Newsletter Sign-up

INSURANCE

A new service for corporate clients purchasing locally admitted directors' and officers' liability insurance to cover their international operations and subsidiaries is now available from American International Group Inc. Called AIG Passport, the service provides customers with the opportunity to request from an AIG underwriter a global D&O program letter that details terms and conditions of the base D&O policy and one or more locally admitted policies, written in the local language and compliant with specific local laws and regulations. AIG Passport is available for international operations and subsidiaries in more than 75 countries and jurisdictions.

E&O

Swiss Re has launched a new errors and omissions product expanding its professional liability coverage. It is available through the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America. The policy is designed to provide a solution for agencies that do not qualify for the Westport Insurance Corp. program written through IIABA state associations. This expansion also allows the reinsurer to provide E&O coverage to more agencies.

Legal Expense

U.S. Risk Underwriters, a specialty lines underwriting manager and wholesale broker, has unveiled its new ElderCare Legal Expense Reimbursement policy for skilled care, assisted living, continuing care retirement communities and other long-term-care facilities. The policy reimburses for legal expenses incurred during defense of a general or professional liability claim brought on by a medical event or offense. The policy deductible is $5,000, with limits up to $250,000. Coverage is available in all states except Alaska, Florida and Mississippi.

Small Business

Zurich is expanding the number of subclasses of businesses its small business division will underwrite to provide more opportunities for agents doing business with the company. An additional 188 subclasses are now eligible under Zurich's core retail, office and service segments for insurance programs that include auto, umbrella and, for many classes, workers' compensation.

General Liability

Builders Insurance Group, a commercial property/casualty insurance company, has introduced a general liability program to the Florida market. This product, already successful in Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, allows home builders to use eQuotes to quote, bind and track policies. The general liability coverage is available to residential general contractors, residential developers and residential remodeling contractors.

Professional Liability

The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has expanded policy limits available to customers of its FailSafe MEGA professional liability product from $1 million to $2 million. The coverage is designed for smaller technology firms and offered only through the company's Technology Practice Group.

TECHNOLOGY

Document Management

Applied Systems, a provider of insurance agency and broker management system software, has added bar-coding capabilities to its batch-scanning document management products. The bar-code addition to batch scanning in the Agency Manager 8.0 and the Agency Manager Vision Series 4.0 will advance the paperless culture for independent insurance agents and brokers. The technology allows a customer-service representative to make necessary notes on incoming mail or printed documents, generate a bar code for the client information, and pass on the documents to be scanned and attached directly to client files.

Communication

ImageRight, the vendor in property/casualty content management and workflow solutions, has released ImageRight Black Box. This tool will allow easier communication between carriers, agents, brokers, third-party administrators and reinsurers. Black Box creates sender and receiver relationships that enable the sharing of information through a subscription model.

Identity Theft

Identity Theft 911, an identity theft resolution and education vendor, has launched Comprehensive Identity Theft and Breach Response, a new program that addresses fraud situations related to identity theft. The program also represents Identity Theft 911's entry into the commercial lines segment of the property/casualty market. The product was codeveloped with boiler and machinery insurance provider Mutual Boiler Re of Malvern, Pa. CITBR expands basic identity-theft resolution technology to include disaster document recovery, travel assistance and security breach responses.

Database

National Marketing Services, a teleservices company for the insurance industry, has launched AGENCYdirectory, a product that offers insurance carriers, managing general agents, managing general underwriters, wholesalers and vendors access to agency data and profiling information. This database includes 30,000 entities, with 60,000 e-mails and 85,000 contacts. In addition to contact information, AGENCYdirectory contains information on annual revenue, insurers represented, targeted sectors and commercial-lines premium volume.

Risk Management

Ag Energy Co-operative, a Canadian farm energy co-operative supplying natural gas and electricity to agricultural producers in Ontario, has chosen RiskAdvisory's BookRunner software to capture the details of its energy transactions, implement strong risk management processes, and sustain its continued growth in the Canadian energy and commodities markets. RiskAdvisory is a division of SAS and a provider of integrated risk solutions to energy market participants.

Claims Reporting

CIGNA Group Insurance has improved its disability claims reporting platform to provide customers more robust self-service capabilities via the Internet. Employers now have access to critical operational claims information, such as advice-to-pay reports, individual claims status, new claim notifications, analytical information and health-care reports for customers who have medical coverage with CIGNA HealthCare.

REFERENCE

Terrorism

The Public Entity Risk Institute, a nonprofit risk management training and educational organization, has partnered with Claire B. Rubin and Associates to produce a comprehensive narrative covering 18 years of significant terrorist acts and how the United States responded. The report, titled "Major Terrorism Events and Their U.S. Outcomes (1988-2005)," contains factual accounts of major terrorist occurrences and the resulting changes to laws, regulations and organizational structures.

November 1, 2006

Copyright 2006© LRP Publications