tear exclusion is the subject. It’s...
Only those who have been dead for the past nine months are unaware that the great city of New Orleans was hit by Category 4 Hurricane Katrina, which caused levees between the city and Lake...
hether risk managers have insurance or are self-insured, winning a claim often comes down to a contest between experts. Through testimony, your experts battle those of the other side. They may be...
In the January 2006 edition of Claims Queue we asked you to provide some answers to the kind of claim questions we get at FC&S. Some of you accepted the challenge and stepped up to the chalkboard. In...
[In February’s 2006 issue, we looked at the diverse nature of American society and the disparity between the new generation of young people who are so technologically linked to each other that...
David Groth handles subrogation and recovery claims in the Eastern United States for the law firm of Cozen O’Connor. Below are his top 10 tips for presenting the best case to a jury, culled from his...
Risk managers, especially those interested in continuing education, can’t say that there is nothing new under the sun. Two new CE courses now are available to those interested in deepening their...
You know times are tough when even the Tooth Fairy must come to terms with a deteriorating economy....
The never-ending challenge of fraudulent schemes and scams perpetrated by fraud artists and insurance cheats is a formidable obstacle confronting insurers, adjusters, investigators, and prosecutors...
When I first came to the staff of The FC&S Bulletins, I was introduced to a number of insurance contract (policy) interpretative principles that underlie the basis of situational analysis for us...
Over the past few years, the number of negligence law suits against building owners and managers, contractors, and their insurers claiming personal injury or property damage from mold has exploded....
When people are sued, they are relieved if their insurance potentially will cover them for the claims alleged against them. They are more relieved when their insurance carrier agrees to defend them....
When an insurance claim reaches the appraisal stage, the parties invariably brace for an adversarial experience, but it need not be one. If the participants realize that appraising is a mixture of...
Crossing the country several times a year, sometimes by plane or train but usually by car, this writer sees a lot of highway. When possible, I stay off interstates, preferring the scenic two-lane...
You thought the MTV Music Awards and the Oscars were surrounded by suspense? You have seen nothing yet. It’s that time of year again when our thoughts turn to special things. I speak, of course, not...
It is not unusual for insureds to own private railroad sidings or turnouts as part of their industrial operations. Typically, freight cars are shuttled by railroad companies onto insureds’ sidings...
Writer Toni Morrison once said, “All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.” Sometimes water takes the scenic route on its journey home, pouring into basements,...
A lack of or insufficient fact-based decision-making can be very expensive, creating the potential for incorrect coverage determinations or inaccurate comparative negligence assessments that in turn...
After many years of increasing arson losses from a variety of sources in the early 1990s, the number of reported arson fires decreased annually from 85,500 in 1996 to only 31,500 in 2005. Many of...
“And when exactly did I become the @#$% bookkeeper?” asks the irate lawyer in a recent Lexis-Nexis magazine ad, which was touting its CounselLink office management product. It promises to get lawyers...
On NBC’s sitcom, The Office, boss Michael Scott is a clueless buffoon while Dunder-Mifflin’s receptionist — Pam Beasly — is sharp and perceptive. In real life, the actress portraying Beasly — Jenna ...
“Just one word. Are you listening? Plastic,” an enthusiastic Mr. McGuire advises Benjamin in the 1967 movie, The Graduate. A little more than 40 years later, we’re still talking about plastics,...
It is incumbent upon claim professionals to thoroughly investigate and uniformly adjudicate all claims and obtain specific evidence supporting all of the allegations. When handling premises liability...
The late spring is the beginning of hurricane season. By the time this is published, the spring tornado season will be well underway. This year it arrived early, with devastating storms throughout...
The predictability of calculating general damage values in personal injury claims can be highly speculative. By its nature, pain and suffering is a subjective experience. It is difficult for an...
For many carriers, the task of processing claims consistently and in accordance with new programs has become complex and daunting for both their adjusters and the IT organizations that support them....
Some of the most unnerving claims an adjuster can experience are those concerning dead bodies, and the editors at Fire, Casualty, & Surety have recently had many questions regarding the deceased and...
In the spring of 2000 when your Iconoclast was still editor of the CPCU Claims Quarterly (CQ), a very typical situation for editors of such publications occurred: articles that had been promised for...
Over the past 15 years, the standard ISO absolute pollution exclusion — also referred to as the total pollution exclusion — has been litigated in the traditional environmental arena across the...
What will be the biggest property risk management challenges in 2007? To get a flavor for that, we checked in on two risk management discussion forums on the Internet to gauge themes, thoughts and...
“Quinley” is an Irish name. My descendants undoubtedly hailed from Hibernia. My Irish acted up while scanning the results of a recent Greenwich Associates study about claim service. Perhaps I was the...
This summer, I was asked to make a presentation at an insurance fraud conference held by the Nebraska Department of Insurance at a state park on the Platte River. I arrived in Omaha by Amtrak,...
Today’s adjuster is frequently responsible for handling claims in several states. This applies to both the in-house claim office staff and to independent adjusters. There is often an effort to accuse...
We all know the saying about scorned women, and this month’s column has the claim questions to prove it. As will be demonstrated, some people handle relationship break-ups with a certain lack of...
For many carriers, the task of processing claims consistently and in accordance with new programs has become complex and daunting for both adjusters and the IT organizations that support them. The...
As a mystery buff, your resident image-smasher has his favorite authors. Most mystery buffs do. His include Tony Hillerman, Sara Paretsky, Agatha, of course, along with Doyle (he is, after all, a...
Four years of high school Latin plus one in college equals one murky memory of the dead language. Subpoena is a Latin term (meaning, “under penalty”) that risk managers often encounter. Subpoenas and...
Let’s face it. The insurance industry has never been considered an early adopter of emerging technologies. However, because of recent customer demand and pressure from ratings agencies, regulators,...
There was a time when courts applied the Draconian rule of categorically denying recovery for emotional distress related to witnessing another person’s injury or fearing for another person’s safety....
As I look into my dirty coffee cup, I see a changing world ahead. The familiar quote, “Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather,” reminds your resident image-smasher of one of his...
Sixteen states require that the insurer send an acknowledgment of the receipt of the claim. The deadlines for compliance are 10 days in Alaska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,...
For fans of vintage NBA matchups, this year’s final between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers was a welcome treat. Whether cheering for K.G. or Kobe, some people have such a basketball...
That’s two triple-play combinations that will never be forgotten. One entered the record books in 1910 as one of the most exciting events in sports (and was inducted into the Hall of Fame 36 years...
Warning of a hazard is great, but eliminating it is far better. A well-known mutual insurer, priding itself on its ability to manage customers’ risks, runs a television advertisement that...
Risk profiling, also known as risk mapping, is a technique used to analyze a firm’s portfolio of risks. Innovative risk managers are using this tool as one way to identify risk exposures. The...
Recently, two more jurisdictions have weighed in on the issue of subrogation involving landlords and tenants. Nebraska reinforced and adopted the Sutton doctrine as applied to residential tenancies....
In the wake of the 2003 southern California wildfires, we served hundreds of families and insurance adjusters. The fires occurred in our community; our home office is located in San Diego. We hope...
One evening a couple of months ago, our niece called with a claim problem. It seems that her sister was involved in a collision on a bridge over Tampa Bay. She had stopped for a traffic jam and was...
One consumer myth that many adjusters confront is the idea that claim people get paid by how much they “save” on a given claim. As if adjusters get a commission if they can settle a $20,000 auto or...
The season for spooks and goblins is over. We’re headed toward holidays that elicit fears of chubby tummies and clothes that no longer fit, so something at least partly mysterious fits the bill for...
It’s usually in October that the stock market decides to go haywire. This year, it chose September. With the demise of the Lehman Brothers, the disappearance of Merrill Lynch into Bank of America...
Last month’s article offered an overview of the provisions found in 19 states’ versions of the Unfair Claims Practices Regulations. These regulations extend the deadlines to accept or reject a claim...
Earth is flat. Man will never fly. Madonna will never turn 50. Do these urban legends and myths sound familiar? In litigation, certain myths still inhibit the effectiveness of risk managers in...
The phrase is not defined in the policy, which leaves it open to interpretation. An adjuster may have a very different interpretation from the insured of what makes a house unfit to live in. Since...
According to several analyst firms, investments in claim-management systems are on the rise as organizations seek to sustain growth, service, and profitability from their claim operations. In 2003,...
Having recently spent some time in a claim factory cranking out routine bodily injury claims in a major urban area, your image-breaking correspondent has an ever-increasing appreciation for the...
Your company is a defendant in a trial that is set to start in two weeks. Settlement talks have fizzled. The plaintiff’s demand is ridiculously high. You have evaluated the case up and down, front...
If an employee is injured during the course of employment, that employee, in most circumstances, will receive scheduled workers’ compensation benefits. However, what happens if the employee is...
The refrain of an old country-music song about the West ends with the phrase, “And they call the wind ‘Moriah!’” There are other names for wind as well: Diablo (the devil wind), zephyr, mistral ( a...
As kids, long before becoming risk managers or claim adjusters, we fantasized about becoming someone else when we grew up—a fireman, astronaut, or even an NFL quarterback. Personally, none of these...
The season for summer vacations is here, which means many people will be renting automobiles for their trips. While the price of gasoline may weigh heavily on the traveler’s mind, the question of...
In a recent breakout session at the National Underwriter’s ACE Conference in New Orleans, participants were asked to raise their hands if they could give a definition for actual cash value. The...
Several news items of late have triggered both my interest and my imagination. One was a news item about a company that makes smart bombs, those nasty little devices of warfare that can locate a...
There is no I in team, we all have heard. Nor is there one in workers’ comp success or in return to work. Taming the workers’ compensation beast and wrestling costs to the ground is a team effort....
Some say that claim manuals are essential tools for managing the adjustment of losses. Others view them as dangerous road maps for bad-faith attorneys who magnify any deviation from written protocols. ...
Some vehicle history information providers have taken it upon themselves to disclose information and to decide how it will be shared without any insurance company involvement....
When the word "vacancy" is spotted on an insurance policy, things get a little more complicated....
An oil crisis is also an opportunity. Perhaps Warren Buffett recognized that last November when he bought the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. ...
Hollywood’s recent writers’ strike left television networks desperate for ideas to fill hours of programming. This was a prime opportunity for claim professionals to advance their profession’s...
Most people know the “joys” of commuting to work every day: high gasoline prices, traffic jams, pollution from auto exhaust, parking hassles, to name just a few. However, there are some very...
Those in the restoration industry are taught in water-damage restoration schools that soaked building materials are brought to this state by a leak or a flood. In other words, to a trained and...
A look at National Underwriter’s Dec. 31, 2007, “Top 10 Insurance Stories” reveals two stories that are positive, one or two that are neutral, and the rest that are negative. The bad news included...
Insurers unaware of their rights when defending against bad-faith claims risk exploitation by plaintiffs who are motivated by the possibility of a large settlement. This trend has become particularly...
Maybe meetings are like the weather—everyone talks about them but nobody ever does anything about them. Poorly run meetings are productivity and morale vampires afflicting a claims operation. One...
When wet hay is put away, a decomposition process occurs that can cause damage ranging from mold to caramelization and in the worst cases, spontaneous combustion. Some FC&S subscribers recently have...
The shoe has not yet dropped, but according to Don Phillips, a columnist for Trains Magazine, in the April 2007 issue, the government is holding the shoe precariously above at least one industry (and...
In late 2008, the trade group formerly known as American Trial Lawyers Association — now the American Association for Justice (AAJ) — released its list of the 10 worst insurance companies. The white...
The other week, I was talking with a claim specialist about the freakish weather of recent months and the sure-to-follow influx of claims. National Underwriter Company’s home office was closed...
Property and casualty claims used to be the kind of career that could last a lifetime. Experience was king and loyalty was highly rewarded. Today, however, the business climate has changed...
Back in 1976 while editor of The Claimsman, the monthly newsletter of the South Florida Claims Association, I pitched the idea of a “George Bureau” in one of my editorials, which were then titled...
Is your claim office green? In former days, calling an adjuster “green” was no compliment. Rather, it suggested a neophyte, an untrained claim professional. When I finished a TPA’s adjuster boot camp...
Even with the company cutbacks in travel expenses in today’s poor economic times, employees still have to take some business trips. Whether it is a company CEO networking, a sales representative...
Readers may recall the October column in which we discussed James F. Simon’s What Kind of Nation. That text was basically a historical review of Thomas Jefferson’s Republican battle with Federalists...
A review of the Model Act and Regulations as originally drafted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) demonstrates that their intent was for violations to be dealt with...
Every day as I review the ISO circulars, I see more terrorism forms being filed due to the reenactment of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 (TRIA). TRIA is a federal...
As a claim-handling professional, you may have more than 100 pending claims. You receive calls and letters every day on various files. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day. In the...
Adjusters are involved in losses of all varieties on a daily basis. During my career as an independent, I investigated a possible murder case for a life insurance company; interviewed plane crash...
Years ago, I began my claim-handling career by attending a five-week adjuster boot camp in Atlanta run by a national TPA. Seasoned instructors drummed certain precepts into trainee adjusters....
Sadly, tension often characterizes relationships between claim adjusters and underwriters....
Risk managers will increasingly confront corporate risks arising from employee use of social media and networking tools. ...
Tiger Woods’ travails offer risk managers an instructive case study in managing brand and reputation risk in the 21st century. ...
In litigation, the discovery process has always been expensive. With computers and digital technology, though, there are added layers of complexity and cost. Discovery no longer involves just reviewing boxes and boxes of papers. ...
Deep down I knew this day would come. I just didn’t know when. This is my final column for Claims Magazine. ...
One challenge confronting risk managers is complying with a relatively new federal law known as the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007, known as “MMSEA.” ...
Insurance claim professionals would do well to remember that anticipating disaster and preparing for response are two recipes that don’t call for slick talk....
“Good things come in small packages,” is a comment we often hear around Christmas time. For those in the burgeoning field of nanotechnology, though, the maxim has year-round relevance....
Although the term "complaint" has a negative connotation, an accurate gripe can actually be a good thing. If we have the willingness to listen, they can aid in our success by bringing harmful problems to light....
MC Hammer, rapper/dancer extraordinaire, burst on the early 1990s music scene with his hit song, “U Can’t Touch This.” ...
A recent study by Wolters Kluwer Financial Services lists the top 10 reasons that property and casualty insurers fail to achieve market conduct compliance. What is striking is that half of the top 10 transgressions involve claim-handling lapses....
Wellness programs embody the idea that fitter employees are healthier and use fewer health insurance benefits. The less employees use these benefits, the greater the cost savings. ...
Here are six tips for locating and hiring people with the ability to become successful claim professionals in your operation....
Brace yourself for a big “gulp” moment. Today’s mail — or perhaps the sheriff — has delivered a subpoena for you to appear for a deposition in five weeks. You’ll be grilled about a claim you handled four years ago. ...
One often overlooked role of a risk manager is that of setting a corporate claim policy. ...
While it’s not as glamorous as sex, drugs, and rock and roll, we’ve had some interesting questions related to the use and manufacture of drugs. ...
It’s still winter, and that leads to questions from adjusters about claims involving frozen pipes....
As a member of LinkedIn who participates in 44 of the insurance industry forums on a regular basis, I commented last month about a question posed by an agent who was contemplating a career change to claims. Here's my advice....
The National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) has mandated the inclusion of electronic stability control (ESC) on all vehicles less than 10,000 lbs. gross vehicle weight sold in the U.S. by the 2012 model year. ...
When cold and snowy winter weather finally blows itself out, and warm weather brings the beginning of more construction projects, claims against contractors for construction defects are bound to arise. ...
Utter the phrase, “pedestrian hit” to most adjusters, and it will conjure up thoughts of hospital bills, assessments of negligence, and injury settlements — to name but a few....
Being as prepared as possible is the best way to improve one’s chances of being on the safe side of a reduction in force or getting a needed job offer if a layoff becomes an unexpected reality....
One of the most critical elements of claim handling is managing the reservation-of-rights (ROR) process....
From an insurance perspective, it is likely that any coastal damage that is exacerbated by the discharge of oil will further complicate the coverage issues that arise.
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A recent fire loss serves as yet another cautionary tale in making a coverage decision before all of the evidence has been gathered. ...
The duty to clear ice and snow varies by state, and there are those states in which a property owner has a responsibility to clear the snow at least enough for reasonably safe passage for anyone who might walk onto their property....
To help detect and deter fraud, there is now a frequency-based technology that determines veracity by analyzing brain activity conveyed through the voice, not through physiological response....
Some insureds may find it surprising that the insurer can get reimbursement from the insured for some of those legal costs expended. ...
Even when the term is defined in policies, sometimes the difference between being covered or not comes down to, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘occurrence’ is.”...
I come, hat in hand, again surveying the dregs left in an empty coffee cup, to see what lies ahead for our property and casualty claim-adjusting industry.
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Almost two decades ago while working as the corporate risk and claim manager for a large international corporation, I was waiting for a meeting with my boss, the corporate CFO. ...
I guess while Congress was busy giving tax cuts to the wealthy, they failed to consider the tax breaks they were awarding for stupidity, as well. ...
Which is required to pay first in a rental car accident: the insurance company that provided the SLI, or a driver's personal auto insurance? ...
“I’ve never been in so much pain in my life.” When the claim adjuster hears these famous words but the trauma that led to the claim was minor, believability becomes the issue. ...
One item missing from the list of topics the Obama Administration considers to be essential for our students — a good list including art and music and science, and so on — was a course about how to deal with the real world....
Whether we like it or not, most of us could not get along without health insurance. Eventually we’ll all need it, even if the bills arrive after we are dead....
If an insured brings bed bugs home from a hotel, is there coverage? ...
After reading and listening to all of the volatile responses in the media, I have reached the conclusion that there will probably won’t be health-care legislation in 2009, 2010, or any other year in the coming decade. ...
With the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens and the Senate battle over Elena Kagan taking a top place in the news, I’m taking a look back at the Supreme Court and the implications for those of us in the claim industry....
It is a subject that plagues the claim adjuster daily: how much is pain worth? ...
In today’s demanding and competitive insurance marketplace, one of the skills that can separate the high-performing insurance company from its competitors is litigation management....
Some of my more conservative readers who have complained about the images I’ve taken a hammer to in the past will be surprised to note that I read columnists from the other side of the ideological fence....
In last month’s column, I cited opinions from other nations about our health-care system. This month, I’m going out on a limb with a saw. ...
As more states join the Child Support Lien Network (CSLN), insurers must be aware of specific insurance claim intercept laws and their impact on claim processes. ...
When our claimant or insured replies to a coverage decision with a "yeah, but…," unlike that other Grand Inquisitor, my mother, we must listen to the explanations and excuses and consider the pros and cons....
There really is no season of disasters, but it does seem that spring and summer, from mid-March to the beginning of fall, is when we receive the most "gifts" from Ma Nature. ...
This column began as a complaint, and that is what it remains. ...
Too much latitude is not always a good thing. We need to beware of the line of malarkey our bosses might sell us. If we are cautious, then there may be a bright future in being a high-value claim adjuster. ...
Departments
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has launched the Protected Critical Infrastructure Information program, which would seek to reduce vulnerability to terrorist attacks by soliciting...
The United States Supreme Court has issued a ruling opening up most U.S. highways to Mexican truckers. The court found that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration did not have the authority...
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has decided not to move forward with its own version of the Market Conduct Surveillance Model Act, but instead to make recommendations to the...
To encourage its employees and member company employees who are eligible to vote to fill out a ballot on Election Day, the American Insurance Association has created a non-partisan voter registration...
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, insurance coverage for terrorism largely disappeared. The following year, Congress passed the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act to help commercial...
Two days of severe weather in the Denver area left insurers with a bill for $146.5 million, making the event Colorado’s fourth most costly insurance catastrophe on record, according to the Rocky...
As companies struggle with workers’ compensation claim issues, technology offers the potential to improve loss costs, as well as reduce administrative expenses and improve productivity, the Katie...
The insurance industry’s response to fast-changing regulatory and corporate governance business demands is characterized by a primary reliance on manual processes and ad-hoc measures, according to...
The Independent Mitigation and Cleaning/Conservation Network is officially open for business. The organization was created to link insurers with independently owned and operated mitigation, cleaning,...
Insurers must take action today to manage climate change in years to come, according to a report published by the Association of British Insurers. Taking steps to mitigate climate change risks can...
American military personnel returning from Iraq have been shocked to find that their insurers are raising their rates. Because many of the men and women who served in the Middle East had allowed...
In what prosecutors are calling the first case of its kind, a former claim manager in California has been charged with planting an electronic bugging device on a computer at an insurance company....
The International Olympic Committee has secured $170 million in cancellation coverage for this summer’s Olympic games in Athens. The policy covers cancellation of the games due to terrorist action or...
The Hong Kong office of London-based Jardine Lloyd Thompson has launched insurance coverage to protect against business interruption caused by infectious disease outbreaks, such as severe acute...
Insurers and other financial institutions are reporting more than twice as many security attacks on information technology systems as they did a year ago, according to a survey by Deloitte & Touche....
Saying that it would have impeded communication between consumers and their insurers, Maryland’s Gov. Bob Ehrlich has vetoed a bill that was drafted to combat identity theft by protecting social...
The action should bring stability and predictability back to the state’s civil justice system, according to the American Insurance Association. “Achieving comprehensive civil justice reform has been...
House Bills 292 and 342 would make Ohio the first state to adopt medical criteria for filing asbestos and silica lawsuits, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. “Both...
In what is sounding more and more like a broken record, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has filed another complaint against State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, accusing the company of bad...
An agreement has been reached to settle the $2 billion in remaining claims between Silverstein Properties, who was leasing the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and seven insurance companies,...
David J. Rioux has joined Claims’ Editorial Advisory Board, effective immediately. Rioux oversees the Corporate Security Department for Erie Insurance and is responsible for administration of Erie’s...
A whistleblower lawsuit filed last year by several former insurance adjusters in a U.S. district court in Louisiana has been made public, and it accuses several major insurers of over-billing the...
A recent decision by Florida insurance regulators to reject Risk Management Solutions’ short-term catastrophe model illustrates the controversial nature of the science of prediction. Catastrophe...
Affirming what several other agencies and authorities have predicted, ReAdvisory released a study last month that predicts increased hurricane activity for the 2007 summer. But in a departure from...
A study analyzing the driving behaviors and habits of several major metropolitan areas concluded that Miami, Fla., has the least courteous drivers in the country, while Portland, Ore., has the most...
Fireman’s Fund said its Weddingsurance Change of Heart coverage will provide help in recovering expenses if the bride or groom experiences cold feet during the planning process. Significant deposits...
If you weren’t in Las Vegas last month for ACE, America’s Claim Event, you missed a perfect opportunity to learn and network. I’ve been associated with the event for eight years and it gets better...
Natural catastrophes and terrorist attacks can place enormous financial demands on the insurance industry, resulting in higher premiums and substantially reduced coverage. Although insurers suffered...
The federal government has earmarked $37.5 million over the next two years for expansion of the nation’s tsunami detection and warning capabilities as part of the Global Earth Observation System, an...
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently held that amounts due with respect to workers’ compensation insurance are entitled to priority under the United States Bankruptcy...
The American Educational Institute has added a self-study claim law course to its offerings. Personal and Advertising Injury Coverage is an elective in AEI’s Liability Program and focuses on Coverage...
Many of the approaches, legal arguments, and tactics developed by the plaintiff bar over many years of litigation in asbestos cases may be applied and adapted to future silica cases, according to a...
Earthquakes and tropical cyclones made 2004 an extraordinary year, according to Munich Re’s annual review of natural catastrophes. Exceptional natural hazards occurred in areas that are seldom...
When he reminded attendees at the 2005 Windstorm Conference that predicting hurricane landfall was still far from being an exact science, Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in...
Most small car designs earned poor ratings in side-impact crash tests recently conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The test represented what happens when a passenger vehicle is...
Guy Carpenter’s report, Tsunami: Indian Ocean Event and Investigation into Potential Global Risks, presents some staggering statistics about the Sumatra earthquake and subsequent tsunamis that struck...
“Based on current and projected climate signals, Atlantic basin and U.S. landfalling tropical cyclone activity are forecast to be about 160 percent of average in 2005,” said Mark Saunders and Adam...
Tamara Polee has been hired as a claim specialist at Property Loss Consulting’s Baltimore office. In addition to handling small to mid-sized claims in the Mid-Atlantic region, Polee will coordinate...
Catherine (Kit) Kirby has been promoted to the position of loss control consultant for Brentwood Service Administrators in the Champaign, Ill., office. Kirby joined BSA as a claim adjuster on Dec....
Beecher Carlson Holdings has hired Janet Warren as senior vice president and claim practice leader. Warren, who will be located in the Atlanta office, has more than 20 years of experience in the...
Emily Crane is the new manager of media relations for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America. In this role, Crane will serve as an information resource for trade and consumer print...
Bill Schroeder has been appointed to fill the position of vice president of business development and also will serve as vice president of national markets for the Independent Mitigation and...
EFI Global, a provider of engineering, fire investigation, environmental, accident reconstruction and laboratory testing, has named Michael Tillman regional manager of the Western Region. Based out...
Jeffrey C. Calabrese has joined Cozen O’Connor’s Chicago law office as an associate in the subrogation and recovery department. Prior to joining the firm, he was an associate at Leahy Eisenberg &...
Mark Newman has been named the new general manager of the Los Angeles division of Wheco Corp., a crane and capital equipment structural repair and restoration company, with headquarters in Pasco,...
The Electrical Safety Foundation International has designated May National Electrical Safety Month. Although some data suggest that electrical safety awareness is on the rise, most deaths and...
Among the recently announced Pulitzer Prize winners was Ted Kooser, poet laureate of the United States and former vice president of Lincoln Benefit Life Insurance. The resident of Garland, Neb., was...
Wanda Reeves, formerly employed as a claim adjuster at the Robert Plan Corp., in Edison, N.J., and her paramour, Clifford T. Baskerville, have been sentenced to state prison for concocting an...
The film making world is becoming riskier, according to the 2005 Risks in Global Film making map published by Aon/Albert G. Ruben, an insurance broker for the entertainment industry. “Ten years ago,...
In an effort to better protect drivers on Californian and Mexican highways, John Garamendi, California’s insurance commissioner, led a delegation to Mexico to participate in trilateral negotiations...
The Florida Legislature is considering a bill that would establish an annual hurricane deductible for insurers and lower the threshold of losses that an insurer must sustain before recovering monies...
A group of investigative experts has allied to form the United States Association of Professional Investigators, to provide education, training, and benefits to industry members. Warren J. Sonne, a...
Groups representing independent auto service technicians and automobile manufacturers have formed a coalition that supports existing voluntary efforts, rather than federal legislation, to provide...
James R Knowles, an international construction and engineering consultant firm, has established a Fidelity, Surety, and Specialty Claim Division, with headquarters in Boston. The new division is...
SAN ANTONIO — Well, here we are in the center of Fiesta, otherwise known as Mardi Gras, minus the aura of New Orleans. It was a fun night last night with lots of rowdy, yet well controlled,...
Toward the end of last year, President Bush signed legislation allowing the National Flood Insurance Program to borrow up to $18.5 billion to settle flood insurance claims resulting from the 2005...
Late last month, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill extending the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, which was set to expire at the end of 2005. A separate bill had previously been approved...
“The BLS identifies burnout as inherent in the stressful nature of claim adjusting processes,” said Lee Fogle, vice president of Insurance Services Office. “High case loads are compounded by...
“The insurance industry seems stuck in a dilemma of whether to, or how to, improve customer-friendly policies,” said Terry Golesworthy, president of group. “The industry has made the least progress...
Three suspects have been arrested following an 11-month investigation by the California Department of Insurance of an auto insurance fraud ring that targeted car rental and insurance companies. From...
Rare documents that establish Philadelphia as the home to this country’s first life insurance company were presented to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by Nationwide Life Insurance Company of...
The average Australian motorist can expect to be involved in a crash every seven years, according to a recent report from the news service, ABC Canberra. The research was conducted by NRMA, which...
When we did our salvage emphasis article in November 2005, we heard via phone and e-mail from a number of adjusters who wanted us to address the issue of proper and ethical disposal of salvage....
Several key issues remain unresolved in the Criminal History Record Check Model Act proposed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, according to the Property Casualty Insurers...
The U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Financial Management, Budget, and International Security of the Governmental Affairs Committee recently held an oversight hearing on insurance brokerage practices. The...
In the past decade, disasters have affected university and college campuses with increasing frequency, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Nearly all instances have brought monetary...
State Farm has developed a homeowners’ education and inspection program for policyholders residing in areas at high risk for wildfire. The program is aimed at increasing policyholder awareness of...
Between Atlantic hurricanes and Pacific typhoons, the 2004 storm season generated record catastrophe losses. In addition to the quartet of hurricanes that reached landfall in the United States, 10...
“More and more employers are seeing the value of helping their workers become and stay fit and trim,” said Helen Darling, the group’s president. “Over the past few years, we have seen a growing...
A key market issue facing employers and workers’ compensation insurers is whether the large declines in claim frequency that began in the 1990s are likely to continue, according to the National...
A Manhattan federal jury has ruled in favor of World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein, declaring that the hijacked planes that destroyed the Twin Towers count as two separate attacks for...
Extended-hours operations, with employees on the job outside of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., have significantly higher rates of absenteeism and turnover, according to the sixth annual Shiftwork Practices survey...
The year just past ranks among the top 10 wettest years on record for the contiguous United States, and was warmer than average, according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric...
Robert V. Huffert, senior vice president and manager of the Ocean Marine Department, American Re, recently was elected chairman of the American Institute of Marine Underwriters. He succeeds David S....
Among the staff recently hired by Brentwood Service Administrators, based in Brentwood, Tenn., are Mathew Demetriades, a loss control representative, and Greg West, a senior claim representative,...
Cozen O'Connor recently expanded its subrogation and recovery department in Illinois with the addition of Kevin P. Caraher. Previously, Caraher was a partner at Asperger Caraher, a firm he co-founded...
Marshall and Swift/Boeckh, a provider of building cost data and estimating technology, has promoted Jonathan Kost to vice president of claims. While with MS/B, Kost has held positions as claim...
Invest, recently announced the addition of three members to its board of directors: Nancy Baily, president and CEO of First Floridian; Loree Toedman, assistant vice president, sales and agency...
Engineering and Fire Investigations, a provider of environmental, engineering, fire investigation, accident reconstruction, and testing, has named Vaughn Plummer director of its Evansville, Ill.,...
Louisiana’s former insurance commissioner, who was jailed following a conviction on seven counts of making false statements to the FBI, has written a book detailing the rise and fall of his insurance...
Rose M. Dismuke, of Richmond, Va., was sentenced to four months in prison after being found guilty of perjury and attempting to defraud an insurance company. Dismuke claimed that, while shopping at a...
Slips, trips, and falls by patrons and others are the most prevalent claims experienced by full-service restaurants, according to Restaurant Insurance Corp., of Greenwood Village, Colo. The analysis...
Despite an increase in fatal work injuries during 2003, that year and the previous one were the lowest ever recorded by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, which has been conducting...
Eight states earned full marks for their workers’ compensation programs, according to a recent study of OSHA data by Work Loss Data Institute. Alabama was the most improved state in overall ranking,...
The National Association of Independent Insurance Adjusters, based in Geneva, Ill., has launched a company to offer E&O and GL liability program. Claim Professionals Liability Insurance Company, a...
Meadowbrook Insurance Group recently opened newly constructed corporate headquarters in Southfield, Mich. The new facilities house approximately 300 employees relocated from nearby offices. Telephone...
4.Rude drivers who ignore the fact that pedestrians, in a legal crosswalk, always have the right-of-way, even if they’re multi-tasking on their cell phones. Why do these menaces have to maim or kill...
As the insurance industry approaches the five-month mark from the appearance of Hurricane Charley, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that a large number of the claims filed as a...
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has drafted a model act that is designed to provide states with the ability to collect fingerprints of insurance employees and submit the...
More states urgently need to pass targeted laws to uncover and disband widespread staged-accident rings, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud recently told the National Conference of Insurance...
In states bordering the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, vast areas of coastal land have been destroyed since the mid-1800s as a result of natural processes and human activities, according to...
Underwriters Laboratories and the Institute for Business & Home Safety have joined forces to promote public awareness about residential and commercial property safety issues. The groups intend to...
The Insurance Information Institute recently completed a white paper on the health risks associated with silicosis and the rising number of silica-related claims being filed. As Congress continues to...
“The findings of this year’s survey indicate that the insurance industry still is increasingly vulnerable to fraud,” said Michael A. Lucarini, a partner in Accentor’s Insurance practice. “Insurance...
Although damage from August’s Hurricane Charley was still being assessed when this issue of Claims went to press, preliminary estimates of insured losses were just over $7 billion, making it the...
The Editorial Advisory Board of Claims has named Christine A. Sullivan, assistant vice president of Allstate Insurance, Professional of the Year. Christine will receive the Professional of the Year...
AutoOne Insurance Co., of Melville, N.Y., has donated two recording and monitoring devices to the NICB for use by detectives in the New York City Police Department’s Fraudulent Accident Investigation...
A casual observer might never have noticed that the Property Loss Research Bureau has just gone through a dramatic change. In January 2004, the PLRB was spun off by the Alliance of American Insurers,...
Joseph Fratta, a reputed member of the Bonanno crime family, pleaded guilty to charges ranging from money laundering and fraud to enterprise corruption and tax evasion. At his sentencing hearing on...
Last month, with boating season in full swing, Safeco established a new specialized claim unit dedicated to handling boaters’ insurance claims. The National Boat Unit, located in Spokane, Wash., is...
Insurers for former airline Pan Am have filed suit in Edinburgh, Scotland, against a Libyan man who was convicted of the Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people aboard a Pan Am jet in 1988,...
The con-artist and security expert who became a household name when his story was made into the movie, Catch Me If You Can, has signed on as the spokesman for the National Association of Insurance...
Although the official end of hurricane season is in sight, September is, historically, the deadliest and most expensive month for tropical storms. Eight of the 10 costliest hurricanes to strike the...
In early August, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published a revised forecast for the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season, indicating a 45 percent probability of above-normal activity....
In the original case, Richard Nesbit, a Government Employees Insurance Co. policyholder injured in a 2003 auto mobile accident, attempted to recover PIP benefits. The insurer rejected the claim...
Allstate Insurance Co., Country Insurance & Financial Services (formerly MSI Insurance Cos.), Encompass Insurance (through underwriting company Continental Insurance Co.), and Progressive Casualty...
In the auto physical damage arena, it takes a lot to arouse the excitement of seasoned claim appraisers and handlers. After Hartford introduced its new Claim Expediter wireless mobile system,...
There are clear opportunities for the federal government to support research into making homes and businesses safer from violent windstorms, and to remove barriers to developing hazard resistant...
John Kerry (D.-Mass.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D.-Calif.) have asked that the Government Accountability Office investigate allegations that Phillip A. Cooney, a chief of staff for the White House...
After four years as head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Jeffrey W. Runge has left NHTSA to assume the post of first chief medical officer at the Department of Homeland...
This month, the National African-American Insurance Association will hold its National Conference and Empowerment Summit at the New York Hilton in New York City. The summit is dedicated to unifying...
The Catastrophe Insurance Working Group of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners recently published a white paper on Catastrophe Risk Management for the U.S. Economy. The paper explores...
Barry Zalma, an insurance coverage lawyer specializing in bad faith, insurance claims, and fraud, has written Construction Defects: Litigation and Claims. It aims to assist claim handlers,...
Following a tsunami scare in along the West Coast in June, state and federal officials are looking into a series of technical errors that delayed the issuing of a tsunami warning in the San Francisco...
Even small increases in the intensity of major storms could increase damage costs by at least two-thirds by the end of the century, according to the Association of British Insurers. The most extreme...
Vincent J. Armentano, vice president of workers’ compensation claims at St. Paul Travelers, has been named Claims’ Professional of the Year. The award, sponsored by New York-based Smith Mazure, a...
Auto injury claimants in California are more likely to seek treatment from chiropractors, while those in Illinois trust emergency room physicians, a recent Insurance Research Council study revealed....
“Drivers are safer today on our nation’s highways than they have ever been, in part because of the safer cars, higher safety-belt use, and stronger safety laws that this department has helped...
Brentwood Services Administrators, a provider of workers’ compensation claim administration and other services, recently added an office in Austin, Texas. Laura Joy and Roger Thormahlen will manage...
GAB Robins, an international claim services firm, has named Caroline Albertson assistant vice president and general manager for its claims services division. She will oversee operations and sales for...
Mike Warwick, a claim adjuster with Summit Holding Southeast, has been given the Liberty Chairman’s Award. The top award is presented annually to a person who makes a unique or inspirational...
The National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters has named its 2005-2006 officers. They are Richard Burr, president; Leslie Knox, 1st vice president; Harvey Lewis, 2nd vice president; Nicole...
The Public Risk Management Association, a national not-for-profit organization that provides education and information for 2,200 government members, has elected five new officers. They are James E....
First Advantage Corp., a risk mitigation firm, has changed the name of its insurance fraud investigative subsidiary, Omega Insurance Services. It now will be called First Advantage Investigative...
Unified Investigations & Sciences, an independent forensic investigation and engineering firm, has hired Michael K. Owney as a professional fire investigator for the greater New York City area. Prior...
Two lawyers and one doctor pleaded guilty in connection with a staged auto insurance fraud ring involving more than 55 victims in Arizona and California. The scheme netted more than $2.5 million in...
Although many drivers believe that the color of a car influences how much it costs to insure it, Progressive Insurance is seeking to debunk that myth, along with several others. The company recently...
Scott Levine, of Boca Raton, Fla., has been convicted of stealing more than 1.5 billion data files in what federal officials believe may be the largest case of intrusion of personal data to date....
Several bills affecting the insurance industry recently were approved by Delaware’s 2005 general assembly. Other legislation, deemed negative to the industry by the Property Casualty Insurers...
A bill on its way to the Louisiana Senate floor has drawn the ire of insurance groups such as the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of...
Senator Ciotto, who sponsored the legislation, emphasized that the bill does not prohibit the use of cell phones while driving, but merely the use of hand-held mobile telephones. The use of cell...
Risk Management Solutions, a provider of catastrophe risk management products, has released its Global Geocoding Platform and upgraded its Global Terrorism Risk and Terrorism Scenario models. The two...
AIG Excess Casualty, a division of American International Group, has launched an online database of claim histories designed to serve as benchmarks for particular liability types, industries, or...
CCH Insurance Services, a firm that helps insurance professionals meet industry requirements, has expanded its services with AuthenticWeb for Claims, a compliance tool specifically for claim...
The Automotive Service Association has launched an enhanced shop locator that allows consumers to find repair facilities within their local communities. The new locator uses mapping technology,...
American Educational Institute has designed a program that allows SCLA designees to continue their educations and earn additional professional awards. Society members who complete a fifth program...
Cambridge, a claims and loss cost management firm based in Connecticut, has formed an alliance with the McLarens Group, a claim management firm in Canada. Through this partnership, the two companies...
Arbitration Forums, a nonprofit provider of dispute resolution services, has created an arbitrator training and certification program. AF arbitrators are required to participate in the program that...
Examination Management Services, a provider of medical information, risk management, and investigation services, has acquired the Merrill Group, a claim investigation firm with headquarters in...
David Morse & Associates, a national claim administration and independent adjusting company based in Los Angeles, has opened an office in Dallas. It will provide property and casualty claim coverage...
After it gets to a certain point, we lose comprehension of the vastness, and the vast difference between, a million and a billion. You can comprehend a million easily enough. Hmm, if I’m one of those...
When Katrina’s wind v. water issues came to the forefront, Claims turned to attorney Jay Brown, a partner at the law firm of Beirne Maynard & Parsons, to clarify some of the judicial decisions and...
In an effort to help insurance companies curb fraud, the National Insurance Crime Bureau has created a database that will let car buyers search for unrecovered stolen cars before buying. But one...
Louisiana’s Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against several major insurance companies and third-party groups, alleging that they worked together to “deny, delay, and defend,” while creating a...
Auto fraud can occur in many different forms, whether it involves vehicle cloning, owner give-up schemes, or inflated claims. But when partners of insurance companies get in on the act, it proves...
A Kentucky resident who worked as a claim supervisor has been charged with three felony counts of insurance fraud after allegedly filing false insurance claims in the names of clients and using the...
A study on alternative medical treatments has determined that in addition to chiropractic care, acupuncture and massage therapy are increasingly being utilized by auto injury insurance claimants....
2007 was a rather staid year for the P&C industry, all things considered. Yes we had floods, windstorms, a few tornados, and those terrible California wildfires, but the other big nemesis, the...
In the wake of the Minneapolis bridge collapse last month, Loretta Worters of the Insurance Information Institute spoke with Claims to give readers an idea of the insurance claim implications...
The allegations are part of a 35-page report issued by J. Robert Hunter on behalf of the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), a non-profit association of 300 organizations that seeks to advance the...
That question is one of many addressed in TowerGroup’s newest report on technology in the property/casualty industry, entitled, “Technology Direction in U.S. P&C Insurance Claim Operations:...
The most important — and often toughest — part of an adjuster’s job is determining coverage based on policy language. Each month, Claims is publishing a coverage question asked by an insurance...
An appeal court’s ruling last month resulted in a major victory for insurance companies, who could have been on the hook for billions of dollars in flood claims that resulted from the levee breaches...
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently conducted damage tests on the bumpers of luxury cars at three and six miles per hour and found that in many collisions, repair costs skyrocketed up...
What is fast becoming a main attraction to the Hurricane Katrina three-ring circus, an investigation into the informational gathering and usage techniques of Richard Scruggs and his law firm took yet...
According to the DCBS, the AIG companies were cited for failing to comply with Oregon laws for processing claims of injured workers and reporting proof of insurance coverage. The companies also were...
According to the Ohio Insurance Institute (OII), a trade association representing insurance companies and agent groups for the property/casualty insurance industry, at least 29,219 claims totaling...
The Professional Insurance Agents of Arkansas (PIAA), which consists of 10 offices and more than 70 claim representatives, has recently changed the name of its “Person of the Year” award to recognize...
Location intelligence provider Pitney Bowes MapInfo and strategic intelligence company Exclusive Analysis have teamed up to provide insurers with a new terrorism risk model and data set called...
AIR Worldwide Corporation has released version 9.0 of its U.S. Hurricane Model, which features an enhanced methodology for estimating business interruption losses. The new model has been validated...
According to SPSS, the platform updates the company’s predictive analytics applications by enabling organizations to easily collect and use all available customer data, build predictive models, and...
Last week, at a conference, a woman walking ahead of me as we left a session tripped and fell. (Why women where those high heels when they’re on their feet all day is another story, but that’s for...
The season ranks as one of the more active in the 64 years since comprehensive record-keeping began. A total of 16 named storms formed in 2008, based on an operational estimate by National Oceanic...
These four areas will test insurers’ abilities to react to a marketplace that is being assaulted by crises. Specifically, TowerGroup said that risk and regulation will be at the forefront as...
This month, the Windstorm Insurance Network will be hosting its 10th Annual Windstorm Insurance Conference, or WIND 2009. Taking place Jan. 25-28, 2009, at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Fla.,...
To examine the underlying psychological principles and implications of juror skepticism toward expert testimony, Claims’ Christina Bramlet enlisted the expertise of Steven M. Gursten...
In discussing McIntosh v. State Farm with Attorney Jay Brown for this month’s cover story, I was struck at how the utter disintegration of the case, which was deemed the torch that would burn down...
Both the House and the Senate are considering legislation that would extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002. The act expires Dec. 31, 2005, creating possible coverage gaps in policies that...
The foundation was established by the Atlanta Chapter of RIMS in 1979 to honor the late Robert S. Spencer, a former president of the society. Since 1980, more than $2 million in scholarships and $1...
Despite the fact that out-of-control jury awards have been blamed for the medical malpractice insurance crisis, a new study by Weiss Ratings finds no support for that widely held belief. Although...
The Medical Record as a Forensic Resource, by Campion Quinn, is being published by Jones and Bartlett Publishers. The text contains information on the basics of malpractice and personal injury...
When asked their preferences, 80 percent of American consumers would want their doctors to use established best practice guidelines for treatment and diagnosis, according to a study released by the...
On Feb. 18, President Bush signed into law the Class Action Fairness Act, the first step in a wide-reaching tort reform agenda. The legislation, passed by sizable majorities in both the House and...
“The increase in the incidence of disability claims for conditions related to obesity is alarming, and illustrates the potential scope, in terms of burden of suffering and the increase in health-care...
In recent months, silica litigation has developed two major trends, according to a report from Guy Carpenter & Co. As a large percentage of silica lawsuits have been filed in Texas and Mississippi,...
Claim professionals interested in keeping current with industry trends and changes are heading to San Antonio, Texas for the upcoming Claims Conference and Insurance Services Expo, held annually by...
Brentwood Services Administrators recently named Elva Manus to the position of senior claim representative in the Charlotte office. She will be handling lost time and complex claims for clients in...
The National General Adjuster Association recently certified three claim professionals as Registered General Adjusters. Those earning the designation are: William Neville, AmeriClaim of San...
The Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development recently elected new board members. Charles McCaig, CIO of Chubb, has been designated chair of the board of directors. Barbara...
Gary Gibboney has joined the Independent Mitigation and Cleaning/Conservation network at its Indianapolis office. Gibboney will be responsible for expanding membership and member-related marketing...
Elections recently took place for the positions on the executive council of the International Network of Safety and Health Practitioner Organizations. The newly elected executive council comprises...
The Certified Restoration Dry cleaning Network, an organization of textile restoration specialists, appointed Jeff Schultz vice president of communication. He previously served as vice president at...
Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass, a New York-based law firm that deals in insurance litigation, has named Kenneth Labbate as partner to the firm. A former partner of Ohrenstein & Brown, he will...
WHECO, a capital equipment repair and restoration company, has hired Mark Newman as general manager of its Los Angeles division. He will manage the day-to-day operations of the repair center. Newman...
Guy Carpenter & Company, part of the Marsh & McLennan Cos., has appointed Michelle Harnick to lead the firm's Structured Risk Specialty Practice. Prior to joining the firm in 2000, Harnick was an...
News sources around the world have picked up the story of the Italian man who chained himself to the gates of a Sicilian law court to protest delays by his insurers. Carmelo Cisabella, 39, has an...
The number of insurance companies that failed in 2004 declined 48 percent to 13, compared to 25 insurer insolvencies in 2003, according to Weiss Ratings. Three life and health insurers and 10...
Complementary and alternative medical treatments are gaining favor among adults in the United States, according to a National Health Interview Survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and...
More than 70 percent of Americans surveyed said that their greatest concern when traveling is suffering a medical emergency, according to a poll sponsored by Chubb. Fears regarding medical...
House representatives in Indiana recently voted 95 to one in approval of HR 1403, a bill strengthening the penalties for insurance fraud committed in the state. The state’s Senate will now open...
The U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, has ruled that a policyholder need not own or lease a property to be eligible for business interruption coverage. In Zurich American Insurance Co. v. ABM...
The court decision is a step toward returning the class action mechanism to its intended function, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, which filed an amicus curiae in...
Many claim professionals bring in structured settlement consultants or brokers to help design claimants’ payment streams. The brokers are paid by the life insurance companies that issue the annuities...
MetLife has acquired Citigroup’s Travelers Life & Annuity and substantially all of Citigroup’s international insurance businesses for $11.5 billion, subject to closing adjustments. The deal will make...
Engineering and Fire Investigations, a provider of engineering, fire investigation, environmental, accident reconstruction, and laboratory testing, has changed its name to EFI Global to reflect its...
I planned on addressing this question this month, but then I came upon Editor Phil Gusman’s editorial in his March 14th issue of Insurance Advocate, our regional sister publication that is...
In early May, negotiations over legislation to establish a national asbestos victim compensation trust fund were suspended. The talks, which were mediated by retired Federal Judge Edward Becker, had...
Citing concerns that the market is still unable to overcome potential losses from future terrorist attacks, insurance industry representatives recently testified before House panels that the national...
The U.S. Department of Transportation has proposed more stirngent standards for side-impact crash protection in all passenger vehicles. The proposed changes, developed by the DOT’s National Highway...
The National General Adjusters Association has launched a web site that lists executive and registered general adjusters nationwide. The association was founded in 1991 to recognize as professionals...
The private insurance industry for workers’ compensation would not have enough capital to withstand potential losses on its own should a catastrophic terrorism event, or multiple events, occur,...
Ragan, who maintains a 3.8 grade point average, recently graduated from the school and intends to pursue a career in claims. Last summer, he worked in his home town, Springfield, Ill., for AIG Claims...
The bad-faith case that has ricocheted through the courts for 20 years may finally be nearing resolution. The Utah State Supreme Court has awarded Inez Campbell more than $9 million in her...
As the risk management marketplace becomes increasingly sophisticated, risk managers are taking a more strategic approach to managing risks, according to a recent survey by Ace USA, a subsidiary of...
“Of course, I am disappointed that the jury did not see things our way with respect to most of the insurers in the WTC coverage,” Silverstein said. “But let me be clear: a defeat in the courtroom is...
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act can serve as a catalyst for improvements to financial management in areas such as risk and capital management that can further enhance operational discipline, corporate...
“A reduction in auto accidents, combined with improved insurer financial performance, are contributing to a significant moderation in the cost of auto insurance in 2004,” said Robert Hartwig, the...
As boating season moves into full swing, the National Insurance Crime Bureau reminds boaters that more than one thousand water craft are stolen each month. With price tags ranging from $10,000 to...
A jury in a state court in Beaumont, Texas, ruled that the manufacturer of the once-popular diet aid, Fen-Phen, should pay more than $1 billion to the family of Cynthia Cappel-Coffey, who died from...
In addition to providing for all the citizenry’s grocery needs, British supermarkets now are offering a full range of services, from wedding ceremonies to insurance. An Asda store in York, England,...
Joey Buttafuoco, who gained infamy when his 17-year-old lover, Amy Fisher, shot his wife, recently pleaded guilty to auto insurance fraud and was sentenced to a year in jail, five years of probation,...
Despite the bad press that cell phone use by motorists has received, it is not the most distracting, or dangerous, behavior displayed by the nation’s drivers, according to the AAA Foundation for...
“Telematics and event data recorders (EDR) should be on every insurer’s radar,” said research and consulting firm Celent in its 30-page report titled “Vehicle Data and Telematics: What Does the...
Douglas Jackson, current president of Southwest Claims Service and the Society of Registered Professional Adjusters (RPA), was crowned the 2008 Claim Professional of the Year at a special award...
According to a reform strategy proposed in an article in the Columbia Business Law Review, it may behoove businesses facing personal injury lawsuits to promptly pay injured parties for out-of-pocket...
Nearly three years after ravaging the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina is still teaching us lessons about disaster protocols. Claims’ Eric Gilkey recently spoke with Trish Conway, manager at Ernst &...
Before asbestos was classified as a pathogen and a menace to the lungs of those chronically exposed to the substance, many builders and manufacturers embraced the “wonder” material for years. Because...
Martin Bullen, a worker for Romans International, a luxury car supplier based in Surrey, U.K., was driving a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano to a repair shop when something went horribly wrong. While stopped...
Hail the size of softballs pummeled the greater Fort Worth, Texas area in April and has caused insured losses now in excess of $200 million. The Insurance Council of Texas (ICT) estimates that...
The New York Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision last month in Bi-Economy Market, Inc. v. Harleysville Insurance Company of New York, et al., which ruled that policyholders can seek...
Georgia’s Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John W. Oxendine said he estimated that violent weather across Georgia last month caused more than $50 million in insured losses, with more than 6,000...
Key Risk, a provider of workers’ compensation insurance products and services for employers throughout the eastern U.S., introduced MasterKey Connects. The platform allows clients to send claim...
The camera features a dual-mode focus control (motorized or manual) so that it can be operated with one hand. Another feature is a close focus distance of four inches, which makes it ideal to image...
Fiserv, Inc., a provider of technology solutions for the financial and insurance industries, has aligned applications from its suite of P&C solutions under the common release number of 6.0. The...
Now available from ClaimHub is Mobile ClaimHub, a locally installed version of the company’s claim management application, giving users in the field the ability to gain access to all of the existing...
At this year’s Claims-sponsored 12th Annual ACE conference, I overheard some discussions about dumbbells while making my way around some of the breakout sessions. But attendees weren’t referring to...
The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) released its annual “Hot Spots” report on auto theft last month, and western states continued their long-standing tradition of hosting the hot beds of auto...
Several insurers have finalized settlements with claimants over disputed homeowner losses stemming from Hurricane Katrina, including Mississippi Senator Trent Lott, according to the Scruggs Katrina...
The quarter’s costliest event occurred in early March, when tornadoes raked areas of Alabama and Georgia. PCS said that while the damage from this harsh weather outbreak cost insurers more than $450...
Driven by an annual fraud loss of $30 billion, the nation’s property and casualty insurance companies are taking aggressive action based on a two-year, industry-wide review of their fraud fighting...
Using infrared thermography is an effective way for claim adjusters to non-destructively evaluate buildings, especially in water-loss cases. To find out how much the technology has caught on, when it...
Predicting hurricanes and tropical storms isn’t an exact science, as illustrated by the 2006 storm season. Or more precisely, predicting hurricane landfall isn’t something done with certainty, and is...
Travelers’ new Claim University might not have the traditional college staples of streets dotted with drinking establishments, co-ed dormitories, and NCAA sports teams, but it more than makes up for...
Ask insurance special investigation units and claim adjusters what they consider to be the most entertaining type of fraud to investigate, and workers’ compensation fraud will likely top the list....
Palisades has been ranked the number one auto insurer in New Jersey for the third year in a row, after receiving no valid complaints, according to the New Jersey Department of Banking Insurance’s...
According to the Insurance Institute of Michigan, the state’s no-fault auto insurance system provides unlimited medical benefits for motorists injured in auto accidents and is the only state in the...
Indiana residents experienced more property damage than any other state last year, due largely to the fact that no severe tropical storms or hurricanes affected coastal regions, the Insurance...
Health information technology provider, Ingenix, recently launched a new workers’ compensation e-billing software program. The software is designed to enable workers’ compensation industry...
Online dispute resolution company Cybersettle has recently introduced Cybersettle 6.0. The patented online double-blind settlement system seeks to allow users to resolve a greater number of disputes,...
Building cost data and estimating technology provider to the property insurance industry, MSB, has recently unveiled a new software upgrade to their web-based property estimating application,...
Sapiens International recently introduced Sapiens Insight for Reinsurance version 3.5. The web-enabled program aims to support carriers and reinsurers in managing all their reinsurance needs for...
Travelers has recently announced that OHSA Recordkeeping will now be a part of their Risk Management Information System, e-CARMA. The OSHA Recordkeeping module will enable employers to track,...
I was talking with an adjuster friend the other day who was lamenting that “his life was in the toilet.” Alarmingly, he had lost his appetite, was losing weight, and not sleeping well. He’d had a...
In addition to the rising number of fatalities among military personnel stationed in Iraq, the United States is facing heavy losses among employees of independent contractors doing business in the...
The U.S. Treasury Department has extended the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002’s “make available” requirement through 2005. The act, which was prompted by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,...
One week after the Senate passed the Flood Insurance Reform Act, S 2238, the House followed suit, extending the National Flood Insurance Program for five years. The NFIP was established to provide...
The newly formed Independent Mitigation and Cleaning/Conservation Network recently held its inaugural membership meeting in Chicago. Approximately 230 independent restoration and loss mitigation...
The American National Standards Institute and the National Fire Protection Association have recommended to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States that the NFPA 1600...
Since January 2003, lawmakers or insurance regulators in 31 states have questioned insurers’ use of loss history databases. During the same period, at least 14 states and the District of Columbia...
A class action lawsuit has been filed in United States District Court in Baltimore against seven insurance companies alleging that they mishandled the claims of thousands of policyholders who...
Of those responding to the survey, 78 percent listed cutting claim-handling costs as their top priority, ISO said. Other areas identified as needing attention are improving claim-handling efficiency,...
During the second quarter of this year, six catastrophes affecting 23 states are expected to cost United States property and casualty insurers $1.65 billion for insured property loss claims,...
Significant increases in material and labor expenses have pushed reconstruction costs in the state of California to an all-time high, according to recent research from Castle Data Services, a...
In addition to providing airport patrons with a convenient source of travel insurance, automated insurance vendors are helping to revolutionize insurance buying in rural areas of India. ICICI Lombard...
State Compensation Insurance Fund will collect $135,000 in restitution from a San Diego County-based construction firm as part of the sentence in a workers’ compensation insurance fraud case. Ray...
Carroll Fisher, the insurance commissioner for Oklahoma who is facing criminal charges and an impeachment investigation, has filed to run for the United States Senate. “It’s an opportunity of a...
Police in Wakayama, Japan, suspect that Kenichi Fujitaki brainwashed his adopted son into killing himself so that he could claim an insurance payout of 25 million yen on a car (approximately...
Those Americans concerned about the security of their homes, families, and jobs might want to consider moving to Utah’s Provo-Orem area, which recently was named the most secure place to live in the...
Despite the recent failure of a bill to protect the rights of homeowners who have suffered losses due to natural disasters, California Senator Martha Escutia has reintroduced components of the...
A Connecticut judge has granted class-action status to a lawsuit accusing Travelers Property Casualty of violating the state’s unfair trade practices act when dealing with claimants who agree to...
The Texas Supreme Court has reversed a previous appellate ruling in Northern County Mutual Insurance Company v. Timoteo Davalos, which addressed duty to defend when venue disputes arise between...
A police chase at night ends safely because a helicopter with a forward-looking infrared imaging system tracks the fleeing vehicle. Military forces use night-vision gear to see in the dark....
Each year, U.S. Property-Casualty insurers pay over $200 billion in losses and spend nearly $40 billion managing claims. Broadly accepted industry estimates suggest that current payments and...
Access to vehicle collision data from Event Data Recorders is under consideration in a number of states this year, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is seeking to promulgate...
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has prepared an Interim National Preparedness Goal intended to guide federal, state, and local departments and agencies, as well as the private sector, in...
In a recent Senate Banking Committee hearing, a number of Republican senators questioned the necessity of extending the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2001. Committee Chairman Richard Shelby...
The Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, housed at Cranfield University in Shrivenham, England, has scheduled its 16th International Disaster Management Course for July 18 through Aug. 5. The aim...
The National Institute of Standards and Technology recently presented findings from its building and fire safety investigation of the World Trade Center disaster of Sept. 11, 2001. The findings...
One of your long-time policyholders gets into a multi-car accident while driving home from work one night on a rainy, slick road. After taking a few slow, deep breaths, she makes sure she’s unhurt,...
Today’s demands on claims operations for instantaneous information and service presents a great challenge to insurance organizations—challenges that cannot be met by simply adding staff or quick...
In the past, the workers’ comp claims process has been plagued by inefficiency. Its labor-intensive and paper-based processes have often resulted in lags in communication and a lack of timely...
Noting that modern, highly technological vehicles may pose risks to rescue workers trying to extricate crash victims, State Farm is conducting a national education effort to inform fire departments...
In the second of a series of reports focusing on insider threats to information systems and data, the United States Secret Service and Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute’s Computer...
Claims is proud to announce that Toby Petzel has been named the 2005 recipient of the magazine’s academic scholarship. He was selected from a field of 500 students based on his outstanding academic...
After more than five years of litigation, federal prosecutors reduced their demands in their racketeering case against Philip Morris and its parent company, Altria Group, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Brown...
The largest insurance firms in the nation recently were ranked on how they treated online customers in the first quarter of this year. Insurers received improved marks in their responsiveness to...
At this year's Diamond Anniversary meeting of the Inland Marine Underwriters Association, the group elected new members to its board of directors. New directors include Richard Niehaus of Liberty...
The Automotive Service Association recently named its 2005-06 board of directors. Denny Kahler, of Kahler's Werkstatt in Dublin, Calif., was elected chairman, succeeding Geralynn Kottschade, of...
The factory is down for three weeks, due to a fire that started in an adjoining business operated by ABC Upholstery. An ABC employee carelessly left a space heater on overnight, triggering the fire...
A group of 10 syndicates at Lloyd’s of London and eight other insurers has filed suit against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, disputing the transportation agency’s claim that it is...
One-fifth of consumers who have filed property or casualty claims during the past three years are not satisfied with the way that their insurance companies handled their claims, a recent Accenture...
Government Employees Insurance Co. was among the winners at this year’s Webby Awards, created to recognize leading web sites. The award for Best Insurance web site of 2005 went to www.geico.com,...
Beecher Carlson has acquired JBL&K Risk Services, an independently owned agency in Portland, Ore. The purchase represents the brokerage's entry into the employee benefit market. The combined company...
distance learning modules. These include Employee Dishonesty, Coverage C - Personal Property, Coverage D - Loss of Use, and Policy Definitions. Ten modules now are available on www.clamstar.net, with...
To help combat the rising costs of prescription drugs in workers’ compensation, Professional Reviews, a physician peer review company based in Atlanta, has launched Physician Pharmaceutical Reviews....
The insurance industry was an early adopter of information technology, and computer systems are still the backbone of core insurance processes. However, in many organizations, technology is no longer...
It all came to a head about a dozen years ago as I walked through the Orlando airport schlepping an oversized suit bag crammed with the essentials for three days of life on the road. I noticed a...
Three industry associations have concluded that a recent denial by a Mississippi court of a motion for dismissal concerning flood damage in Mississippi could end up being a silver lining to a...
In early April, Senators John Sununu (R-N.H.) and Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) introduced a bill that would establish a federal program of insurance regulation that would operate in conjunction with the...
Alldredge said the 2005 figures for automobile insurance-related issues continued a trend that saw 72 of 281 property/casualty laws enacted in 2004 and 40 percent of 418 laws enacted in 2003 pertain...
Last month, the Consumer Federation of America accused Geico of adopting unfair rating practices by basing auto insurance eligibility and premiums on educational background and occupations of...
The Federal Emergency Management Agency recently released flood recovery guidance documents for Jefferson, Orleans and St. Bernard parishes as well as portions of Plaquemines and St. Charles parishes...
Claims is proud to announce that Ashley Street has been named the 2006 recipient of the magazine’s academic scholarship. She was selected from a field of students based on her outstanding academic...
The National Underwriter Company along with Claims Magazine is committed to doing our part to aid in the recovery process of New Orleans. It was with careful consideration that we decided to hold the...
Scott Bobrow was one of six claimants involved in a series of fraudulent accident claims, according to the California Department of Insurance. His greed, along with his alleged gambling and drug...
Tropical storm and hurricane names are picked from a list selected by the World Meteorological Organization, an agency that is a part of the United Nations and studies meteorology (weather and...
Essentially, any repetitive offline activity that can be tied to a rules engine can benefit from outsourcing. Two areas come to mind. The first is claim quality assurance and validation. Once a claim...
Golfers hitting the links are a sure sign that spring is just around the corner. Appropriately enough, property casualty insurance company St. Paul Travelers recently completed a study called “Safety...
After being involved in an accident and calling the police, a person’s next thought is to immediately notify his insurance company. But is it in the victim’s best interest to get information only...
A member company of Disaster Kleenup International, a network of independent property damage restoration contractors, recently assisted on several episodes entitled “After the Storm” for ABC’s...
It all started just a little over a month ago. Pestilence, plague (so to speak), death, and destruction. What a bummer! So here we are, at the beginning of another desperate season of...
The recent arrests of several windshield repair technicians in Arizona for insurance fraud has led one glass industry association to issue an alert, asking its members to be vigilant for instances of...
Earlier this year, Claims put a call out to its readers and subscribers, asking for nominations for our Claim Professional of the Year. The award, sponsored by the law firm of Smith & Brink, P.C., is...
That’s been the Congressional modus operandi in regards to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, which is a temporary, government-sponsored program that limits the amount of risk that insurance companies...
The most important — and often toughest — part of an adjuster’s job is determining coverage based on policy language. Beginning this month, Claims will be publishing a coverage question in each issue...
For insurance claimants, “temporary housing” isn’t a phrase that immediately calls forth visions of pampering. More often than not, it’s an afterthought as they struggle to recover and make sense of...
The Travelers Companies have settled and fully resolved all current and future asbestos-related coverage claims against them relating to ACandS, Inc., once one of the nation’s largest installers of...
As reported by the Insurance Services Office’s Property Claim Services (PCS) unit, U.S. property/casualty insurers are expected to pay homeowners and businesses an estimated $2.18 billion for...
The bill, AB 1401, which was brought by Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, substantially increases the mandatory assessment amounts for insurers who write policies in the state, from $1,300 to $5,100....
Del. Dereck E. Davis (D) sponsored House Bill 1409, which limits access to police accident reports and makes it more difficult for criminals to recruit real crash victims into insurance schemes that...
The new law will make it illegal for insurers to alter an estimate by a repair shop when the damages are being disputed. The law states that only when an insurer carries out a physical inspection of...
MedRisk, in association with a bank, provides Visa-branded debit cards to workers’ compensation payers. Claim payers electronically send payment files to MedRisk, which then coordinates with the bank...
Science-based health risk prediction company, DxCG, has teamed with Urix to develop a new integrated disability management tool to assist insurance carriers and employers in managing medical costs...
Integrating the storm-surge model into Proxix’s automated solution called CATUM, underwriters input an address or latitude and longitude, and receive a detailed risk score for a specific property or...
Michael Moore’s Sicko is getting impressive reviews across the board. If you’re not familiar with it (or been living under a rock for the last month or so), the movie takes on the health-care...
A recent insurance consulting firm study indicates that many property and casualty insurers are missing an opportunity to streamline and improve operations — especially in claims — by not...
When the 2007 hurricane season came to a close at the end of November, storm forecasters at the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University must have felt some confliction over the...
In a somewhat surprising announcement at the end of November, Mississippi Senator Trent Lott said he planned to vacate his position as Senate Republican whip, the second-highest position in the...
The most important — and often toughest — part of an adjuster’s job is determining coverage. Each month, Claims publishes a coverage question asked by an insurance professional, along with the answer...
A new year is here, and with it comes fresh speculation on what workers’ compensation claim professionals can expect over the next 12 months. In order to separate wheat from chaff, Claims’ Eric...
Fulbright and Jaworski, an international law firm with 16 world-wide locations, has recently released the results of their 2006 U.S. litigation trends survey, marking the fourth year in a row the...
A former Oklahoma claim manager recently pleaded guilty to five felony counts of grand larceny by fraud. According to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, Rhonda Bonnewell allegedly presented...
A Rochester, New York man falsely reported his car stolen before reporting to federal prison to serve a sentence for a previous firearms conviction. Khaleef Ahmad Reed intended to collect a $9,300...
The American Insurance Association recently reported that the Florida House and Senate have approved legislation to restructure the state’s no-fault auto law, which comes in addition to the approval...
Mitchell International, an information and workflow tools provider for the auto insurance and collision industries, has released the latest additions to their shop management system, ABS Enterprise...
This software program aims to increase the success of predicting future stock market trends, demand for goods and services, and research. The software is based on the idea of history repeating itself...
DFA Capital Management Inc. has recently launched ADVISE 4.0 (Advanced Decision and Value Simulation Engine). The latest version of this modeling software includes the ability to accurately reflect...
Well, first of all, with each passing year, you think about where you thought you’d be at this period in your life. Then you face the reality of where you actually are. Maybe you thought you’d be...
Crawford & Company has purchased e-Triage, an international technology company whose products Crawford has been using in its workers’ compensation claims-handling program....
Last year was rather quiet when it came to claim handling. Of course, many of you are still contending with the devastation of the 2004-05 hurricane seasons, in as much as a lot of that claimant...
What had most insurers nervous, however, was whether Gustav would cause the kind of residential and commercial damage sustained when Hurricane Katrina hit almost three years ago to the day. The...
The collapse of one of the world’s insurance titans, the American International Group (AIG), has many people scrambling for answers about how this will affect the economy, the insurance market, and...
Several months ago, State Farm stopped considering a vehicle repair procedure on its estimates. To find out more about the repair method and potential claim implications, Claims spoke with State...
Independent Automotive Damage Appraisers, known throughout the appraisal realm simply as IADA, is an association committed to implementing the latest technologies to continue to reduce the cost of...
Findings indicate that licensing at later ages would substantially reduce crashes involving teen drivers. The same conclusion has been reached in other countries. For instance, teens in Great Britain...
Drivers adorning their cars with jewel-encrusted dice, fluffy steering wheel covers, or other car accessories may want to reconsider their automotive décor. Swinton, a leading U.K.-based insurer, has...
Last month, a reader notified me in a clear and succinct way what he thought about one of our headlines: “You’re an idiot,” he wrote. I felt like asking him what he really thought, but the man didn’t...
No one ever rightly assumes that car thieves are the brightest bulbs in the box, but one starts to wonder about the collective intelligence when the 20-year-old Oldsmobile Cutlass — out of production...
Carriers are expected to pay homeowners and businesses an estimated $971 million for third-quarter property losses resulting from a total of seven catastrophes in 20 states — the third lowest record...
It’s no secret that fraud in the property/casualty realm is a rampant problem. Whether it’s hard fraud involving staged auto accidents or property arson or soft fraud that is opportunistically...
We last spoke with Dr. Steve Smith midway through the 2006 hurricane season three months ago, where he reassessed weather predictions and stated that the season would turn out to be an average one....
Keeping track of mileage, transportation, and accommodation business costs can be a full-time job for field adjusters, and if anything slips through the cracks, it’s money out of their pockets come...
No, this bus isn’t an “after” photo from an episode of MTV’s Pimp My Ride. Rather, it’s the newest tool from Farmers Insurance Group to help policyholders settle their claims more quickly after a...
The company’s recently released statistics show that its policyholders were involved in 192,877 deer-related collisions from July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006, compared to the 182,458 collisions...
The law defines a high-net-worth insured as a policyholder with a net worth exceeding $25 million on Dec. 31 of the year before the year in which the insurer became insolvent. The Massachusetts...
The law firm Gravely & Pearson filed the suits against Allstate Texas Lloyds, accusing the company of underpaying 400 policyholders in San Antonio. The legal action stems from the recent convictions...
Two officials are pushing for legislative action that would protect New York from a major catastrophe, according to a release by ProtectingNewYork.org, part of the national coalition...
What’s wrong with tradition? Nothing, unless following traditional practices and procedures are ultimately costing your insurance companies big money. And that just might be the case if you’re not...
Democratic House Judiciary Committee members have asked that the Government Accountability Office assess possible problems with a proposed asbestos injury trust fund. The fund serves as the basis of...
The National Fire Protection Association delayed consideration of new code proposals that would have revised 90A, Standard for the Installation of Air Conditioning and Ventilating Systems. The...
Despite the failure of the United States Senate to pass an amendment that would have established mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions, a resolution expressing concerns about issues related to...
Last year’s unusually active hurricane season prompted record numbers of people to log on to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration web site. For all of 2004, NOAA’s home page received...
The U.S. Treasury Department has released a report on the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002. Under the terms of the act, the department, as administrator of the program was required to perform an...
The 2005 fire season is predicted to be above normal due to a variety of factors, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, in Boise, Idaho. Although above-average spring rainfall delayed...
Within one minute on July 7, the first full day of the 31st G8 summit in Scotland, a series of three bomb explosions struck London’s public transportation system during the morning rush hour. An hour...
The record-breaking 2004 hurricane season led to a much greater focus on aggregate risk, which will prompt changes in catastrophe risk assessment, Randall Brubaker, senior vice president of Aon...
The United States property and casualty industry is expected to pay homeowners and businesses an estimated $920 million for insured property losses in the second quarter of 2005, according to...
A lack of attention to homeowners insurance can be financially devastating, yet a recent survey commissioned by Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. has revealed a troubling lack of coverage knowledge among...
The Workers’ Compensation Research Institute has released the fifth edition of CompScope Benchmarks, its annual comparison of state workers’ compensation systems. The study provides comparisons on...
The National Alliance Research Academy has published the third version of Three Dimensions of Executive Liability Insurance: D&O, EPL, & Fiduciary Exposures, Coverages, & Market Information by...
Alternative Service Concepts, a third-party claim management company, has promoted Pam Fiser and Mark Watkins to field claim manager. Fiser previously served as a claim manager in ASC’s Nashville...
Cramer Johnson Wiggins & Associates, a third party administration and independent adjusting firm based in Orlando, Fla., has named John Cote as executive vice president. He began his career as an...
Dane Havard, of Northern Adjusters in Anchorage, Alaska, was inaugurated as the 67th president of the National Association of Independent Insurance Adjusters at the association’s 68th Annual...
The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research presented 17 scholarships at the 64th Annual Convention of the National Association of Insurance Women. Each scholarship grants full tuition...
The Virginia Chapter of the International Association of Special Investigation Units awarded its Robert J. Covington Distinguished Service Award to E. Frank Dunton, director of the special...
Robison is vice president and treasurer of the Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company in Indiana. Previously, he worked at Ernst & Young, serving insurance clients and also worked within the firm’s...
The award recognizes an individual, group, or organization that has "helped light the way for others" in the insurance industry. Hurzeler’s book, Designated for Success, gives insight into his 30...
The Citizens and Hanover Insurance Companies promoted James Hyatt to president of its personal lines division. In this role, he will be responsible for all aspects of the companies’ personal lines...
Beecher Carlson Holdings has hired Kim Wyles as a vice president for the Los Angeles office, where she will handle risk management accounts. Wyles has more than 20 years of experience in the...
The Insurance Hall of Fame inducted three new members: Walter Kielholz, executive vice chairman of the board of directors, Swiss Re, Switzerland; D. Ignacio Hernando de Larramendi (1921-2001), former...
As the 2005 hurricane season advances, repair costs for residents of the southeastern Unites States remain 20 to 40 percent higher than in other parts of the country, according to Risk Management...
A Fullerton, Calif., insurance claim adjuster and two accomplices have been arrested by California Department of Insurance Fraud investigators for their alleged participation in an auto insurance...
Property owners could be liable if their summer parties result in guests’ being injured or having alcohol-related accidents while driving home, Allstate insurance warned. If an accident occurs on a...
The motorcycle most likely to be targeted by thieves is Suzuki’s GSX-R Series, according to a recent study of claim data on more than two million motorcycles insured over the past three years by the...
A claim filed by the state of California in 1993 against seven insurance companies recently was decided in favor of the state. The case, described by a federal court as the most complicated...
In an attempt to limit future losses from hurricanes, Allstate Insurance will not renew 95,000 residential homeowner policies in Florida due, in large part, to the $2 billion in claims it paid after...
The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, a national trade association with 1,000 member companies, was among those who testified against a New Jersey state legislative proposal that...
Subrogation Partners, an independent subrogation recovery firm, has secured a $100 million credit facility to acquire and finance insurance subrogation claim portfolios. The credit facility was...
The Society of Insurance Trainers & Educators, a professional membership organization for the insurance industry, has created the Insurance Training Professional designation to recognize excellence...
International Catastrophe Insurance Managers recently formed Boulder Claims to administer all claims emanating from business underwritten by ICAT on behalf of several member insurance companies of XL...
Two Property Damage Appraisers branches recently have changed ownership. Gary Reed assumed ownership of the PDA office in Lancaster/York, Pa. Reed has more than 20 years of appraisal experience,...
ClaimSchool, a provider of educational materials and services for insurance professionals, is offering a computer-based training program for fraud. The program helps companies comply with California...
Now that I’ve got your attention, there’s nothing really bad or ugly about the Loss Executives Association. Having been around for three-quarters of a century, LEA manages to continually take an...
Lott, who represents Mississippi and is a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, has introduced a bill called the Passenger Vehicle Loss Disclosure Act (S. 3707). If...
As written, the model law contains several functions. It makes it a felony to procure an individual for the purpose of committing insurance fraud and mandates second-degree felony charges and a...
The Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America released a report entitled, “Pattern of Greed: How Insurance Companies Put Profits Over Policyholders,” that...
Automakers will be required to inform new-car buyers if an event data recorder has been installed in their vehicles under a new rule issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway...
The report, called the “2006 National Auto Insurance Study,” said that for customers who file a physical damage claim with their auto insurer, time is one of the most important qualities. The study...
A report issued by the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recommends stricter adherence to existing building standards and model building codes, good building...
The National Insurance Crime Bureau is a not-for-profit organization that partners with insurers and law enforcement agencies to aid in the identification, detection, and prosecution of insurance...
Churchgoers making a claim with GuideOne Insurance might have a few extra blessings to count. As part of their FaithGuard auto or homeowners’ policies, they can make a claim without paying a...
Their study compared 12 insurance industry providers: State Farm, Allstate, Progressive, Geico, American Family, Liberty, 21st Century, and Country Financial, AIG and Nationwide, and, as a control...
Jose Manuel Soler and Ariel L. Fernandez, both of Coast to Coast Public Adjusters, have been accused of submitting approximately 75 forged agreements, which resulted in an overpayment by Citizens...
According to the Louisiana Department of Insurance, 366 homeowners’ insurance companies — or 99.8 percent of all homeowners’ insurance business written in the state — have complied with Insurance...
The Court’s four-to-three decision requires lower courts to hear asbestos cases individually, prohibiting the “bundling” of cases, according to the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies...
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss an appeal by Erie in regards to Hollock v. Erie Insurance Exchange maintains the Superior Court’s decision that an insurance company’s duty of...
Designed to streamline the subrogation process, the E-Subro Hub does not require new software, according to the company, and can be fit to individual technological capacities. Users will be able to...
CDS Business Mapping, a leader in online property risk mapping, has added an aggregate exposure module to its RiskMeter Online service. It will allow users to view, identify, and manage their...
Referred to as MonitorBot, the tool observes job-site conditions remotely from any computer with an Internet connection. It was designed to aid service providers who deliver post-flood/disaster water...
You may be reading this in early October, but I’m writing it on the evening of September 11, the fifth anniversary of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. It’s déjà vu because I’m sitting in a...
Last month, the National Hurricane Center reported that Hurricane Humberto, which made landfall near the Louisiana and Texas border on Sept. 13, 2007, formed just off the coast of Texas and...
It’s inevitable that catastrophe adjusters will experience psychological and emotional stress from their jobs. What’s uncertain is whether or not they’ll do something about it. Managing Editor Eric...
Claims Magazine and The National Underwriter Company are sponsoring this fraud symposium on October 25-26, 2007, at the Torrance Marriott in Torrance, Calif., for a reason: Insurance fraud is rampant...
The CPCU Society’s Annual Meeting and Seminars was held in Hawaii last month. The meeting boasted more than 7,000 attendees — including CPCUs, their guests, exhibitors, and other attendees — making...
We all know that the general population interacts with two people when dealing with insurance: the agent and the adjuster. But it’s the adjuster who must handle the pressures and challenges when it...
A Brooklyn, N.Y. couple was awarded $1 million dollars after a Manhattan Supreme Court jury ruled in favor of their claim made to Allstate Insurance for damages to their home caused by vibrations...
The study, now in its fourth year, evaluates customer satisfaction with auto insurance — including among other things a company’s response to auto insurance claims. Results demonstrated that what is...
According to the California Department of Insurance (CDI), Norman Hugh Baker posed as a licensed public adjuster and conned eight homeowners out of almost $100,000. The scheme involved Baker...
According to the Texas Department of Insurance, the goal is to reduce the number of uninsured motorists in Texas, which is estimated to be between 15-20 percent of all vehicles on the road. The...
The New Jersey Office of the Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal Justice Director Gregory A. Paw have announced the indictment of a Monmouth County woman who falsified insurance applications...
The American Insurance Association (AIA) recently gave testimony before the North Carolina Building Code Council to request stricter construction standards for coastal areas exposed to...
According to CCC, the program is designed to reduce the number of missed items on estimates and help confirm that repair items and operations have been included and insurer guidelines have been met....
The HygroTrac system monitors and documents moisture levels on all sizes of jobs while ensuring accurate data. The HygroTrac’s sensors offer measurements and log relative humidity, air temperature,...
The new T-series features a simultaneous 1.3 mega-pixel visual camera, high thermal sensitivity, and an eight-hour battery life. A new line is also set to be introduced that will feature built-in...
It very well could be the money, according to this hit song from the 1972 movie, Cabaret. And that’s what makes our October issue one of the best-read annually. Our adjuster salary survey,...
In response to the controversy generated by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s investigations into alleged bid rigging and market manipulation by insurance brokers, the National Association of...
President George Bush has launched an effort to enact significant legal reform during his second term. Although acknowledging that some of the cost increases in the U.S. health-care system are...
In early January, President Bush spoke in Clinton Township, Mich., about the need to curb asbestos lawsuits. Bush quoted the U.S. Supreme Court as saying that asbestos is a national problem. “That...
The American Institute for CPCU and the Insurance Institute of America have signed a partnership agreement with the Society of Registered Professional Adjusters to administer the examinations that...
Every day, the world confronts the tragic consequences of human violence and lack of tolerance, yet, natural and related hazards affect as many or more people as do conflicts, according to Jan...
Don Hurzeler, president of the CPCU Society, recently published Designated for Success, intended to “inspire those in the insurance industry to strive for excellence.” The book outlines the...
Air Quality Sciences has released its new study on mold in homes, Air and Dust-borne Mycoflora in Houses Free of Water Damage and Fungal Growth. The report was conducted by AQS in 2002 for the United...
Leaders of the property and casualty insurance industry expect that the investigations into certain industry practices by state attorneys general and insurance departments will continue to expand in...
In addition to the undeveloped nature of many of the stricken areas, in the majority of these countries, earthquake risk, including tsunamis, is excluded in property insurance policies, and...
Lord Levene of Portsoken, who recently was named to a second term as the insurer’s chairman, spoke to senior industry officials in Boston on the need for better risk management and increased efforts...
Since 1996, Carl Van has been exhorting claim adjusters to strive for excellence. In that year, Claims published “The 8 Characteristics of the Awesome Adjuster,” co-authored by Van and Sue Tarrach,...
This figure represents a 5.4 percent increase in tort costs from 2002, a much slower growth rate than the prior two years. In 2002, tort costs rose 13.4 percent increase, while 2001 saw a 14.7...
Nino Berardi and Paul VanDerHeyden, adjusters with L.J. Shaw & Co., have been elevated to the designation of General Adjuster. Berardi began his adjusting career with Aetna and joined Shaw in 1996....
Fell, former assistant vice president of Marsh New York, will serve as a National General Adjuster, and has plans to open the New York City office of Engle Martin in early 2005. Minasian, who was an...
Michigan Construction Industry Mutual, specializing in workers’ compensation, has named Dawn R. Kynard claim manager. In her new position, Kynard will be responsible for the management of MCIM’s...
Brendan T. Reilly, a member of the House Committee on Financial Services staff, has been named director of federal government affairs for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America. Prior...
Douglas B. Jackson, of Southwest Claim Service, was sworn in as president of the CAIIA at the association’s annual convention late last year. The 2004-2005 executive board includes Lee Collins,...
The Property Casualty Insurers of America recently named Kristina Baldwin as its new regional manager and counsel for New York. Baldwin will operate from offices in Albany, where she will take an...
John C. Porter has joined the Commercial Motor Vehicle section at Rawle & Henderson, a Philadelphia law firm. Porter will focus his practice on the defense of commercial motor vehicles and their...
Compensation Risk Managers of California has named Chet Walczyk its new chief operating officer. Walczyk has more than 25 years of experience, the last five with CRM, where he most recently served as...
How can clients get a handle on this process to forestall nasty surprises? A claim review at the insurer’s location can assist. If you are not conducting periodic claim reviews on open claims, start...
Three states have sued jewelry retailer Friedman’s for allegedly misleading customers into paying for life, property, and other insurance while they thought that they were insuring the financing of...
A Modesto, Calif., chiropractor and two employees have been arrested on charges that they repeatedly billed for services that were unnecessary or never rendered, potentially costing insurers more...
A California public adjusting firm has agreed to pay $128,707.92 in fines and restitution after investigators charged that victims of the 2003 wild fires were deceived into signing contracts...
A Dutch health insurer will reimburse policyholders who consume Becel pro-active margarine, yogurt, and milk products that have been shown to reduce LDL cholesterol levels. By subsidizing better...
The new year has brought hazardous weather to much of the country, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Ice storms and considerable snowfall beset the Midwest and Northeast, with...
California’s insurance commissioner, John Garamendi, has filed suit against a broker and four major insurers, accusing them of participating in secret commission and kickback schemes that netted...
Insurance trade groups applauded the legislation. “The growth of the lawsuit industry has exploded in recent years, with a new lawsuit being filed every two seconds and class action lawsuits having...
The action arose out of a nightclub fire that occurred on Feb. 20, 2003, during a Great White show at The Station in West Warwick. Pyrotechnics set off as part of the band’s act ignited flammable...
We thought we’d seen it all with last year’s devastating hurricane season, statistically the worst in the Southeast’s history. Astronomical property loss compounded by countless displacements and —...
Although the 2004 Atlantic Hurricane Season started off slowly, it evolved into one of the busiest and most destructive in history. In all, there were 14 named storms, resulting in 21 federal...
New York Senator Michael Balboni, a member of the Senate Insurance Committee, has introduced a bill that would help protect New Yorkers from the consequences of a catastrophic storm, terrorist...
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners is considering a draft of a national catastrophic risk insurance program as one means of reforming the way that the nation finances the economic...
The agenda includes many high-profile issues. The group continues to support the State Modernization and Regulatory Transparency (SMART) Act, which would reform the current state-based regulatory...
CompuWeather has released its third hurricane report for 2005. Focusing on Hurricane Wilma, the 45-page report details the path the hurricane took through Florida. Included in the report are images,...
Users of the IntegriClaim property claim estimator can download seven additional databases from Marshall and Swift/Boeckh to get recent storm-surge data. New areas include: Beaumont, Texas; Lake...
International Marine has published Seaworthy: Essential Lessons from BoatU.S.’s 20-Year Case File of Things Gone Wrong, by Robert A. Adriance. The book examines claim reports from BoatU.S., an...
Edwards Information has released the 15th edition of Edwards Disaster Recovery Directory. The resource contains vendor listings organized into 400 categories to help claim adjusters, homeowners, and...
Experts from both sides of the Atlantic are predicting an above-average hurricane season for this year. Tropical Storm Risk, a London-based forecasting consortium, is expecting Atlantic basin...
Changes in the global climate will significantly affect the health of humans, resulting in worldwide economic consequences, according to a recent study by the Center for Health and the Global...
Risk Management Solutions has published “Hurricane Katrina: Profile of a Super Cat,” a report summarizing the development of damage from Hurricane Katrina and the New Orleans flood, as well as the...
Remember the flood litigation in Mississippi? The fervor caused by Attorney General Jim Hood’s lawsuit, which claimed flood provisions in homeowners’ insurance policies were “unconscionable,” has...
The Institute for Business & Home Safety, a property loss reduction trade association, has made Philip Love, CEO of South Carolina Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance, chairman of the board. Love previously...
The Casualty Actuarial Society, an organization that provides education and research in the evaluation of hazard risk, has elected Paul Braithwaite, managing director at Navigant Consulting,...
The Defense Research Institute, an organization of defense trial lawyers and corporate counsel, has elected Kathy J. Maus national director. She is a partner at the law firm Butler Pappas, where she...
Disaster Kleenup International, an independent property damage restoration contractor, has promoted Summer Street to national account director. She will handle account acquisitions and develop...
Manufacturers’ Qualification and Validation Program, a firm that certifies collision replacement parts, has hired Kirk Hansen as director of new business development. He will work with insurance...
Sams and Associates, a firm providing claim adjusting and insurance services, has hired four adjusters. Jim DeVard, formerly regional vice president of claims for CSE Insurance Group, will focus on...
GAB Robins, a claim service firm, has hired Edward G. Troy as president and chief executive officer. Troy most recently served as president of ESIS, a risk management service company that is part of...
According to a report from the U.S. Maritime Administration, Gulf ports saw a 27 percent decline in cruise passengers in the third quarter of 2005. Particularly affected was New Orleans, which had...
What’s the most important factor to you when shopping for a car? If you consider the overall purchase price and the make/model of the vehicle to be the most important traits in making your decision,...
Drivers living within one mile of a church are far less likely to have car accidents than those who live within one mile of a restaurant, a recent study by Quality Planning Corporation revealed....
According to California Department of Insurance investigators, Sheryl Bobbitt was hired approximately four years ago by Western United Insurance as a claim adjuster. The alleged scheme began when her...
A new mediation program has been designed to help condominium associations resolve disputes with their insurance companies over hurricane claims. The program offers a dispute resolution process as an...
The Institute for Business and Home Safety, a national nonprofit group backed by the insurance industry, recently introduced a home-designation program called “Fortified ... for safer living.” IBHS...
“Because of our belief that the facts will ultimately support a position of coverage for Ethel Adams, and because the Washington Department of Insurance has asked us to take action, we will, on this...
Don’t think you need to have insurance coverage for blogs just because you are not a “media company”? Any company can be sued for blog content. Insurance coverage markets are still in the embryonic...
In partnership with Identity Theft 911, the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies is offering a new service to help homeowner customers recover or recreate missing personal identification and...
IDP, a provider of claim and billing software for the property and casualty insurance industry has developed a claim-processing program. Claim-It allows insurers and TPAs to set up, reserve, monitor,...
CT TyMetrix, a provider of web-based management services, has updated its electronic billing program with the addition of budgeting and forecasting features. TyMetrix 360’s enhancements allow...
OneBeacon Insurance Group, a subsidiary of White Mountains Insurance Group, has entered into an agreement with Houston General Insurance Exchange to offer auto and homeowners’ insurance in the...
Claims Magazine has a multi-purpose editorial mission. First and foremost, we exist to inform our readers on a variety of issues that affect/influence their job performance and career advancement....
With very little debate, Congress approved an emergency appropriation bill to meet immediate needs arising from the consequences of Hurricane Katrina. The bill was introduced in the House on Sept. 7,...
The FBI is seeing a proliferation of web sites soliciting for charitable donations to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina. In early September, the bureau warned that anyone wishing to contribute...
Cunningham Lindsey U.S. is seeking prospective catastrophe adjuster candidates to participate in a sponsored training program conducted by its subsidiary, Vale National. After successfully completing...
The narrow fringe comprising 17 percent of the contiguous land area of the United States is home to more than half of the nation's population, according to a report from the National Oceanic and...
AB Training Center is offering state-specific textbooks for those seeking their adjusting licenses. Each book follows the outline used by state testing administrators and includes software that...
Guy Carpenter, a global risk and reinsurance specialist, has released its annual study of the property catastrophe reinsurance market, The World Catastrophe Reinsurance Market: 2005. The report,...
Bluebook International has released a new program called Insure-to-Value, which is designed to help homeowners determine if they have enough insurance to replace their dwelling in the event of a...
The National Fire Protection Association is urging the public to focus on candle safety during Fire Prevention Week 2005, scheduled for Oct. 9-15. NFPA emphasizes consumer caution with the slogan,...
Less than a month after Hurricane Katrina made landfall near the Louisiana-Mississippi state line, the first legal actions were taken on behalf of the storm’s victims. In Mississippi, the state...
Within the next 25 years, the gap between the supply of workers and the demand in the United States will grow to 35 million, according to a recent seminar presented by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. This...
Despite the ravages of four hurricanes in Florida last year, the nation’s property and casualty insurers reported profits of $41.3 billion in 2004, representing a 28-percent increase over the $32.3...
Ever get the feeling that someone has been lying to you? Those who attended last month’s International Association of Special Investigation Units conference in Phoenix may just have had their...
GAB Robins, a claim service firm, has hired John Bobo as general manager for North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. He will provide loss-adjusting services for property and casualty and...
Risk Management Services presented Ann Westmeyer with its National Claims Professional of the Year 2004-2005 award during the National Association of Insurance Women’s 64th annual...
David Morse & Associates, a national claim administration and independent adjusting company, has opened an office in Reno, Nev., to provide property and casualty adjusting services in the area....
T.R. Coppock has joined L.J. Shaw as a claim adjuster, becoming the third generation in his family to do so. Prior to joining the company, Coppock worked as an adjuster for GAB Robins in Florida...
Selective Insurance Group, a holding company for several property and casualty insurance companies, has appointed two executives. Stephanie Thompkins Ganey was promoted to vice president, workers’...
From August 2000 to August 2005, the last month for which figures are available, employment in the insurance industry decreased by 42 percent, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s...
Although admitting no wrongdoing, Allstate has established a $120 million reserve for the settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by adjusters employed by the company between November 1996 and...
Four in 10 homeowners fail to perform the simple tasks that could prevent an occurrence that accounts for a large proportion of homeowner claims, according to a recent poll by Pemco Insurance. Water...
DirecTV, a satellite television service, has launched a 24-hour channel dedicated to Hurricane Katrina information. The service seeks to provide information concerning Hurricane Katrina relief and...
“ISO’s CatCube now makes it easier and faster to gain access to catastrophe-history data from the Property Claim Services database, allowing insurers to undertake smaller and more focused studies for...
Lynx Services, a third-party administrator for automotive glass claims, has designed a national registry of automotive glass service providers. The web-based service will include company profiles for...
For many insurance companies, the money paid to settle claims typically is the largest item on the balance sheet, comprising roughly 60 to 70 percent of net premiums written. According to the...
First Advantage, a risk mitigation service provider, has acquired Phoenix Research, a private investigative agency with headquarters in Smithtown, N.Y. The two staffs will be merged and headed by...
Cozen O’Connor, a law firm serving business, insurance, and private clients, has opened its 24th office in Santa Fe, N.M. Harvey Fruman, a former member of the firm’s San Diego office, will manage...
RGL Forensic Accountants & Consultants, an independent forensic accounting firm, has created a forensic technology practice for lawyers, insurers, companies, and those who advise them. It will be...
Sierra Infonet Services has opened a new investigative division. Sierra — Linkman Investigations will be managed by John Clark and will supply services related to insurance defense, including...
The ClaimSchool course California Fair Claims Practices Regulations provides training and testing information, including an overview of amendments proposed by the CDOI to take effect in 2007, which...
Eldorado Computing, a provider of health benefit management services, has formed a partnership with Advanced Medical Pricing Solutions, an independent aggregator of cost-containment services, to...
Grange Insurance is offering a victim resolution and education program to aid its policyholders. The program, called Grange Identity Theft Services, is in partnership with Identity Theft 911, a...
When Florida suffered through its four-pronged hurricane siege last year, the insurance industry responded quickly, but not quick enough, according to some critics. Even the infusion of thousands of...
The National Conference of Insurance Legislators’ property casualty subcommittee has drafted a resolution supporting the use of after-market parts, saying that the practice fosters a competitive...
Congress has voted in favor of a bill that prohibits civil liability actions from being brought or continued against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms or ammunition for...
Passenger vehicle tire quality has improved since last year, according to recently released ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This year, nearly 90 tire lines received...
As the Dec. 31 expiration date of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act looms, Liberty Mutual has launched a web site aimed at spurring commercial insurance policyholders to take active roles in lobbying...
The Department of Homeland Security has developed a National Response Plan outlining an all-hazard approach to enhance the ability of the United States to manage disasters, both man-made and natural....
CompuWeather has released its second hurricane report for 2005. Focusing on Hurricane Rita, the 70-page report details the path that Rita took through Southern Florida and along the Louisiana and...
The average auto insurance premium in the United States increased six percent from 2002, to about $939 in 2003, according to the 2002/2003 Auto Insurance Database Report, recently published by the...
Atlanta, Ga. — Key issues of interest to the property and casualty insurance industry were explored in depth in 50 different seminars during the four-day Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters...
Mold problems are injecting an element of chance into real estate deals, according to a recent survey of builders and real estate lenders conducted by the Environmental Assurance Group, based in...
A total of seven natural catastrophes in the third quarter of this year cost the nation’s property and casualty insurers an all-time high of $40.8 billion in insured property losses in 14 states,...
Florida’s chief financial officer, Tom Gallagher, has opened a criminal fraud investigation into whether executives at Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state’s insurer of last resort, took...
The Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter Society has elected its new officers for 2005-06. They are Millicent W. Workman, incoming president, risk management consultant; Betsy L. Brewer,...
GE Insurance Solutions, a provider of commercial insurance, reinsurance, and risk management services, has promoted Mike Furlong to lead its Lawyers Professional Liability unit. Furlong is a 10-year...
Paul Davis Restoration, a national restoration firm, has expanded its service territory to include Morris County in New Jersey. Local restoration professionals Bill Baron, Brian Binder, and Jim Fagan...
Allen W. Nelson was hired as senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary for Crawford and Company, an independent provider of claim management services to insurance companies and...
Integro, an insurance brokerage and risk management firm, has hired Larry Reback as principal, claims, for its San Francisco office. He comes from Marsh, where he served as senior vice president in...
Allstate has launched a national advertising campaign to raise awareness and spur dialogue about better preparing Americans for catastrophic events. The campaign includes full-page advertisements in...
Speakers at the two-day general session included Marvin Montgomery, author of Practice Makes Perfect, Peter J. Crosa, author of Soft Selling Hardened Claim Adjusters, and Vincent Bove, an authority...
Each year, an estimated 1.5 million vehicle-deer collisions take place across the United States, with more than 150 motorists being killed and another 13,000 injured. The migrating and mating season...
Earlier, Muslim extremists had been sentenced to life in prison for their roles in attack, during which they abandoned a van loaded with explosives in the center’s underground garage. The ensuing...
The regulations, a result of a collaborative effort between the California Department of Insurance and members of the insurance industry, include revised definitions, continuous SIU operation...
Nationwide Insurance Company has agreed to review thousands of insurance claims from the four major hurricanes that made landfall in 2004. The settlement comes in response to a complaint filed by Tom...
The Louisiana Department of Insurance’s emergency rules, implemented shortly after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, are set to expire at midnight, Dec. 31, 2005. Implemented by Commissioner of...
All the advice discussed here applies equally to adjusters and claim professionals. The knock on claims is that it is a black hole that absorbs money, a cost center that sends dollars out but never...
Insurance Services Office and Injury Sciences have entered into an alliance to provide insurers with information about automobile accidents retrieved from vehicles’ electronic data recorders. The EDR...
Seven new storm surge databases from Marshall and Swift/Boeckh are available for downloading by users of the IntegriClaim property claim estimator. The total component databases for Beaumont, Texas;...
Risk Management Solutions, a provider of services for the management of catastrophe risk, has released RiskLink and RiskBrowser 5.1, the latest version of its catastrophe modeling systems. The new...
Experian, an information service firm, has launched Commercial Fraud Insight, a fraud and authentication program designed to help companies prevent business-to-business fraud. The new software...
EFI Global, a provider of engineering, fire investigation, environmental, accident reconstruction, and laboratory services, has opened an office in Landover, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C. Jim...
RG America, a provider of restoration services, has created a separate roofing division to handle the high volume of roofing repair demands it receives. More information is available at...
Allmerica Financial Corporation, a holding company for insurance companies, has changed its name to the Hanover Insurance Group. The name is taken from the largest company in the group, Hanover...
You know what? When I look back on my little life and the birds I’ve known, and think of all the things they’ve done for me and the little I’ve done for them, you’d think I’ve had the best of it...
Several insurance industry organizations recently testified before a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee regarding the government’s role in preparing for natural disasters via...
Chief information officers, take note. Your adjusters should not have to suffer any longer with antique DOS programs and their dreaded green screens; it is time to update your technology. A...
One year after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the U.S. District Court of Southern Mississippi has dismissed a lawsuit that contended a Nationwide insurance agent misled a policyholder into...
By the end of August in 2005, an extraordinary seven tropical storms and five hurricanes (Cindy, Dennis, Emily, Irene, and Katrina) already had formed in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico....
According to the NICB, 70,613 motorcycles were stolen last year, a slight decrease from the 71,108 stolen in 2004. These numbers represent a loss of over $434 million to motorcycle owners and the...
The study, CompScope Benchmarks for Maryland, compared workers’ comp systems in 13 large states on performance measures — benefit payments and costs per claim, timeliness of payments, and defense...
The Palisades companies, a New Jersey-based group of independent agency companies, was ranked the largest New Jersey auto insurer without one valid consumer complaint in 2005 by the New Jersey...
§ H.R. 4507, Natural Catastrophe Insurance Act of 2005, offered by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). Would establish a federal program to provide reinsurance for state natural disaster insurance...
Carriers who are behind the times can be easily identified by their dependence on non-metaphorical red flags and manually intensive desktop cheat sheets. But what characterizes a state-of-the-art,...
Arbitration Forums, a nonprofit provider of dispute resolution services, is offering a new electronic service. Its new web-based paperless network, the E-Subro Hub System, will act as an electronic...
Catastrophe risk management company Risk Management Solutions recently released version 6.0 of its U.S. hurricane model. According to the company, the model is the first of its kind to integrate a...
The company said that by providing one place to integrate internal and external systems, SceneConnect eliminates the need to custom-code interfaces with third-party applications. The company also...
Pellnet has released a web application that automatically prices jewelry for claim adjusters and underwriters. The application includes the ability to search for replacements through pre-screened...
We’re not talking global warming here — that’s not “immediate.” That can go on the back burner (no pun intended) for the sake of this discussion. We are talking about the impending staggering...
Dealing with inexperienced insurer claim staff is one of the top problems for collision repairers, according to the results of a recent study released by a collision repair association. The study...
While those figures indicate a 3.5 percent drop from last year’s numbers — and the third annual decrease in a row — it still adds up to some big losses for insurance companies. The NICB’s report...
According to a report issued by the Insurance Services Office’s Property Claim Services unit, U.S. property/casualty insurers are expected to pay homeowners and businesses an estimated $1.13 billion...
The most important — and often toughest — part of an adjuster’s job is determining coverage. Each month, Claims will publish a coverage question asked by an insurance professional, along with the...
A significant construction defect coverage case, Lamar Homes, Inc. v. Mid-Continent Casualty Co., was recently decided by the Texas Supreme Court. This is one of the few cases accepted by a state...
Xactimate 25, a product from Xactware, boasts several changes, but one of the most useful is how the software has gone multi-lingual. Adjusters are able to input and estimate in English, French, or...
A referendum up for vote in Washington State this month is seeking to prohibit insurers from unreasonably denying coverage or payment of benefits to first-party claimants, and will impose stiff...
The Colorado Court of Appeals recently ruled against State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company by reversing an earlier ruling that allowed the use of a computer database to determine medical...
In a move that could be deemed unfavorable for Illinois insurance companies, Governor Rod Blagojevich recently signed legislation that permits juries to award money for grief, sorrow, and mental...
The web-based vendor relationship management system is directed at claim professionals, attorneys, and the claim and legal vendors they retain. VenCore integrates existing claim and workflow systems...
The alert will inform Sedgwick clients of changes in claim status in the company’s claim management information system, JURIS. According to Sedgwick, the new feature increases the value of claim...
PowerClaim Net Services is a web-based claim management, assignment, and reporting tool that is used to provide executive management reports, data storage, and mining. The program also allows...
That’s what a lot of people call former Vice President Al Gore. Then he won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Oh, how times are changing! Could this catapult him back into contention for the White House?...
U.S. Rep. Joe Barton (R.-Texas), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has introduced new legislation that is a scaled-back version of last year’s Motor Vehicle Owner’s Right to Repair...
The senate is considering a National Graduated Driver Licensing Incentive Grant Program that would phase young beginners into full driving privileges as they mature and develop driving skills. In...
The Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America recently submitted testimony to the House Financial Service Committee on ways to reform the National Flood Insurance Program. Although the...
The American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section and the American Insurance Association have scheduled their second joint insurance litigation conference, “Tools for Conquering...
“This identification process is meant to raise awareness that injuries and illnesses are high at these facilities,” said Jonathan L. Snare, OSHA’s acting assistant secretary of labor. “Injuries and...
Thermography enables us to see and measure heat. All materials on earth emit heat energy in the infrared portion of the spectrum. Unfortunately, the human eye cannot see infrared. IR images allow the...
3.Invasion of privacy or violation of civil rights arising out of the providing of security.available from the life insurance carriers and then securing the rated age, which lowers the cost of...
U.S. property and casualty insurers are expected to pay homeowners and businesses an estimated $2.1 billion for insured property loss claims from eight catastrophes in the first quarter of 2005,...
“Tort litigation has been blamed for a host of ills: driving liability insurance premiums to excessive levels, reducing real wages and overall employment, undermining corporate profits, dampening...
Residents of the southern Great Plains can expect damaging hail of at least one inch in diameter every three to five years on average, according to the Institute for Business & Home Safety. Although...
The latest national trends in workers’ compensation will be under examination at the 60th Annual Workers’ Compensation Educational Conference, sponsored by the Florida Workers’ Compensation Institute...
The statistics are alarming, said FEMA’s director, Michael D. Brown. “Residential structure fires, the very place people should feel the safest, unfortunately account for the vast majority of fatal...
Moulton Claim Service, a claim investigation and resolution firm in Colorado, has added two claim professionals to its staff. Beverly Dugar, a registered nurse with 16 years of clinical nursing and...
The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America’s national board has nominated Alex Soto, CPCU, ARM, the association’s president-elect and has named Robert E. Fulwider the next vice president....
William Fritts has been appointed executive vice president, responsible for coordinating the association’s federal and state political advocacy and public affairs efforts. Prior to joining PCI, he...
The Society of Collision Repair Specialists has chosen its 2005-2006 board of directors. Tom Moreland, director of industry relations and national accounts for Akzo Nobel in Georgia, was named...
Brentwood Service Administrators, a specialty insurance brokerage based in Brentwood, Tenn., has promoted Rick Whitten, in the Charlotte, N.C., office, to director of loss control services. Whitten,...
Ripping its plot lines from the headlines, the original CSI television series recently ran an episode in which mold was the culprit, as well as the instrument of justice. While investigating the...
The CPCU Society, the professional association for nearly 28,000 Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, has launched an advertising campaign to bolster public trust in the insurance industry and...
The total number of mergers and acquisitions in the insurance industry increased in 2004, driven by the health/managed care and distribution sectors, according to a recent study by Conning Research...
A former American Financial Group claim adjuster and litigation specialist has been charged with embezzling his employer out of more than $490,000 during his employment in the Los Angeles area office...
“Two years ago, when I took office, I vowed to create the best consumer protection agency in the nation,” said Commissioner John Garamendi. “I applaud the authors of these bills and the legislature...
The Washington State Legislature is weighing a bill that would prevent insurers from denying applications for homeowner insurance policies, or canceling, refusing to renew, or modifying existing...
In a 32 to 8 vote, the Florida Senate enacted asbestos and silica litigation legislation that previously had been approved by the state’s house. The Asbestos and Silica Compensation Act, HB 1019,...
As anecdotal evidence regarding adverse underwriting decisions spreads among insureds by word of mouth, many are complaining to their departments of insurance and their elected representatives. In...
A new education and designation program specifically for risk management education specialists has been developed by the National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research and the Texas Schools...
For accounts with unique handling requirements, a claim service model that lies somewhere between standard claim handling and a third party administrator now is available at the Hartford. The...
The Insurance Accounting & System Association has designed an executive education program to target senior financial and technology insurance company executives for peer-to-peer education and...
In order to help companies meet the stringent compliance requirements of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Keane Organization, a provider of compliance and risk management services, has launched...
Several service providers in the auto repair industry have formed Allied Claim Solution. The new group comprises Insurance Auto Auctions, which sells total-loss vehicles; Lynx Services, an auto and...
It’s been a rough couple of months for our industry, to put it mildly. Spitzer’s crusade, compounded by Maurice Greenberg’s resignation from AIG (to say nothing of the dismissals of AIG’s Howard...
The Advisory Council to the Cat Fund acknowledged the fund would face a $10-$15 billion shortfall if called upon by a major hurricane to generate its full capacity of claim payouts, which is...
The Connecticut Insurance Department recovered $630,424 for insureds from complaints resolved in the second quarter. The Department received 1,372 new complaints/inquiries in the second quarter,...
The gift, to be paid over the next four years, represents the largest in the 79-year history of Boston College Law School. It will be used to hire a distinguished teacher and legal scholar with...
So were some of the first words in President Barack Obama’s inaugural speech, given last month before throngs of supporters spread out across the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It was a superbly...
Insurance commissioners of several states will hold a summit in the middle of this month to develop a National Catastrophe Insurance Program. The commissioners hope to more effectively spread...
“The National Flood Insurance Program is working closely with the insurance industry to speed the claim process and enable adjusters to help policyholders get settlements quickly,” said David...
Insurance swindles could raise the costs of rebuilding the areas damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud warns. Although most victims submitting claims for...
With the goal of obtaining uniformity in insurance regulation, addressing concerns expressed by the industry, and protecting consumer interests, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners...
The United States Government Accountability Office has released a report on federal and state laws restricting the use of Social Security numbers. Despite such legislation, public and private...
The U.S. property and casualty insurance industry’s net income after taxes rose 29.1 percent to a record $30.9 billion in the first half of 2005, from $23.9 billion in first-half 2004, according to...
In the United States last year, the total number of reported vehicle fires fell 5 percent from the 312,000 reported in 2003 to 297,000, according to a recent report from the National Fire Protection...
The 2005 ACE•SCLA Expo+Conference adjourned last month in not-so-sunny Orlando, thanks in part to an impromptu visit from Tropical Storm Tammy. Among the show’s highlights was the presentation of...
“Accepting the reality that litigation is a constant in their business lives, close to 90 percent of U.S. corporate counsel have no plans to reduce the number of outside lawyers that handle their...
The hurricanes of the last two seasons are strong warnings of the increasing threat that climate change represents to insurers and their customers, according to a recent report by Ceres, a coalition...
Courtney Tidwell was promoted to senior claim representative with Brentwood Services Administrators, a specialty insurance brokerage firm. She will manage workers’ compensation claims for the firm’s...
Brandenburg Garver & Associates, a consultant group providing salvage services to the insurance industry, has hired Chris Brown as southeast regional manager, based in Atlanta. Previously, Brown...
Integro, an insurance brokerage and risk management firm, has hired John Orr and Brian Mercer to serve in its San Francisco office. Orr was appointed principal, executive solutions, after working...
Although our focus is what risk managers need to do for property loss recovery, adjusters and claim operations need to prepare as well, especially in cases of Katrina-scale calamities. Preparedness...
A claim manager in California has been arraigned on several charges resulting from an undercover investigation, according to California Department of Insurance Fraud Investigators. David Posner, who...
In mid-October, NOAA began tracking Tropical Storm Vince, the second to the last name on its list for this year. The 2005 hurricane season was the second busiest on record, with 20 named storms....
Although the terms of the settlement in the lawsuit brought by Geico, the Government Employees Insurance Company, against Google were not disclosed, most analysts are calling the decision a victory...
Statistics covering verdicts over the last decade reveal that 59 percent of the plaintiff awards in product liability cases involving transportation products exceed $1 million, according to a recent...
The American Insurance Association has testified before a New York State Senate committee that many complex questions must be answered before the state considers implementing a catastrophe fund,...
Can faulty workmanship be considered an occurrence covered under a commercial general liability policy? According to a ruling by the Supreme Court in South Carolina in regard to the case L-J, Inc. v....
A Wisconsin Senate Committee recently killed the anti-business all sums bill, a measure opposed by the American Insurance Association. The bill was aggressively advocated by paper companies, who were...
The Institute for Business & Home Safety has revised its disaster safety web site, adding new tools and making home and business property protection information easy to find. The latest changes allow...
In order to help insureds be better prepared when it comes time to file claims, the Insurance Information Institute has placed free inventory software on its web site. KnowYourStuff.org allows users...
Risk Management Solutions has released its Global Geocoding Platform and upgraded Global Terrorism Risk and Terrorism Scenario models. Version 5.0 of the RiskLink and RiskBrowser software includes...
EqeCat, a risk modeling firm, has revised its WorldCat Enterprise, version 3.7, which includes model updates for earthquakes and hurricanes in the United States, as well as Belgian earthquake...
Once a document is submitted, CopyGuard searches more than 6.1 billion documents and produces a report that underlines excerpts of any relevant text matches. A similarity index provides the exact...
James Whitaker, a former law enforcement officer and claim executive, has established Fraud Trak, an investigative consulting firm. The firm will offer assistance to insurance professionals in...
DBA Imaging is offering videotaping and scanning services for insureds who want to document valuable items and pertinent documentation. The information is placed on two DVDs, one for the insureds’...
Lord & King Associates, based in Chicago, has hired Quintin King to lead its newly created insurance claim advisory group Previously, King served as a litigation manager and consultant for several...
Matthew Ohrnstein has launched Symphony Advisors, a firm providing services to the automobile aftermarket part industry and automobile claim organizations. Most recently, Ohrnstein was CEO of Caliber...
GAB Robins, a claim service firm, and its managed care division, MedInsights, have formed an alliance with TechHealth, a nationwide specialty network for ancillary medical services. The partnership...
They were in the news again a couple of weeks ago, as a result of the “KatRita” deluges. The company’s Folgers coffee production plant, the largest coffee plant in the world, sits on the Industrial...
In what has become a similar pattern for the legislation, the Terrorist Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) was extended for a second time while facing a New Year’s Eve deadline for authorization. The program...
Accenture filed a patent infringement suit against Guidewire in late December, alleging that Guidewire misappropriated trade secrets relating to its claim management software, Accenture Claim...
The Combined Claim Conference (CCC) will celebrate their 20th year of educating claim professionals next month when their conference kicks off on March 11-12, 2007 at the Pacific Palms Conference...
The most important — and often toughest — part of an adjuster’s job is determining coverage. Each month, Claims publishes a coverage question asked by an insurance professional, along with an answer...
Since Sept. 2007, the North Carolina Department of Insurance has closed 442 cases for insurance fraud and recovered $14.2 million in restitution. Given that kind of success, Claims’ managing editor...
Even though property and casualty insurers had to contend with relatively few hurricanes and other extreme catastrophes in 2007, the increased prevalence of smaller natural disasters throughout the...
Auto insurance fraud is a crime contained by no borders, as evidenced by our neighbor’s anti-fraud efforts to the north. Canada’s Manitoba Public Insurance, a nonprofit company that provides basic...
The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) has commended California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for signing legislation that bans cell phone use by motorists. According to the ASSE, the new...
The Pennsylvania Insurance Fraud Prevention Authority (IFPA) recently released its top 13 insurance fraud case list for 2007, which reviews the year’s most colorful fraud cases as investigated by the...
New York released its 2007 Annual Ranking of Automobile Insurance Complaints last month, a study that ranks the top 44 insurers in the state with at least $10 million in average premiums in 2005-06...
One new feature of the Accenture Claims Component, version 7.0, is the new dashboard analytic tool, which gives claim workers a real-time view of their workloads, tasks, and processing status. The...
Pitney Bowes MapInfo has recently introduced new data sets for their Risk Data Suite, which aims to address critical decisions with disaster scenario analysis and claim planning and preparedness. The...
You see, my regular sushi stop is located near the Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing North America plant — a mere block from National Underwriter’s headquarters — and is frequented by many...
In mid-February, the United States Senate passed the Class Action Fairness Act, S 5, by a vote of 72 to 26. The measure calls for moving many class-action lawsuits from state courts to federal courts...
In a continuing effort to enhance disaster response, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has launched a $6.7 million program that will allow its Disaster Medical Assistance Teams to respond to...
In early February, a Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on federal asbestos litigation reform legislation. At the hearing, insurers expressed concern regarding certain provisions of the...
The Property Loss Research Bureau and ClaimStar have launched a series of distance learning modules. The first six modules deal with insureds, coverage determination, commercial built-up roofing,...
In November 2002, the federal government enacted the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act creating a temporary federal reinsurance program to limit insurance companies’ risks of financial loss from terrorist...
Without x-ray vision, it is difficult to tell whether a dishonest body shop has tampered with the airbag. The airbag compartment is tightly sealed, and hard to get at. Buyers of used cars also have...
United States property and casualty insurers paid a record $27.3 billion for insured property losses to homeowners and businesses from 22 catastrophic events last year, according to estimates by...
Auto insurance was the topic of most of the 281 property and casualty-related bills enacted by state legislatures around the country last year, according to National Association of Mutual Insurance...
Although stories about unsuccessful fraud attempts and inept would-be scam artists often are amusing, insurance fraud is a serious crime that costs consumers a lot of money, according to the...
Attorneys general from 49 states plus the District of Columbia have signed an agreement with State Farm Insurance that will result in the company’s agreeing to compensate consumers who unwittingly...
As president of the CPCU Society, a community of credentialed insurance professionals who promote excellence through ethical behavior and continuing education, I have seen what education means to our...
Chuck Street has joined Property Loss Consulting as business development manager, He will be located in the firm’s Southwest Regional office in Dallas, Texas, and can be reached at 800-918-3498,...
Low has been employed in several workers’ compensation positions. In addition to workers’ compensation insurance representative with the State Compensation Insurance Fund in West Los Angeles, he was...
The Forensic Expert Witness Association, Los Angeles Chapter, has named Lawrence Kaltman president, Michael Levittan vice president, and Barry Zalma secretary-treasurer for 2005. Katman is a licensed...
Most recently, Bode served as senior vice president for CompManagement, a third party administrator. Previously, he held executive positions in sales and operations at Genex Services and Sullivan...
Two vehicle customizing firms, West Coast Customs of Inglewood, Calif., and Unique Autosports of Uniondale, N.Y., have been fined a total of $21,000 for the removal of drivers’ side air bags,...
Ill mannered, aggressive driving is contributing to the United Kingdom’s accident statistics, according to Manchester Online. The British news source cited a study by the Zurich Insurance Co., which...
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is alerting the public to a variety of online scams involving the solicitation of additional relief funds for the victims of the recent Asian tsunami. Complaints...
A federal grand jury in the District of Montana has indicted WR Grace and seven current and former Grace executives for knowingly endangering residents of Libby, Montana, and concealing information...
More than one in four auto accidents resulted in bodily injury liability claims in 2003, even though research suggests that accident rates and the seriousness of auto injuries have decreased,...
The change could exact a toll on Idaho’s citizens in lost lives, more severe traffic crash injuries, and increased medical costs, according to the American Insurance Association. “Speeding reduces...
The Supreme Court of South Carolina has issued its decision in Progressive Casualty Ins. v. Leachman, which questioned Progressive’s use of UIM selection forms. The court found that such forms...
The American Insurance Association urged the committee to reject the bill. “The Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities, and Health Care Administration studied coverage issues raised by H 79 in...
The Disability Management Employer Coalition and the Insurance Educational Association have introduced the Certified Case Management Professional designation. Offered as an instructor-facilitated,...
Property Claim Services has expanded its offerings to include loss estimates for potential catastrophic terrorism losses. Catastrophe serial numbers will be assigned to catastrophic workers’...
I’ve been there and done that. I lived in the DC area, from ’94 to ’99, shortly before coming to Claims. And I’ve seen it all. I’ll admit my tenure, overall, was a heady experience. Ah, yes, the...
A key committee of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a nonpartisan association of state legislators with 2,400 members, has approved a model law designed to limit the ability of trial...
The American Academy of Actuaries, in response to questions posed by the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, has submitted its analysis on terrorism risk insurance, concluding that a...
Record catastrophe losses associated with Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Wilma, Dennis and Ophelia (the five storms that hit the Southeast in 2005) and predictions by leading meteorologists of more of the...
A class-action lawsuit with 669 plaintiffs was filed against State Farm Insurance Co. last month, alleging improper denial of insurance claims in Southern Mississippi. Richard Scruggs, most famous...
Most independent adjusters are responsible for their own lodging and transportation expenses while working catastrophes. Can these expenses be deducted from an adjuster’s yearly income? A column...
The property and casualty insurance industry, which was measured by customers’ satisfaction with their companies’ coverage, premium rates, and claim handling, improved slightly by one percent....
According to results from a study conducted by the Nebraska Auto Body Association, 64 percent of respondents said they would generally feel hesitant about filing an auto insurance claim. Eighty-four...
On average, four out of 10 Americans who have a homeowners’ policy do not understand the relationship between a deductible and a premium, according to a recent study by the Insurance Research...
June is the start of what is predicted to be a very busy hurricane season, which means carriers and independent staffing firms soon will need thousands of catastrophe adjusters. Claims spoke with...
Russell and Elaine Lane are believed to have intentionally attempted to defraud their insurer by claiming Hurricane Katrina caused damage to their roof. An investigation by police, however, showed...
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently installed five buoy stations off of the East and Gulf coasts and the Caribbean as part of the expansion of the U.S. tsunami warning...
$7,967 a year, or roughly 52.2 cents per mile. That’s how much a person driving a new-model, medium-sized sedan such as a Toyota Camry 15,000 miles a year can expect to pay annually. And that doesn’t...
Describing the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia’s road safety campaign as bold is like calling Mt. Everest tall. While technically it’s true, it doesn’t quite do the site justice....
California’s Low Cost Automobile Insurance program recently took effect throughout several areas in the state, meaning low-income, good drivers are eligible for liability insurance at an affordable...
A recent study conducted by the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America and the Insurance Federation of Minnesota addressed the need for reform of the state’s no-fault automobile insurance...
The new law also clarifies that insurers can be fraud victims, allowing insurers to receive restitution from schemes. Among the other key provisions is a mandate that requires insurance applications...
A magnetic ink could allow insurance agents to print checks on demand, and adjusters to settle claims on the road. VersaInk, developed for inkjet printers, comes from business software company G7...
The company shifted platforms from Classic ASP to Microsoft’s new ASP.NET platform, making it fully web-service enabled, and contains defined application, transaction, and data layers. It will allow...
Computer Sciences Corporation recently released a new version of its independent claims and risk management software, Riskmaster. The new version, according to CSC, simplifies workflow and case...
Some changes that will affect the insurance industry are still years away. Others are probably in the foreseeable future. Many we can’t do anything about, other than respond and act, or react,...
Asbestos legislation has been stuck in a congressional black hole since early last year when the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act was presented to the House of Representatives. The bill...
Insurance groups already are mapping their strategies for 2007, the year in which the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act again is set to expire. The act, which provides protection for insurance companies...
The Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter Society, a professional organization that promotes ethical behavior and continuing education, has released its eJournal, a monthly electronic publication...
The department analyzed the number of complaints consumers filed against their auto insurers in the previous calendar year, determined how many had merit, and calculated these trends in the context...
Risk management company Guy Carpenter’s advanced modeling unit, Instrat, has produced “Tropical Cyclone Review of 2005,” an overview of the hurricanes and typhoons that developed last year in the...
CompuWeather, a meteorological consulting firm for the insurance industry, has created Hurricane Katrina and Rita wind map sets with ZIP codes. These maps show maximum sustained winds, and three- and...
The environment isn’t the only thing benefiting from the development of hybrid cars. Beginning last month, St. Paul Travelers is giving a 10 percent discount on auto insurance to hybrid vehicle...
Homeowners’ insurers have settled nearly 70 percent of claims from Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.). About 90 percent of...
Farmers — consisting of Farmers Insurance Exchange, Fire Insurance Exchange, Mid-Century Insurance Company, and Truck Insurance Exchange — agreed to the settlement to resolve a CDI enforcement...
With that in mind, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners studied the top reasons consumers filed formal complaints against their insurance companies in 2005, and concluded that delays,...
When a conference has been around as long as the Property Loss Research Bureau and the Liability Insurance Research Bureau’s has been, it is easy to imagine that it might fall into a rut and become...
Selective Insurance Group, a claim and risk management services company, has promoted David Richmond from claims liability analyst to assistant vice president, corporate claims manager. Prior to...
The Certified Restoration Dryclean-ing Network has named Myron Blankenbaker vice president of business development. He will oversee national sales and marketing from CRDN’s new home office in...
The analysis shows that young novice drivers comprise slightly more than one-third of all the fatalities in crashes in which they are involved; whereas nearly two-thirds of those killed are other...
Driving while talking on a cell phone is universally accepted as a dangerous activity. But how dangerous is it? Mythbusters, a television show that takes popular myths and urban legends and applies...
James Lee Witt, former FEMA director, and James Loy, former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, have formed ProtectingCalifornia.org, a subsidiary of ProtectingAmerica.org,...
Paul Davis Restoration has launched a new toll-free phone number for those making a claim or reporting a loss. When customers dial 1-888-4-PDR-NOW, they will be connected to a representative trained...
Crawford & Company, an independent provider of claim management services, has combined its risk management and health-care management divisions to form Crawford Integrated Services. It aims to help...
The Ward Group, an insurance industry consulting firm, has launched a new benchmarking program for claim operations. It will help executives and managers analyze their claim operations against...
“A woman can never be too rich, or too thin.” That line was uttered by none other than Babe Paley, the icon of glamour, style and grace, whose (second) marriage to CBS founder William Paley put her...
Regulatory modernization, restrictions on cost-based underwriting, and extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act are the three most significant public policy issues facing insurers in 2005,...
The U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protections recently held a hearing questioning whether 21st century technology is locking out...
The New York Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, has launched an inquiry into insurance brokerage contingent fee practices. The initial target of the investigation was Marsh, which allegedly accepted...
The American Institute for CPCU and the Insurance Institute of America have signed a partnership agreement with the Society of Registered Professional Adjusters to administer the examinations for the...
As part of its Map Modernization Plan, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is seeking to increase local involvement in the flood mapping process. To meet this objective, FEMA has created the...
The book contains citations to relevant statutory, regulatory, and judicial sources; checklists; information on identifying, and protecting against construction defects; and a section on alternative...
The Disability Management Employer Coalition has released the latest edition of The Return-to-Work Manual: A Definitive Guide for Employers. The 175 page, step-by-guide to implementing a...
The Workers Compensation Research Institute recently released a new version of its reference book outlining benchmarks of medical cost, price, and utilization. The Anatomy of Workers’ Compensation...
As consumers and insurers become more sophisticated in their efforts to stop insurance fraud, those determined to defraud the system create new methods of doing so. The National Insurance Crime...
The third quarter of 2004 is the insurance industry’s worst ever, with property and casualty insurers’ facing a record $21.3 billion in insured property loss claims from eight catastrophes, according...
People injured in auto accidents who hire attorneys are less likely to be satisfied with their total payments than injured people who do not hire attorneys, suggests a recent study by the Insurance...
The number of Britons dying from asbestos-related diseases is set to peak at around 2,000 a year during the next decade, costing the country £8 billion to £20 billion, the equivalent of $14.7 to...
This year’s unusually intense period of destructive weather activity could be a harbinger of what is to come as the effects of global warming grow even more pronounced, according to a briefing at the...
Brentwood Services Administrators, a brokerage firm in Brentwood, Tenn., recently added three senior claim representatives. Frank Cox, AIC, comes to Brentwood from Traveler's Insurance, where he had...
Erie Insurance Group has appointed David Rioux assistant vice president and department manager, corporate security. Prior to joining Erie in 2001, Rioux worked for Nationwide, where he held a number...
Janice M. Abraham, president and chief executive officer of United Educators Insurance, and Bruce Camacho, president and chief executive officer of Assurant Solutions, recently were elected to the...
Summer Street has been appointed regional marketing director for Disaster Kleenup International, a network of independent property damage restoration contractors. Previously, Street was with the...
Crawford & Company has appointed Robert R. Kulbick senior vice president of its Risk Management Services unit. Kulbick has more than 15 years of industry experience, which includes owning an...
After falling asleep at the wheel, Matthew Alther, of Harrisonburg, Va., discovered that the best time to buy full insurance coverage for a vehicle is before a crash, not after. While driving to work...
Nationwide, the total of deaths and damage caused by deer on roadways is 150 motorist fatalities and about $1.1 billion in vehicle damage, according to a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway...
In an attempt to control the numbers of uninsured drivers, the United Kingdom’s Department for Transport has issued a set of proposals that includes allowing police to confiscate and destroy...
Michael Anthony Green, a claim adjuster from Hawthorne, Calif., surrendered himself to Orange County authorities after a warrant had been issued for his arrest, and was charged with two felony counts...
Students are the most likely to have automobile accidents and speeding violations, according to a recent survey by Quality Planning Corp. Their lack of experience and low aversion to risk result in...
“This disturbing report, at the very least, demonstrates a systemic problem of underinsurance that is happening throughout the industry,” said Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. “At worst, it...
In the case, Allgood v. Meridian Security Insurance Co., the appellate court held that the trial court erred in granting Meridian’s motion to dismiss Allgood’s claim for damages for failure to pay...
A trial questioning the state’s insurer-owned repair shop law is being heard in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division. In Allstate Insurance Company,...
The National Association of Independent Insurance Adjusters has created Claim Professionals‘ Liability Insurance Company to address a need to stabilize adjuster liability coverage costs. CPLIC offers...
Robson Lapina, a forensic investigation firm based in Lancaster, Pa., has changed its name to Robson Forensic. Founded in 1987, the firm offers multi-disciplined forensic investigation and...
The National Automotive Service Task Force has formed a Vehicle Security Committee to address recent issues raised by automotive security professionals, including locksmiths and auto manufacturers....
The American Rental Association and the National Equipment Register have created the ARA Insurance Services/NER Award to honor law enforcement officers or agents who have performed exceptional...
Mostly bad and ugly, if you ask any Floridian! Check out the latest on the aftermath and clean-up/reconstruction in the Sunshine State and neighboring states, found in our Hurricane Chronicles, page...
The 2004 Atlantic Hurricane Season was one of the busiest and most destructive in history, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. By the season’s official end, 13 named storms had come...
To further assist in the recovery efforts, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has enhanced its web site with a page dedicated solely to recovery information related to the hurricanes of 2004,...
In response to the disastrous hurricane season, Congress has approved two measures that would offer financial aid to Floridians. One provides $11.6 billion in disaster aid for damage caused by...
A verdict last month in the case Broussard v. State Farm not only held State Farm responsible for policy limits that totaled more than $220,000 on a loss it deemed due to storm-surge flooding, but it...
J.D. Power’s report, the 2006 Collision Repair Satisfaction Study, illustrates the importance and impact of customer service in the insurance industry. Its conclusions show that nearly one out of...
Analyzing and evaluating the ever-changing face of claim technology is a task that never gets checked off the “to-do” list. Claims’ Eric Gilkey spoke with mobile technology company Symbility and its...
The typical U.S. driver will pay less for auto insurance in 2007 than in 2006, with the average premium expenditure expected to drop by 0.5 percent, according to the Insurance Information Institute...
According to a release from the California Department of Insurance, Drake Reed was an insurance claim adjuster for AAA who took advantage of his position in the company and his knowledge of how his...
The Insurance Institute of Indiana, the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, and the Property and Casualty Insurers of America have filed a joint friend of the court brief with the...
The funds were divided into five categories in order to ensure aid is distributed appropriately. Almost $1.1 billion went to public assistance, which included public buildings and utilities,...
Seattle-based property and casualty insurance company Safeco reported approximately $30 million in pretax catastrophe losses due to the Pacific Northwest windstorm that ripped through the Puget Sound...
To paraphrase Clairee, as played by Olympia Dukakis in the movie Steel Magnolias, “It’s love — and our ability to accessorize — that separates us from the animals.” So there you have it. And if I...
Following their December predictions for an active 2008 Atlantic basin hurricane season, several prominent forecasting teams have issued updated reports. Although the experts at Department of...
Early quarterly reports from insurers indicating heavy catastrophe losses have heralded ISO’s statement on first-quarter catastrophe losses. The company’s PCS unit confirmed that the first quarter of...
Every year, Claims Magazine awards an academic scholarship to a student at the Katie School of Insurance and Financial Services at Illinois State University. The program prepares its students for...
June is ripe for a pop-up thunderstorm, but it’s another weather event that is often paired with these storms that gets claim adjusters out into the field in a hurry — hail. Given the extent and...
A recent ruling in the case Village Northridge Homeowners Association v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. could prove to be a nightmare for insurers. To find out more about the case and its...
Those who steer claimants to specific auto shops can land themselves and their companies in a heap of trouble. Not only is the practice unethical, it’s against the law in most states. But recent news...
So, what’s your sign? Finally, the phrase can function as a bona fide conversation starter instead of the eye-roll inducing standby of many a lounge lothario. What’s all the hype about? Interestingly...
The Pittsburgh-based law firm of Fried, Kane, Walters, Zuschlag and Grochmal has published the “2008 Employers’ Guide to Pennsylvania’s Workers’ Compensation Law,” hoping to help Pennsylvania...
A new study by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) reports that the average workers’ compensation total cost per claim in Wisconsin grew rapidly for four of the five years of the...
A proposed bill in the Minnesota state legislature would enable a party who claims to have been personally injured to name not only the person alleged to have negligently injured the claimant, but...
Cambridge’s legal bill review services will help clients ensure that inappropriate fees and unnecessary expenses associated with claim management are avoided. Additionally, the service allows for...
ESIS Analytics in Action connects data and the root causes of a wide range of risk management cost drivers. Beginning with a retrospective analysis of workers’ compensation and liability programs,...
The program now allows property/casualty insurers to view, organize, and analyze information and disseminate it throughout the company and distribution channels. Built on industry-standard Microsoft...
The foundation on which insurance is based is referred to as the law of large numbers, but it’s not really a law. No one pays a fine or goes to a gulag if it’s violated. The law of large numbers is...
Allstate might have struggled in the New Orleans’ public court of opinion, but a lawsuit that was dropped last month by the plaintiffs shows that policyholders aren’t always the victims in a claim...
Citing uncertainty in Mississippi’s legal and business environments, State Farm announced last month that it would halt writing new homeowners’ and commercial property insurance in the state of...
As insurance claim associations go, the Loss Executives Association (LEA) is at the front of the pack. Other associations may be bigger, but none are more dedicated to furthering the betterment of...
The calm hurricane season of 2006 has given way to an active winter-storm season in 2007. There have been tornadoes in Florida, blizzards and ice storms in the Midwest and Northeast, and wind storms...
According to the results, the number of waterlogged wrecks revealed by Carfax vehicle history reports has doubled nationwide over the last five years. Furthermore, massive increases have occurred in...
If there is one conference everyone in the property/casualty insurance industry looks forward to each year, it’s the Property Loss Research Bureau and the Liability Insurance Research Bureau’s Claims...
The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, one of the largest insurance associations in the country, is honing in on several legislative issues that could have implications for claim...
Back in 1996, Kevin Hromas followed the advice of a family member and began a new career as an Allstate staff adjuster after closing his construction business. Soon after, he began serving as a...
An independent film called Low and Behold had its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in Salt Lake City, bringing to the forefront situations often faced by adjusters but not...
In a letter directed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), CAS Executive Director Clarence Ditlow petitioned for new laws to restrict the availability of two-way...
In an effort to educate the public about how to deal with bacteria-laden sponges found in most American kitchens, a research team at the University of Florida might have inadvertently sparked another...
Originally, the bill known as SB283 sought to make it mandatory for fraud investigators and other officials to get permission from all vehicle owners registered in the state before gaining access to...
The New York Committee for Occupational Health and Safety (NYCOSH) has outlined new guidelines that would extend the deadline for 9/11 workers and volunteers to apply for workers’ compensation...
The Hurricane Law Group, a law firm specializing in natural disaster litigation, has taken legal action against the Citizens Property Insurance Corporation in a case involving window damage caused by...
The 360° maneuverable Rover High-Volume Extractor removes moisture from all carpet types. The rover features is operated by a two-speed switch and joystick-controlled motors, and has a clear take-up...
Etched in Time, a privately held Arizona-based corporation, recently demonstrated technology that is capable of detecting water leaks in a structure and automatically stopping flow at the main water...
Audatex, a company that specializes in processing automotive claims, recently released Autosource Plus, a valuation product for automotive claim processing that is designed to handle total-loss...
Travelers has recently introduced a web site called riskcontrol.com, which highlights products and services that Travelers Risk Control offers, as well as risk control information and news alerts...
Pitney Bowes’ Group 1 Software has recently introduced a new bundle software package, Claims Correspondence. The software is designed to improve the integrity of customer claim information by...
I’m talking about the State of Florida. It seems that almost every insurance-related conference is held in Florida, and it has been like that for as long as I can remember. We certainly can...
“Many people short themselves and don’t know it,” said Carlos V. Freyre, managing director of MySmartClaims.com, referring to the fact that homeowners may accept settlement amounts that are...
The string of properties speckling the Gulf and East Coasts serve as a reminder of what is at stake when the next hurricane sweeps through. According to AIR Worldwide, the increase in the number and...
The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau are partnering together to form the Consortium to Combat Medical Fraud....
After analyzing homeowners’ insurance data, the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.) determined that the cost of homeowners’ claims for damages stemming from lightning strikes has increased by 28...
To explore the current role of customer service in the field, Claims’ Christina Bramlet recently spoke with Donna Warren, president of Professional Claim Adjusters and recipient of the Tennessee...
Canadian policyholders hear similar insurance slogans as we do. But one company up north is taking a different approach than just promising good-hands treatment. They’re putting their money where...
Dog bite-related claims comprise one-third of all homeowners’ insurance liability claims, the organization reports. In 2007 alone, insurers shelled out $356 million for liability claims involving dog...
Symbility Solutions released an updated version of its mobile claim software application. Version 3.1 of the computer program includes features such as nine new reports that give users greater...
The release of Simsol ContentsClaims, a web-based contents valuation software product, will provide adjusters with a tool to search for the property values of more than seven million personal...
Panasonic Computer Solutions Company will release the Panasonic Toughbook CF-U1, the first ultra mobile PC (UMPC) to integrate a low-power Intel Atom processor in a handheld computer for use in the...
Deskinacar, the most recent product from Officeinacar, is a portable utility desk that weighs less than four pounds and can be stowed in most 17” laptop bags. It has a polycarbonate frame with a...
As you open this issue, Richard Scruggs’ cell door is closing. He is getting acquainted inside a federal prison that will be his new home for the next five years. Scruggs was the lead attorney for...
The 19th century writer Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that a good lawyer is not the man who has an eye to every side and angle of contingency, and qualifies all his qualifications, but who throws...
At least that’s what 11,000 recent auto and homeowners’ claimants told J.D. Power and Associates when the company conducted its 2007 Insurance Claims Study, which measured auto and homeowner...
U.S. property/casualty insurers received another reprieve from Mother Nature in 2007, according to catastrophe loss figures recently released by the Insurance Services Office’s Property Claim...
Claim issues continue to top the list of reasons why consumers file formal complaints against their insurers, according to an annual study completed by the National Association of Insurance...
Early in 2008, the Consumer Federation of America published a scathing 37-page indictment of the property/casualty insurance industry, including one accusation that said insurers have turned their...
The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud has released its annual list of the year’s most unforgettable fraud cases. The organization compiles the list after evaluating the most outrageous insurance...
In a reversal of what most scientists have been warning, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently completed a study that said a warming global ocean could positively...
Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, Florida’s largest insurer and government-funded insurer of last resort, has cancelled its request for proposals (RFP) for claim administration services for...
The California Association of Independent Insurance Adjusters (CAIIA) is offering an educational scholarship to any interested adjuster working in California who would like to advance their training...
Mississippi State Representative Steve Holland is sponsoring House Bill 754 to make insurance companies pay their claims in a timely manner. According to the pending legislation, claims must be paid...
The storm struck High Island, Texas in September 2007 with 85 mph winds, and was the only hurricane to strike the U.S. mainland in the last two years. According to the Insurance Council of Texas,...
Senate Bill 34 states that any retrieved data from the device shall not be revealed to anyone without the consent of the owner. The proposed legislation would even deny insurance companies access to...
It’s been a long time since I had to make an insurance claim. I know, I write about the topic all of the time, but it hasn’t been since 1985 that I had any firsthand experience with adjusters. Well...
Resurrecting a settlement that was reached back in January 2007 and a subsequent breach of contract suit, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has officially ended the state’s battle with State Farm...
Allstate ranked as the worst insurer for consumers, according to the results of an investigation conducted by the American Association for Justice (AAJ) that analyzed thousands of legal documents and...
Embracing the logic that mitigating disaster-related damages begins with promoting more durable dwellings, the U.S. House has approved the Community Building Code Administration Grant Act (H.R....
When U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters announced that Americans drove 10 billion fewer miles in May 2008 than in May 2007, she was sounding the alarm that the declining funds from the gas...
In Andrew Carothers, M.D., P.C. v. Allstate Insurance, et. al, a jury unanimously found that a medical professional corporation was owned and controlled by parties other than the physician whose name...
When asked to choose between companionship and the thrill of the open road, many bikers opted for the latter. In fact, virtually all hardcore riders said that they would willingly part with their...
To better serve the needs of its policyholders following a catastrophe, Unitrin’s property and casualty insurance business Kemper has added a customized 32-foot class-a motor coach Winnebago to its...
While attending the Worker’s Compensation Educational Conference last month in Orlando, I woke to a sound of a percolating coffee pot. The gentle water-drop patter and gurgling was a bit...
Legislative action is being floated in Congress that would keep hurricane-damaged automobiles with phony titles from being sold to potential buyers, according to a House Energy and Commerce...
Structured in the same manner as health savings accounts, a catastrophe tax-free savings account could be opened to cover current and future catastrophe-related expenses. The earnings from the money...
Recent statements from Massachusetts House Representative Barney Frank indicate a possible showdown over the National Flood Insurance Program could be looming come spring. The issue revolves around...
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood won a small battle last month when the U.S. District Court granted a motion to remand to state court the lawsuits against several insurers regarding coverage for...
A national class-action lawsuit that stretched back to 1997 came to an end recently when the U.S. Supreme Court denied the petition of Michael E. Avery, et al in their suit against State Farm Mutual...
As the federal government prepares to audit taxpayers across the nation, CCH Insurance Services is giving insurance companies some advice about market conduct exams. These exams, which investigate an...
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has named its 2006 committee chairs. They are Jim Poolman, Glenn Jennings, Joel Ario, Jane Cline, Kevin McCarty, Alessandro Iuppa, Susan Voss,...
Norwich Union, one of the United Kingdom’s largest insurance companies, has revealed some of the unique reasons its customers make a claim. Included among them are paint-licking bovines and falling...
Richard Farber, 32, admitted that he stole more than $2,000 in 2003 by breaking the requirements on an insurance policy following a burglary at his house. In his claim to Philadelphia...
When a customer logs onto the site, he will find an explanation and regularly updated digital photos of his vehicle’s repair progress. In addition, the service provides customers with vehicle repair...
The Progressive Group of Insurance Companies recently reviewed claims data on more than two million motorcycles insured over the past three years to determine the likelihood of a motorcyclist getting...
Lower-risk insurance consumers will pay less for their homeowners’ and auto insurance policies due to Alaska’s recent court ruling that allows the use of credit history in insurance underwriting,...
A bill introduced in California that would regulate the use of replacement crash parts by creating a parts certification system is being opposed by the Automotive Service Association. The group...
Hawaii is the first state to have all of its counties adopt the National Weather Services’ TsunamiReady and StormReady programs. The voluntary programs foster a relationship between the NWS and...
E-Therm, an environmental remediation company, has developed a heat process called ThermaPure, which aids in the remediation of mold growth in buildings and residences. Instead of using traditional...
Sony’s unfortunately named ICD-CX50 is a gadget claim adjusters just might want to take advantage of. The device marries a 256MB flash memory digital voice recorder with a 1.2 megapixel camera, which...
Confluency Solutions, a firm that offers insurance companies web-based solutions, has released cFluent Personal Property Analyzer, a web tool that helps consumers and insurance companies determine...
Insurance Services Office has developed a loss-reserving tool that enables insurers to set loss reserves more accurately. Loss reserves are provisions insurers make to pay claims that have not been...
Natural disasters are terrible: terrible to endure, terrible to remember, even terrible to read about. In the United States, brave souls have suffered through wildfires, floods, landslides, some...
Two bills currently being considered by the U.S. Senate could affect the way that insurers staff their business operations. The bills address the issue of sending jobs overseas to countries with...
The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted 18-10 to approve HR 4571, the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act, intended to curb frivolous lawsuits. The legislation changes the way that...
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently reopened the rule-making record on employee personal protection equipment. OSHA has asked for further comments on how to determine the...
The state of California has decided to act on the recommendations of a Blue Ribbon Commission established Nov. 2, 2003, to review efforts to fight the 2003 wildfires and provide guidelines to prevent...
The American Insurance Association and CareerBuilder.com, an online career site, have joined forces to create a new recruiting tool for insurance industry professionals, companies, and other industry...
Call center numbers and agent positions in the United States are projected to decrease, according to research by Datamonitor, an independent market analysis firm. The report, The Vertical Guide to...
Barely a month after Hurricane Charley battered Florida, the state has felt two more hurricanes reach landfall. As this issue of Claims went to press, Ivan had just crashed ashore in the Florida...
Many Americans feel stressed and overworked, according to a recent Harris Interactive study, sponsored by Kronos Inc. Among those surveyed, 62 percent report having experienced an increase in job...
Three in five privately held companies report that it is likely that an employee will steal company funds or equipment this year, according to the Chubb 2004 Private Company Risk Survey, sponsored by...
Before marching into the boss’ office to demand a raise based on national salary trends, risk managers need to consider the type of industry in which they work, as well as the size of their...
The terrorist attacks of 2001 fundamentally changed the way that the world looks at risk and demonstrated that terrorism losses are too unpredictable and potentially catastrophic to be handled solely...
Two-thirds of insurance executives and analysts believe that the recent mergers of St. Paul/Travelers and John Hancock/Manulife indicate heightened industry consolidation activity, according to a...
The requirements for the disclosures that homeowner insurers must provide to their policyholders were updated by SB 1855. The new disclosures are intended to provide policyholders with accurate and...
In a unanimous vote, the Florida Building Commission recently moved to change the new 2004 Florida Building Code to meet the existing level of wind requirements in the 2001 code. The commission’s...
The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America has filed an amicus curiae with the Michigan Supreme Court requesting that it uphold the appellate court’s position. “If the Supreme Court...
Every year we send out our salary survey and report our findings in our October issue. (Yes, this is the one. Read the results on page 29.) On the survey form is a space for anonymous comments...
After months of negotiations, the U.S. House and Senate have not yet reached a consensus regarding a flood reform package. Instead, in an effort to renew the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)...
Bad-faith remedies designed to protect policyholders from unfair claim settlement practices can potentially harm consumers, warns a new report published by the National Association of Mutual...
Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) has released the findings of its 2008 Risk Management Compensation Survey, the fifth iteration of the not-for-profit organization’s annual survey. RIMS,...
State Farm, the nation’s largest auto insurer, conducted the study to find ways to reduce collisions involving teens, which represents the top cause of U.S. teen deaths, and found that teens often...
The looming homeowners’ insurance crisis has both the insurance industry and policyholders sending out a distress call. The Hartford is proposing a collaborative public policy solution within the...
According to a recent study by J.D. Power and Associates, the disparity in satisfaction levels between homeowners and auto insurance policyholders continues to widen. The findings of the 2008...
Part of the allure of iPods and MP3 players is the momentary insulation from the world at large. But zoning out can have serious consequences to pedestrians with iPods, termed “podestrians” and...
On Aug. 27, The Texas 14th Court of Appeals rejected Texas Mutual’s appeal of a jury verdict that found TMIC acted in bad faith and that the company had knowingly violated the insurance code. The...
Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty ordered State Farm Florida to issue credits or refunds totaling $120 million to current and former policyholders who did not apply for or who did not...
The Virginia State Police’s Insurance Fraud Program (IFP) is utilizing the social-networking titan to further their fight against insurance fraud, part of a new cyber campaign to educate citizens...
Guy Carpenter and Company, LLC, a global risk and reinsurance specialist, introduced its Casualty Catastrophe Model, developed jointly with Arium, Ltd., which enables casualty insurers and reinsurers...
Police report requests can now be submitted within the CCC Autoverse portal environment, the result of agreements between CCC and police report service providers ChoicePoint Police Records, Inc. and...
HygroTrac, developed by Dri-Eaz Products and GE Sensing, actively measures relative humidity, air temperature, moisture content and GPP, and transmits this information in real time to a secure web...
During this month of thanks and giving, one would guess that more insurance professionals are feeling like the turkey rather than the carver. After all, the value of insurers’ investments — because...
Milne & Associates, a provider of investigative products and services, has merged with MJM Investigations, a specialist in insurance fraud mitigation and claim services. Milne & Associates now will...
This year, the British foiled a terrorist plan to blow up U.S.-bound international flights, and we’re thankful for that. The resulting devastation would have snuffed out thousands of lives, not to...
The 25-page report, “State Insurance Fraud Bureaus: A Progress Report, 2001-2006,” contains a breakdown of key measures of success from 47 state fraud agencies, even though only 40 states currently...
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners released an updated model law several weeks ago that would require all independent claim adjusters to obtain a state-based license before they...
Whether it’s talking on a cell phone, applying makeup, or inhaling a meal while on the go, drivers and their distractions are increasing in number and frequency. In particular, the proliferation of...
The National Underwriter Company along with Claims Magazine has busily been preparing this year’s program for the ACE America’s Claim Event conference. Last year saw us visit New Orleans, a city that...
Given that the Risk and Insurance Management Society is an organization that helps educate insurance professionals on how to limit risks, it’s not surprising that the first question RIMS President...
Golden Arches. A Bitten Apple. The Swoosh. These words conjure up corporate logos that immediately connect consumers to McDonalds, Apple, and Nike. The symbols embody the very essence of their...
Springtime is upon us, and with the season comes another annual rite: young squid throttling up their crotch rockets on the big slab, avoiding Clydes and road gators, but many times doing so with no...
A litigation update from the law firm of Wood Smith Henning & Berman (WSHB) said that mold bodily injury claims won’t turn into the “new asbestos” any time soon because of successful defense...
A release by the Arkansas Insurance Department stated that Frederick Watson is suspected of being the mastermind behind a car-crash ring that has ripped off insurance companies for hundreds of...
House Bill 6065 aims to abolish the condition that anyone who suspects an unfair claim settlement practice has to prove that the practice is carried out with regular occurrence, thereby classifying...
According to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), who conducted the study, both approaches reduced traffic signal violations. However, the red light cameras made a more significant...
Heavy rainfall from tropical storms can result in property losses up to $1 billion and considerable fatalities from drowning or landslides. With that in mind, Tropical Storm Risk (TSR), a group of...
Infoglide Software’s Identity Resolution Engine resolves identities and finds hidden relationships between claimants, insureds, witnesses, service providers, addresses, vehicles, and property across...
SceneAccess, developed by Scene Genesis, links to a network of preferred auto body repair shops electronically. When a vehicle is brought to a repair shop, all the information about the vehicle and...
Integrated employment-related injury services provider Concentra now has a predictive modeling “scoring method” that aims to rapidly identify those workers’ compensation cases that could potentially...
Web-based case management tools provider Customer Expressions has launched a new web site to promote its I-Sight Investigation software. The site will provide a centralized, workflow-driven program...
There are conferences and expos and then there’s the PLRB/LIRB Conference and Expo. Justifiably billed as the largest and most comprehensive, this year’s event held last month in Orlando, lived up to...
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) is backing action by the Senate Banking Committee that supports state efforts to help insurance policyholders resolve claim disputes...
The Coalition for Asbestos Reform (CAR) is continuing to advocate against the creation of a federal trust fund for asbestos litigation claims, referred to as the Fairness in Asbestos Injury...
So we might be a little biased about the success of our conference, which took place last month, but choosing to have this year’s 10th annual ACE America’s Claim Event in New Orleans was a decision...
Accidental injury, which is the leading cause of death for people under 40 and the fifth leading cause of death for all ages, ranked third behind violent crime and natural disasters as the top safety...
The American Insurance Association (AIA) is part of an industry effort opposed to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) adoption of a resolution supporting the need for a federal...
Versions of the 2003-05 Cadillac Escalade, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and Dodge Ram 1500 quad cab pickup have the highest rates of insurance theft claims according to a study published by the...
Fraud is something that Don Delaney, a long-time Chicago claim adjuster and first-time author, has plenty of experience dealing with. Recently, he shared with Claims some insights from his often...
Rock musician Ted Nugent might be famous for his “Cat Scratch Fever,” but these days he’s complaining of a different kind of health problem: severe immune system problems from exposure to mold and...
Insure.com, a company that provides insurance information to consumers, and Hagerty Insurance have listed some of the most dangerous foods a driver can eat while driving. What makes the foods so...
Having just returned from our ACE conference in New Orleans, I can tell you that almost 10 months after Katrina too much devastation remains. What’s not there are half of the 500,000 people who were...
H.R. 4973, the Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2006 (FIRM), is an attempt to fix the much-maligned NFIP program, which is funded by premiums and administered by insurance companies....
Beginning last month, The Hartford Financial Services Group began offering emergency claim debit cards to its policyholders who sustain losses after a catastrophic event. The cards can be used at...
In the last two years, the NFIP’s number of policies in force has increased by more than 11 percent. Unsurprisingly, the strongest growth has been in Florida, Texas, and Louisiana. David Maurstad,...
If you are injured in an auto accident, there is a one-in-seven chance that the at-fault driver is uninsured, according to a recent Insurance Research Council (IRC) study. The estimated percentage of...
Tenet Healthcare Corporation, which operates hospitals and related health-care services, reached an agreement with its property insurers to settle all claims related to physical damage and business...
Are you a Whacky Weaver? Or perhaps a Driving Diva? With more than 30 million Americans expected to hit the road this summer, the Hagerty Collector Network, which provides insurance for collectible...
Answers to these questions will help an adjuster determine which insurance relocation provider is best for a specific type of relocation. Many of these questions also are appropriate to ask of...
Property claim service group Insurance Servicing & Adjusting Company was acquired by independent adjusting firm David Morse & Associates Group. ISAC will continue to operate under the same name. More...
As all long-time readers of Claims know, we prepare an annual salary survey for claim personnel and publish the results in our October issue. This survey is very important to you because it’s a vital...
Famed attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs dodged criminal contempt charges last month that stemmed from Hurricane Katrina litigation when a U.S. district judge granted his request for a dismissal...
The 36-page report, which is entitled, “Celent Model Carrier 2008: Case Studies of Effective Technology Usage in Insurance,” focuses on 10 different technology touch points for insurers, including...
The most important — and often toughest — part of an adjuster’s job is determining coverage. Each month, Claims publishes a coverage question asked by an insurance professional, along with an answer...
The Property Loss Research Bureau and the Liability Insurance Research Bureau is gearing up for another year at the annual Claims Conference, which is being held in Boston at the Sheraton Boston,...
In March, Claims Magazine gave J. Robert Hunter from the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) the chance to explain some of the negative observations he made about the property/casualty industry in a...
Carfax said that while the problem was exacerbated by the flooding that occurred post-Hurricane Katrina, where hundreds of thousands of automobiles were deemed totaled by insurers, the problem has...
The system was initiated shortly after a devastating tsunami killed more than 300,000 Indonesians on Dec. 26, 2004. The gargantuan wave was caused by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean. Because the...
The Northwest Automotive Trades Association (NATA) recently conducted a survey of auto collision repair shops across the state of Oregon for the third year in a row to see how insurance companies are...
South Dakota has seen the introduction of a bill that would institute certification provisions concerning the use of replacement auto parts after a vehicle has been involved in an accident. According...
The Louisiana Property and Casualty Insurance Commission held a meeting earlier this year where attorney Mike Barron from the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission presented some legislative...
With the writers’ strike (barely) over, a lot of us have spent more time reading or watching cable. Thank God for cable, where they show the same movies over and over, often on more than one channel...
The Gulf Coast was full of legal activity again last month, with controversial verdicts and leaked information involving the handling of claims by insurance giants State Farm Insurance and Allstate...
Mississippi Senator Trent Lott lobbed another legislative grenade toward insurance companies last month when he introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate that would require homeowners’ insurers to fully...
This issue of Claims spotlights some of the new and evolving technologies that company claim departments are using to increase cost-cutting capabilities, streamline processes, and detect fraud. But...
A Supreme Court decision last month holding the EPA responsible for regulating greenhouse gasses could have tsunami-like effects on insurers. In order to explain the decision and its importance in...
Besides having jaw-dropping good looks, the Ferrari Enzo has been billed as the ultimate street machine because it does not require a Formula One license to handle, and it can hit 60 mph in less than...
Every year, Claims Magazine awards an academic scholarship to a student studying at the Katie School of Insurance and Financial Services at Illinois State University. The program prepares its...
Progressive surveyed more than 1,000 RV owners to find out some of the amusing and at times embarrassing blunders they’ve made while traveling, the company said. The study’s results found that the...
The report said that personal injury and casualty cases were up by more than 18 percent last year. Workers’ compensation cases, meanwhile, increased 36 percent, and property and auto fraud cases rose...
State Farm will begin sending out information to 35,000 Mississippi policyholders who filed foundation-only claims — also referred to as “slab” claims — that stemmed from Hurricane Katrina. Those who...
A study from the Insurance Research Council (IRC) entitled, “Florida Auto Injury Insurance Claim Environment, 2007 Final Report,” concluded that the increased use of diagnostic tests and chiropractic...
“This unique ERM solution achieves the dual objectives of allowing management to stress-test its annual business plan and provide simplified ERM on a true calendar/accident year basis,” said Tom...
RiskMeter Online’s storm-surge report is based on the SLOSH (Sea, Lake, and Overland Surges from Hurricanes) model. The report will tell users if a property falls within an area likely to be flooded...
Software and service provider Allegient Systems has launched its Independent Adjusters ASP Bill Review (IA ASP) program, a web-based bill review service designed specifically for independent...
The program will help corporate, legal, and insurance claim departments manage their legal costs by implementing updated features, including the ability to quickly and easily associate all...
The subject of insurance fraud is a serious issue for the industry. How’s that for understatement? Just ask Dave Rioux, CIFI, vice president and manager of the Corporate Security...
The property losses sustained this past year from 37 catastrophes — the highest frequency in a decade — will likely cost U.S. P&C insurers billions of dollars. Indeed, a preliminary analysis...
The Council on Litigation Management (CLM) hasn’t been around for years, but what it lacks in age it more than makes up for in experience and momentum, as demonstrated by the way it has been embraced...
Celent has some advice to share with any insurer seeking a new core claim system: Begin the process by looking inward. In its new report titled “Core Claims Systems Vendors 2008,” the Boston-based...
Gas prices and living expenses are rising, and a buck just doesn’t go as far as it once did. During this time of financial hardship, some are turning to unscrupulous ways to stretch their dollars,...
In recent news, witnesses speculated that a UFO destroyed a wind turbine in the U.K. Naturally this begs the question, “What if a UFO crashed into your house instead?” Some homeowners may fear an...
New data gathered by Quality Planning Corporation (QPC), an ISO company that validates policyholder information for auto insurers, dispels the pervasive notion that drivers of high-performance...
Imagine stepping into the tee box, concentrating on keeping your left arm straight and head down. You ease your driver into a backswing, drop the club face down, and listen to the crack of a golf...
A independent survey of 50 New Jersey auto repair facilities — conducted by research firm USA/Direct — ranked Teachers Auto Insurance of New Jersey ahead of companies such as AIG/21st Century,...
Baron & Budd, P.C., a Dallas-based law firm, has established an insurance claim practice intended to aid policyholders affected by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav in negotiating property insurance claims...
PEMCO’s claim trends show the year-end snowstorms and rapid snowmelt will end up generating a projected 1,305 claims, totaling around $7 million in losses. If those figures hold, then the spate of...
Cypress Care released a new version of Sequoia, its proprietary online claim management portal. Sequoia provides workers’ compensation and auto liability claim professionals with access to detailed,...
Full Capture Solutions, Inc., a provider of business analytic and search technologies for the insurance industry, introduced the Semantic 360 Data Mart, which provides a comprehensive platform for...
Mitchell International, Inc., a provider of information, workflow, and performance management solutions to the property and casualty claim and collision repair industries, released ABS 8.2 and ABS...
There’s never quite enough time in the day. So, like the claim professionals for whom we write, I multitask out of necessity. One tool I’ve found helpful is the Google Alert. A simple idea, the...
A study conducted by technology services provider Fiserv concludes that while new policy administration systems continue to dominate the “wish lists” of insurers looking to implement large-scale...
The findings of the J.D. Power and Associates’ “2008 Auto Claims Satisfaction Study,” indicate that policyholders are more content and thus more inclined to renew policies with insurers that have...
According to a preliminary analysis by ISO’s Property Claim Services (PCS) unit, insurers will dole out an estimated $11.5 billion to homeowners and businesses to cover third-quarter property losses....
Effective claim training is a fundamental driver to overall business success. Even in a lagging economy, it is crucial not to scrimp on educational initiatives. University of Farmers is national in...
Many collision repair shops find it increasingly difficult to run their businesses profitably. A logical inference is that the current financial climate is to blame for this dilemma. However, the...
A Suffolk County grand jury returned indictments against David Fioravanti, 43, of Boston, in connection with the alleged jewelry scam. He was also charged with defrauding his auto insurance company...
The study, conducted by the Allstate Insurance Company, surveyed 50 fire departments across the state and asked Texas fire chiefs and marshals for the most common everyday activities leading to house...
Avizent, a risk management service provider, released VISUAL Claims Studio (VCS) claim administration system. The VCS system, used by internal claim staff, is a Windows-based, client-server...
Oracle introduced Oracle Application Integration Architecture (AIA) Foundation Pack for Insurance, which enables insurance companies to accelerate application integration between Siebel CRM Claims...
Progressive Medical, Inc. announced the availability of Intervention RX, a program that provides an in-depth clinical review analysis and report of an injured party’s medication usage. With...
Gift giving has always been a way of expressing love and admiration — unless it’s the Federal Government giving you billions of dollars to shore up the house of cards that is this country’s current...
A new study of insurance chief information and chief technology officers from Europe and the U.S. says that a small percentage of insurers are considering the idea of outsourcing portions of their...
Allstate has released approximately 150,000 pages of documents pertaining to a review of its claim practices conducted in the 1990s — referred to as the McKinsey documents — in order to dispel what...
The National Underwriter Company and Claims Magazine have busily been preparing this year’s program for the 12th Annual ACE America’s Claim Event conference. Responding to the needs and desires of...
Claim technology is more than just software; its creation and adoption by companies can have big influences on adjusters. Claims’ Eric Gilkey confirmed this when he spoke with Vincent Cialdella, who...
In what turned out to be a month of positive legal verdicts for State Farm, a group of law firms that had formed to prosecute the insurer and its third-party administrator E.A. Renfroe in a large...
Progressive’s web site came out on top in a survey that studied how well 22 major auto insurance web sites met the expectations of those viewing the sites. Insurers Geico, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide,...
A law firm that specializes in representing policyholders who have experienced catastrophe claims has filed a lawsuit against several Florida insurance officials for allegedly failing to notify...
The $21 million dispute involved Paramount Kings Island (PKI) and Admiral Insurance. In the case, which began in Nov. 2000, PKI alleged that the Roller Coaster Company of Ohio (RCCO) was liable for...
H.B. 5489 — referred to as the Public Adjusters’ Law — would require that all public adjusters be licensed in the state before doing business. The process involves meeting certain basic requirements,...
Regretfully, it’s time for me to say goodbye. I’ve been with Claims since October 2000, and it’s been a terrific ride and a wonderful cap to my career in publishing, which began in an era of brand...
If you weren’t able to make it out to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for the ACE conference, worry not. Here are a few personal awards I’m handing out to those who contributed to some of the show's biggest highlights....
There will be lessons to learn from the response efforts in Haiti, and I know those who head up our industry’s catastrophe units are paying attention. ...
"Come again?" That’s the thought that ran through my mind when I.I.I. President Dr. Robert Hartwig told a crowd of hundreds that there have been double-digit reductions in claim departments over the last two years.
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Has the economy finally affected everybody — and everything? Did Mother Nature take a mandated furlough in June and July, content to work on her tan while sipping mojitos on the beaches of Miami? ...
A lot of insightful material was left on the cutting-room floor when I wrapped up the research and composition of "Tricks of the Trade." So I’m going to let you in on some of the outtakes....
Insurers are embracing new technologies and trying to buck their reputations as late adopters. More and more, they are connecting to their policyholders in a unique way....
Companies with exposure to the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico are insured for losses totaling about $1.4 billion, according to initial reports from the companies involved in the incident....
For me, measuring true success in goal setting has always meant knowing where the finish line is, no matter what month. ...
All claim professionals will have a Jim Joyce moment during their careers. It is likely that most will have several. How we overcome those bad moments speaks volumes. ...
Citing insurer sensitivity to certain words, Insure.com recently advised policyholders to avoid using five particular words when discussing a claim with an agent or a claim adjuster....
An interesting debate flared up last month on claimsmag.com regarding one of our more controversial web exclusive articles. The topic? Public adjusters....
Dennis Costello and his team at Second Chair Software have been working with insurance carriers to ob-tain video depositions of witnesses in litigation so that claim personnel can evaluate witnesses from their desktops....
Inconsistent. Dubious. Inequitable. Controversy. Inexperience. These are not the type of words we want to describe our industry’s next response to catastrophe. ...
Breaking habits and patterns of thinking, fully embracing change in any aspect of life is more difficult than it sounds. ...
Phil became more than just my boss — he was a mentor and a friend. He gave me the opportunity to succeed — as well as to fail. ...
Hurricane season is here, and with it comes uncertainty....
Over the years, special investigation units (SIUs) have rapidly evolved in terms of methodology and structure in response to a changing world and emerging fraud schemes. Just ask Tim Wolfe. ...
DKI President and CEO Dale A. Sailer discusses the importance of understanding green construction and how companies and the industry as a whole can do their part in creating green environments and serving evolving client needs....
Editor in Chief Eric Gilkey spoke with Plymouth Rock Assurance Corp.’s Paula Gold to get answers about anti-texting laws and their effects on the industry....
The property/casualty insurance industry does not pose a systemic risk and should not be subject to any new federal systemic authority, according to recent testimony from two major insurance industry associations.
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The Atlantic basin could be in for an above-average hurricane season this year with four major hurricanes forecast to develop in the region, according to forecasters at Colorado State University....
Frost & Sullivan recently conducted a survey to evaluate the dynamics impacting the North American salvage parts aftermarket....
A report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) shows that staged accident questionable claims increased 46 percent from 2007 through 2009....
P&C insurers may be hit by a swirl of claims arising from swine flu that include actions against homeowners and businesses, a medical malpractice defense attorney predicted. ...
Crawford & Company’s KMC On Demand recently launched a pilot designation program that includes such distinguished companies as Allstate, Pilot CAT, and Nationwide....
Consumer advocates are concerned about a bill that could ostensibly undo a current Calif. law preventing insurers from “steering” customers to auto body shops under contract with the insurer. ...
Richard Parrillo, Sr., founder and CEO of United Automobile Insurance Company, recently launched a public relations campaign to expose what he says are plaintiffs’ lawyers who are exploiting Florida’s legal system in regard to PIP benefits. ...
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has released its annual list of top consumer complaints, and as in recent years, the top three issues reported by consumers were dominated by claim-related issues. ...
The debate over wind-versus-water homeowner claims is not quite as cut and dried thanks to a ruling last month by the Mississippi Supreme Court in a Hurricane Katrina case....
Advisory firm Celent recently published a report on insurance business process outsourcing trends....
Claims’ Eric Gilkey sat down with Terry Fleming to discuss his plan for the organization, the challenges that risk professionals face, fallout from the troubled economy, and how claims can better work with risk professionals....
For the fifth consecutive year, data collected by the National Insurance Crime Bureau points to a steady decline in U.S. auto theft. ...
A lawsuit has been filed in Louisiana against 14 insurers that seeks indemnification for losses and breach of contract arising from claims for the development and sale of homes allegedly containing defective Chinese manufactured drywall....
Since the news of tainted drywall — and its noxious fumes — started rolling in, manufacturers and other businesses that supplied and installed the building material have denied liability. ...
A proposal by Governor Schwarzenegger to downgrade various crimes from felony to misdemeanor status is drawing heavy scrutiny....
Suspicious claims and insurance fraud continue to plague New York’s no-fault auto system. ...
review of the NICB's files indicated a 20-percent increase in suspicious car fires, a 76-percent increase in questionable auto glass claims, and a 90-percent hike in product liability claims. ...
The city of Nashville expects total damage from flooding that began in early May to surpass the billion-dollar mark.
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Auto insurers in the Empire State have even more of an incentive these days to hone fraud-detection capabilities, as no-fault claim costs have risen 56 percent since 2004. ...
In its latest ForeCAST analysis, the NICB reported a significant swell in both hail loss claims and hail loss questionable claims....
Severe thunderstorms caused more than $6 billion in insured damages during the first six months of 2009, making it the leading cause for insurance losses so far in what has been called a moderate year for natural disasters....
The U.S. property and casualty insurance industry has a problem attracting talent and fails to make the coordinated effort needed to find a remedy, according to McKinsey & Company....
Guy Carpenter’s Instrat unit has issued reports about last year’s notable global tropical cyclone activity as well as 2008 man-made and technical catastrophes. ...
ISO Senior Vice President Vincent Cialdella spoke with Claims about transforming claim processes and some of the many other timely topics slated for discussion at ISOTECH...
Recent remarks about the creation of an optional federal charter regulatory system have educed a fractured response from leading insurance associations.
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A recent government study on Chinese drywall has revealed a "strong association" between the drywall and corrosion in homes that may physically irritate their residents. ...
With the approach of peak tornado season, it is timely that Risk Management Solutions has released a report analyzing the impact of the 2008 U.S. severe convective storm season. ...
The federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. has found that auto damage adjusters working for GEICO do not qualify for overtime benefits under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
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AIR Worldwide estimates total insured losses stemming from the snowstorm to be between $150 and $350 million. ...
Thousands of policyholders may be eligible for payments as a result of a class-action settlement between Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. and several other affiliated companies....
This year, ACE America’s Claims Event returns to Las Vegas for its 14th iteration. Steeped in a rich tradition of claim excellence, the event takes place June 22-24, 2010 at the Bellagio Hotel. ...
An annual technology survey indicates that claim system implementation isn’t as high on P&C insurers’ to-do lists as it has been in the past.
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Providing the best possible customer experience while moving toward accurate claim resolution is the resounding mantra of claim departments everywhere....
A second patent infringement lawsuit between two major claim technology providers has flared up a public relations battle after a nearly two-year hiatus....
Tropical storm season is here, and by most predictions, will be a season to remember.
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The Ward Group has released its top 50 P&C insurance companies in the United States, and the list looks significantly different from just one year ago....
"What would it look like for an insurer to do everything right with today’s technology?" is a question posed — and answered by — Celent in its recent 78-page report, Model Insurer 2010: Case Studies of Effective Technology Use in Insurance.
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Black Mold Exposure is a feature documentary that delves into the controversy surrounding toxic mold and chronicles its devastating impact on people from various walks of life. ...
Are deer exacting their smirking revenge on humans? A recent release from State Farm Insurance may have the answer....
Each year, Claims Magazine awards an academic scholarship to a student at the Katie School of Insurance and Financial Services at Illinois State University....
The Tropical Meteorology Project at Colorado State University (CSU) has released its predictions for Atlantic basin hurricane activity in the new year. ...
A $17 million verdict in a class-action lawsuit concerning the use of aftermarket auto parts has gone against an insurer who used non-OEM or salvaged OEM parts when repairing some of its Missouri customers’ automobiles....
Policyholders who file auto claims are still generally happier with their experience than are those filing property claims....
The findings of a recent Allstate Foundation study suggest that girls are racing ahead of boys in their need for speed and "aggressive" driving behavior....
Karen Pauli authored a recent research note that provides an illuminating overview of the five technologies most sustainable for insurance carriers’ business operations in 2009 and into 2010. ...
Although their claim forces have been reduced by 16 percent, a majority of insurers still say that hiring qualified claim adjusters is a priority, according to a recent study....
The Honorable Order of the Blue Goose, International stresses ideals that are at the very core of the insurance industry. ...
Each year, Claims Magazine awards an academic scholarship to a student at the Katie School of Insurance and Financial Services at Illinois State University. ...
Columbus, OH-based Nationwide Insurance announced in October that Mark Pizzi was assuming the role of president for the company, effective immediately....
At a special ceremony held at the 14th Annual ACE America’s Claim Event in Las Vegas, Nev., a beaming Daniel W. Jurgella accepted the 2010 Claim Professional of the Year award. ...
Texting has become socially acceptable — or at least socially tolerated — almost everywhere today. ...
A record-breaking spat of winter storms that blanketed the Midwest and Eastern U.S. regions with snow in February 2010 is expected to cost insurers billions....
Capital Insurance Group has launched a program by which its auto insurance policyholders can receive a Bluetooth headset gratis by recommending a friend. ...
The commute for Kentucky motorists may soon prove a bit more somber. ...
People/Ventures/New Releases...
United Automobile Insurance Company is praising a Florida-based ruling that confirms a person cannot sue his auto insurance company for failing to provide an explanation of benefits on personal injury protection claims....
InStar Services Group named seasoned veteran Mark Davis as its new president and CEO. Claims’ Eric Gilkey chatted with him about his past, his future, and what he thinks are the biggest issues facing the insurance restoration industry right now.
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The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud reports that fraud bureaus are noticing a significant uptick in their caseloads, but staff resources are scant....
News from around the nation, including New York, Georgia, and Kansas...
Claims spoke with Tom Crawford to find out more about his achievements, how he sees the independent adjuster industry changing, and his retirement plans. ...
Web-savvy policyholders increasingly want options by which to interact with service providers. In response, Allstate Insurance Company has developed Next Gen Self-Service to enable "do-it-yourself" claim-handling....
Buckle up for a bumpy ride. From Beantown to the Big Apple, AAA and the Travel Channel are scouring the country to find drivers capable of the most shameless driving infractions....
Scottish Gangster Ian “Blink” McDonald, 48, continues to not-so-subtly contest Aviva’s refusal to pay £26,000 to replace his Mercedes Kompressor, which was firebombed in May....
According to Swinton, home insurance claims are on the rise because of increasing numbers of accidents resulting from soirees....
When Arbitration Forums told us that its new web-based subrogation system could save insurers up to $500 million in claim costs, we decided a little chat was in order....
In this month's issue, we look at fraud cases in North Carolina and Ohio....
Behind the assumed protection of the Internet, some writers hastily spew zingers or post diatribes that may lack both decorum and veracity. ...
The (insurance) world in which we reside is quite an inhospitable place, where one can scarcely count on a good "neighbor" or "friend" to do the right thing, Jay M. Feinman asserts in so many words in his book....
What’s a faux manager to do when his or her prized player suffers a season-ending injury? Well, fantasy football players can try something real: an insurance policy....
The promise of a big payoff — along with bad television, apparently — compelled two cousins to stage an armed robbery during which one shot the other with a gun....
Wolters Kluwer Financial Services recently released its annual list of the top 10 reasons insurance companies are found to be out of compliance during market conduct examinations, and many of the issues were related to claims. ...
Steve Poizner, California Insurance Commissioner and Republican gubernatorial candidate, has garnered various accolades for his strong anti-fraud stance. Unfortunately, one of his relatives may have pursued a much less noble path....
Fraud around the States....
The wrath of grapes was, unfortunately, all too familiar for many furry companions in 2008. ...
Geostationary operational environmental satellites enable NOAA forecasters to track life-threatening weather — such as hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes....
This month, we look at fraud cases from Kentucky, North Carolina, California, and Maryland....