Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony

We are sorry for the silence on the blog while we were prepping for last Friday's event. The 13th Annual Insurance Professional of the Year Award ceremony was a success in every sense of the word!

We had a record number of attendees (almost 500) to honor this year's winner, Francis A. Mancini. We also had a record number of signers for this year's Letter of Congratulations published in The Standard.

We are so proud of what this event represents and how much it has grown in the last 13 years. It is through the support of those in the industry that this event is so successful. We owe a debt of gratitude to each of the organizations and individuals who has sponsored, donated, and attended this event for the past thirteen years. Not to mention to the exemplary professionals who have accepted the award; thank you.

Finally, don't miss the interview with Frank Mancini in today's edition of Agency Checklists.

Summer Hours!

As you may have seen in our most recent newsletter (and if you didn't, why aren't you on our email list?!), Summer hours are now in effect at The Library. Through Labor Day, The Library will be closed on Fridays except by previous appointment.

We will periodically check email and voicemail, so if you have a rush request, do leave us a message and we will do our best to help (please note that extra fees may be incurred for the rush request).

We use this time to work on projects which we can't get done during the rest of the year and to catch up on various tasks. We believe that taking this time "off" in the summer better prepares us to meet the needs of our patrons throughout the rest of the year.

When it Rains it Pours

 

Source: Risk & Insurance Cover Story: Building Resiliency in the Face of Climate Change

 

As those of us in states with four seasons are experiencing the highs (and lows) of spring, it seems an apt time for all of the attention which is currently getting paid to climate change and insurance. We have been inundated, of late, here at The Library with information on the topic.

In today's mail we received copy of the most recent edition of Risk & Insurance with an arresting image on the front (see above). Risk & Insurance cites a number of studies/facts from leading expert organizations in their three page spread entitled: Business Resiliency in the Face of Climate Change, including from Munich Re and from The Business Continuity Institute.

On Friday, The Standard published an article with excerpts from a recent S&P study entitled: "Are Insurers Prepared for the Extreme Weather Climate Change May Bring?" It's been a popular study, also garnering articles, from Property Casualty 360, and two from The Insurance Journal.

Last week we received a donation of books from a member company. Included in the donation were copies of At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes by Howard C. Kunreuther & Erwann O. Michel-Kerjan, 2009, The Financing of Catastrophe Risk edited by Kenneth A. Froot, 1999, and Catastrophe Modeling: A New Approach to Managing Risk edited by Patricia Grossi and Howard Kunreuther, 2005.

If you're interested in the topic, we here at The Library are poised to help, as best we can!

What's Black & White and Red All Over?!

It's not a zebra with a sunburn, it's articles about us! In case you missed it, in the past week two articles have been written about The Library.

Agency Checklists started the week off with an article about The Boston Insurance Training Center arm of our Library. You can click here to read more about our first class offered at Roxbury's Project Hope. The Boston Insurance Training Center was funded by grants from the Arbella Charitable Foundation and Eastern Insurance. This grant allows us to introduce career opportunities to underrepresented individuals and to provide the foundation of quality, professional insurance education. For more information on this program or to offer internship/job opportunities for those taking the classes, please contact Glenn Cryan.

We're ending the week with an article in The Standard. Robert Montgomery, CPCU announces in his editorial that The Library is publishing a History due out later this year. This week's issue of The Standard contains some excerpts from that upcoming book (that article begins on page 12).



Click Here to Visit The Standard's Website

A Fond Farewell



Erin Ayers last "According to The Standard" was published today

Today, The Library joins many in the New England Industry, in wishing Erin Ayers, long-time, and much loved, editor of The Standard, the very best of luck in her future endeavors.

We've always had a soft spot for Erin, here at The Library. Often we'd vie for a spot next to her at our big event because she was easy to talk to and always interesting. Erin was a joy to correspond with, should we need information regarding recent local events or suggestions on where to find a particularly tricky statistic.

Erin, we wish you well and we hope you stay in touch!

For those of you who would like to see Erin's final standard, you can go here: http://www.thestandard-digital.com/thestandard/20140418#pg1

If you're interested in picking up where Erin is leaving off, you can see the job description below.

Send Resumes to: Susanne Dillman at The Standard

Cyber Insurance -- We're Not Done Harping On It Yet!

We just came across a report from Willis entitled: Willis Special Report: 10k Disclosures -- How Retail Companies Describe Their Cyber Liability Exposures. In light of the last article we linked to which described the Target debacle as "the equivalent of 10 free super bowl ads," We thought it might be good to draw your attention to what retailers think about their cyber risk.

Cyber Insurance Still a BIG Deal!

We know we've been re-miss in updating our blog posts, but until we get back on track with that, we thought we'd pop in with a link to a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled: Cyberattacks Give Lift to Insurance: Sales of Cyberinsurance, to a Diverse Mix of Customers, Are Up Sharply this Year, Brokers Say.  According to the article:

Insurers have pushed the coverage hard for a while, and this year may be an important turning point. "The Target data breach was the equivalent of 10 free Super Bowl ads," said Randy Maniloff, an insurance-industry lawyer with White & Williams.

Looks like this blogpost isn't so out of date after all!

Unmasking the 2014 Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony

Insurance Professional of the Year Award Winners, Richard Brewer, John Golembeski, Michael Sabbagh, Francis Bellotti, Hope Aldrich, John Conners and Daniel Johnston at the 2013 Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony

 

This year the Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony will coincide with Halloween. It's no trick, mark your calendars now for, October 31, 2014, when we'll be celebrating more than just All-Hallows'-Eve, as we honor a hallowed member of the Insurance Industry. 

The Insurance Professional of the Year is selected by a committee comprised of a cross-section of the industry. We value your input greatly as it helps the committee in their decision process. Please send in your nominations for the 2014 Insurance Professional of the Year as soon as possible.

As a reminder, the individual selected to be professional of the year shall be someone who: has earned the respect and affection of the insurance community and is recognized as hardworking, public-spirited, and trustworthy. 

The award is meant to honor outstanding citizens who have distinguished themselves through service to their industry and the community at large. If you know of a worthy candidate who fits these criteria, we'd love to hear about them. 

 
For a full list of the past winners, you can visit our website, here. Please forward any nominations for a 2014 winner that you might have to shart@insurancelibrary.org by April 1, 2014.

April Showers. . .

Please Note: this post was supposed to go up while I was on vacation last week! Sorry for the delay, I hope it still proves informative.

Where did April go?! We're heading into the end of May and somehow with one thing and another I didn't manage to get our "Collection Selections" e-newsletter highlighting journal articles and new books published.

I also haven't had a chance to update the blog or start spring cleaning my desk! We did manage to write and post a new newsletter for the library though, so I would definitely recommend going over there and taking a look if you didn't see it when it came out on May 7th.

I  have a few ideas on blog posts I'd like to get up and running. We had a couple of Q&As in the newsletter which I think we could flesh out a little more. One on co-insurance penalties and one on no-fault vs. non no-fault auto insurance states (an important topic here in New England since we can so easily cross borders into either territory). I was also talking with some friends this weekend about homeowners/renters insurance and, having just put in a claim on my personal articles policy, I thought it might be useful to take a look at some homeowners basics.

While most of my current ideas run toward the consumer end of the spectrum, we would love to provide more technical information on the blog for those professionals who are readers. Please, as always, feel free to email blog suggestions to shart@insurancelibrary.org

In the meantime, I thought I might highlight some of the articles I wanted to mention in the April Collection Selections newsletter.

Our Library hosted a new seminar on May 8th taught by Craig Stanovich. He was discussing Cyber Risk and Privacy Violation Insurance. It was a very timely topic since a flood of new information on the topic came out this spring.

Source

On March 19th, Business Insurance devoted an entire issue of their publication to Cyber Risks.Clearly if you're interested in the topic, you should take a look at that entire issue, but one article that might be of interest, especially to producers, is entitled Few Firms Buy Coverage for Cyber Risks: Survey. Not only does it provide information on the purchasing patterns for cyber insurance but it has a table showing "Why Companies Do Not Buy Cyber Coverage." There's also a great article by Scott N. Godes of Dickstein Shapiro, LLP entitled Surprising Sources of Coverage. While he recommends checking the company's Cyber Insurance Policies for coverage first, he also suggests that there might be coverage found in Commercial General Liability policies, Crime policies, Commercial first-party property policies and Employment Practices Liability policies.

Source

Also out this spring, was Verizon's 2012 Data Breach Investigation Report. They have collected eight year's worth of data breach information from around the world. Their "goal is that the data and analysis presented in this report prove helpful to the planning and security efforts of [their] reader." It's a great resource for Risk Managers!

Source

In April, Towers Watson published their 3rd Annual Risk and Finance Manager Survey. In their executive summary, they mention that 72% of North American Companies have not purchased network security/privacy liability policies. Not only is this survey of great importance to risk managers, producers would do well to take a look at it to when trying to figure out what their clients are likely to need/why they might not have the coverage they require.

Source

For those looking for more in-depth coverage on Cyber Liability, The Library also recently purchased a copy of the National Underwriter book: Cyber Liability and Insurance: Managing the Risks of Intangible Assets.  You can click here to take a look at the table of contents. The book even includes some specimen forms!

This was just a short sampling of some recent Cyber Liability items we have in our collection. If you're interested in more coverage of this, or another insurance-related topic we encourage you to stop by the library or shoot us an email!

Consumer Services for Lost Life Insurance

One of the many services that The Insurance Library provides for consumers, is to locate current contact information for life insurers. Often people obtain a policy when they first start working, get married or have their first child. They then stick with that policy for the next 50 or so years. In the meantime, the policyholder may receive a letter or two informing him of mergers, acquisitions or just name changes. Unless they're hoarders (and let's be honest, even if they are how would they find a particular piece of paper?), most people end up throwing out the update. When the time comes for beneficiaries to make claims, they only have that original policy with a company name that might be three times removed from the current name. The Library is always happy to use our resources to help consumers trace the insurance company forward and provide them with current contact information.

A recent article in the New York Times caught my eye, though. It deals with another request we often get from consumers, lost policies. Sometimes a person calls and, instead of having a copy of that original policy, (giving us a foot in the door on the research) they just know that their loved one had a policy, but can't find any documents mentioning with which insurance company the policy was placed.

It's unfortunate, but there's not much we can do in a situation like that. If the person who died worked for a company for a significant amount of time, it's often useful to contact that company and see if there was a group life policy put in place through them. They would be able to let the beneficiary know which life insurance company they used and benefits can be found that way. There are also some companies out there who can try and trace if the person applied for life insurance, but it costs money to initiate the trace and they don't always get results.

The Insurance Information Institute has a great article outlining steps consumers can take when searching for lost life insurance policies.

State insurance regulators in at least 30 states are working hard to make lost policies less of a problem. The New York Times article I mentioned above discusses three life insurance companies who have settled with various states over "failing to keep track of policyholder deaths, trapping money that should have gone promptly to the beneficiaries." The companies have pointed out that: "Contractual language in the life policies says the survivor, or a representative, must file a claim to receive the payment. State insurance regulators said [the companies] made the case that they had not broken any laws by failing to seek out the survivors, but could have done more than they did."

We'll see how this issue progresses and if there are any major developments we'll try to write on this topic again!

Don't Say We Didn't Warn You!

About a year ago we posted on wedding insurance. While most of those links are all still appropriate if you're searching for wedding insurance information, wedding season is gearing up again and we thought we'd revisit the topic. It's especially appropriate since Property Casualty 360 just put an interactive article on their website entitled: Top Wedding Insurance Claims of 2011.

We encourage you to take a look at their article which is well illustrated and has good explanations. Below is a pie graph we created based on their article, though, in case you're looking for the quick and dirty break down of Travelers' wedding insurance claims from last year:

Just like we mentioned last year, if you have any questions about whether your own homeowners insurance or other policies cover wedding-related risks, or whether you should get a stand-alone policy, you should contact your Insurance Agent.

Just for the Health of It!

I'm popping back in to direct your attention to another New York Times article we thought you might find of interest.

Throughout the Affordable Health Care debate, Massachusetts has been held up as a an example of how well universal health care can work. The New York Times has just published an article focusing on the 2% in Massachusetts who are being penalized for not having insurance.

You can take a look here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/us/massachusetts-health-insurance-mandate-stirs-dissent.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120328

This and That

Yes, it's been a long time since the last post. I'm trying to do better. Stay tuned to see how that works :).

Saturday there was a fun article in the New York Times featuring Fireman's Fund insuring movies. It reminded me of my promise to update you about insurance articles.

It also reminded me to let you know we've started sending out emails called "Collection Selections" highlighting articles we think might be of interest to our membership as well as new publications which have been added to our collection. If you're interested in getting added to that list, please feel free to email me: shart@insurancelibrary.org

I also wanted to mention that this week is a big week at the library. Remember last year when we mentioned Don Malecki and Greg Deimling coming to Boston to do a couple of seminars? Well they're back!

You can still register for either of the classes their teaching on Thursday March 29th, or the breakfast discussion on Friday March 30th:

BRIDGING THE GAPS: Three Common Coverage Gaps In Standard ISO Property, Crime & Liability Coverage Forms

This is a three-hour presentation consisting of talks by Greg Deimling and Don Malecki, along with class participation, dealing with three common coverage gap areas in standard ISO Property, Crime and Liability coverage forms.

At the conclusion of this course, the attendees will be able to:
Identify the potential coverage gaps of property, crime and liability coverage forms;
Understand the rationale for the potential problems;
Determine ways to avoid the gaps, including using better alternatives.

Event Info:
$120 for Insurance Library or Boston Chapter CPCU Members / $150 for non-members OR$200 for Insurance Library or Boston Chapter CPCU Members / $260 for non-members for BOTH SESSIONS

March 29, 2012
8:30 to 11:30 AM
Mintz Levin, 1 Financial Center, Boston, MA
Approved for 3 CE credits in MA and NH (RI credit pending)

Insuring Electronic Information: A Cyber Primer

At the conclusion of this course, the attendees will be able to:

Define and know the definitions and underlying terminology regarding data and data elements;
Realize the difficulty in current policies to provide coverage for various intangible exposures created by technology;

Develop a deeper understanding and use of terminology used in internet and cyber liability policies;

Communicate the need for separate coverage for cyber exposures to clients and associates;
Understand coverage form development at the present time in this line of business.

Event Info:
$120 for Insurance Library or Boston Chapter CPCU Members / $150 for non-members OR$200 for Insurance Library or Boston Chapter CPCU Members / $260 for non-members for BOTH SESSIONS

March 29, 2012
1:30 to 4:30 PM
Mintz Levin, 1 Financial Center, Boston, MA
Approved for 3 CE credits in MA and NH (RI credit pending)

Birds-Eye View of Trends In Insurance Coverage

On March 30, 2012, you're invited to join us at The Insurance Library for breakfast and conversation with nationally recognized insurance experts Donald Malecki and Greg Deimling. Topics covered may include: Who is an Insured (Trust, LLC, Partnerships), Additional Insureds (Additional Insured vs. Additional Named Insured), Cancellation (what does 12:01 really mean) , and more.

We encourage attendees to send questions ahead of time to better direct the discussion. Please note, it's possible that your exact question may not be addressed, but it will be taken into consideration. This unique opportunity to speak one-on-one with Mr. Malecki and Mr. Deimling should not be missed!

Event Info:


$80 for Insurance Library Members / $110 for non-members

March 30, 2012
8:30 AM to 10:00 AM (Breakfast will begin at 8:00 AM)
Insurance Library Association of Boston, 156 State Street, Boston, MA
This meeting is not approved for CE credit.

Don't be a Scrooge!

"At the ominous word 'liberality', Scrooge frowned, and
shook his head, and handed the credentials back." -- A Christmas Carol

On Black Friday last year, I posted the many ways you could donate to The Library. The ways haven't changed, though the various wishlists have had additions of subtractions. I mentioned in another post that after several years of having it on the wishlist, we were the lucky recipients of a lap top. We also had several individuals step forward in the past year to adopt books (we showed off the re-furbished History of Insurance in Philadelphia at this week's Annual Meeting). In case you wanted to donate to a charity as you shopped on amazon, or you wanted to make sure to get a donation in to one of your favorite charities before the end of the year, we thought we'd publish the three main ways to donate in one easy to find place!

The Annual Fund is where general monetary donations throughout the year go. The money is spent on up-keep of the library as well as focusing on one or two projects for the year. Companies and individuals who donate to the annual fund get their name published in our newsletter (we're a non-profit so your donation may also be eligible for a tax deduction -- we're not tax experts though). This year, a portion of the money went toward cleaning the library and putting finishing touches on rooms that had been damaged in the flood. If you take any classes from the library, you'll notice the basement classrooms have been spruced up!

Another way of supporting the library and its collection is through the "Adopt A Book Program" which provides for preservation of our historical publications and documents. The money donated goes toward a specific item --you can read some background about the books and look at them online in their tattered state to pick which one you want to adopt. We make sure a personalized book plate is put in the front of books, when requested, so users know whose generosity ensured future use of the material. The book plate can be donated in honor of someone in case you want to buy it as a gift for someone else. Your recipient can come into the library any time they want and admire the book-binder's handiwork and their name emblazoned on the inside cover.

Finally, the library has an Amazon Wishlist. While you're completing your other shopping on amazon, you can click over and skim the list. If anything catches your fancy, you can simply add it to your cart with the rest of your purchase and Amazon should know to send it to us. You'll notice there are items on the list for general office upkeep. We're currently using the 2004 version of Quicken and would love to upgrade to a more recent version. As you would expect, the rest of the list is filled out with books. Many of these books have been requested by patrons or are for very specialized areas of insurance interest but aren't in our budget. If you find something that falls within your particular area of interest, we'd love it if you'd donate it to our library so we could share it with many more people.

We are very grateful for all the ways in which our membership supports us, without your generosity we would not be able to offer the services we do!

Annual Meeting

The library had its annual meeting today and welcomed a new trustee, Patrick Quinn of Quinn Group Insurance, to the board.

Patrick Quinn and Frederick N. Nowell, III

Three awards were presented at the meeting as well. Sara Hua of Ironshore earned The Frank W. Humphrey Award. Joe Sciacca, her instructor, presented the award after a heartfelt speech about all of Sara's hard work. Her acceptance speech almost brought the group to tears!

Sarah Hua and Joseph Sciacca

Marc Cleary presented The Barbara W. Thornton Award to his colleague and student, Samantha Frank of Liberty Mutual. She spoke highly of Marc in her acceptance speech mentioning his excellent track record in preparing her for the national examinations.

Marc Cleary & Samantha Frank

Finally, Marc Cleary received an award as a teacher of excellence, for the above average passing ratio of students in his classes. It is the highest level of award from The Institutes, and Marc seemed both surprised and very pleased to be the recipient! He commented that it's the students who do so well, he merely encourages them to take the tests. "You can't pass unless you try."

We are very proud of all three award winners and pleased that they could attend the meeting this morning!

Auto Insurance Codes

We realize that not everyone has taken the time to explore the resources we've posted on our website, so we thought we might highlight some here on our blog.


From time to time, we get calls asking for the name of a company based on a company code. While we're more than happy to answer these calls, we do have links on our website to the Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey insurance company codes. While there may be other states that use auto insurance company codes, these are the three we get asked for most frequently.


These codes are codes that are assigned by the department of motor vehicles (or, in Massachusetts, by the Commonwealth Auto Reinsurers). They should not be confused with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners codes or with the codes that A. M. Best assigns companies. For one thing, the NAIC and AM Best assign company codes to more than just auto Insurance Companies.


If you're interested in finding the company name associated with an NAIC code, you can go to their consumer information source and look it up. You can also find out information on the company's financials and consumer complaints. If you're interested in recent Annual Statements, you can find that information there as well.


For A. M. Best Company Codes, you can go to the Company and Rating Search section of their website and look up a company by their A. M. Best Number (or by the NAIC number if you care to). Not only will it tell you the company name, but it will also provide you with contact information and, if you're a subscriber, related articles.



We hope that this information makes your research easier!

Insurance Library Annual Meeting

This year's Insurance Library Association's Annual Meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 22, 2011. The meeting is open to all of our members (member companies may send a representative). If you'd like to attend the meeting or assign a proxy, you can email Jean Lucey, or fill out the form found here.

11-11-11

Unlike Memorial Day, Veterans Day is designed to honor all of those in our armed services, not just those who died in service.

Though Veterans Day is a U.S. National Holiday, Britain celebrates Remembrance Day on the same day (both holidays began to honor the Signing of the Armistice at the end of World War I). We thought you might be interested in this link to Lloyd's During World War 1. Not only does it provide information on the many ways that Lloyd's was involved in the war effort (and honors those who lost their lives), but it has examples of telegrams sent shortly after the Armistice was signed.

Onward & Upward

Sandra Glaser Parrillo, 2011 Insurance Professional of the Year Award Winner

Donald F. Vose, President of the Board of Trustees for The Insurance Library Association of Boston

I'm afraid this blog languished while we worked on the Education Fair in September and the Insurance Professional of the Year Event in October. November is suddenly upon us and we're shocked at how quickly our annual meeting is approaching.

I mentioned last year that after The Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony it often feels like a new year around here (perhaps it's no coincidence that our event occurs in the same season as Rosh Hashanah). So I'm sure you'll pardon us as we reflect a little.

A lot has happened in the last year:

1. We've worked harder on maintaining our website and blog. We've started a LinkedIn profile for the library and we're exploring ways to make our library even more available electronically.

2. We've added more items to our adopt a book program, and to our wishlist (and we finally got the laptop we'd put on there several years ago!).

3. We held our first ever Education Fair (with a lot of support), and had our 10th Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony (which included a lot of firsts as well).

4. We put on our first ever (though, not last) silent auction during the social hour at The Award Ceremony -- thanks to a lot of support for that, we raised about $6,300 for the library!

Some staff changes include:

1. Our Director, Jean Lucey, changing her schedule to working three days a week.

2. Our "other" Jean, Jean Osborne, increasing her hours to three days a week (we don't ever want to be short a Jean).

3. Meagan completing another two CPCU tests on her way toward earning the designation.

It really does feel like a whirlwind, but we are glad that you were here for the ride!

Dropping In

In light of the satellite expected to fall to earth, there's an interesting article on slate about insurance coverage for falling satellites: http://www.slate.com/id/2304426/