Products Liability Vertical File

Look two posts in one week! Remember when I said we might pop in with something brief but of interest? Here we are. The library has a number of "subject files" in our collection. These are hard copy files where we put news clippings, brochures, pamphlets etc. on various subjects related to insurance.

Today, The New York Times had an article that will likely end up in our products liability file. They also had this lovely graphic showing big settlements in drug cases:

Source: New York Times 10-27-10

New Year's Resolution

When you're in school you follow the academic calendar, with the year starting in September. When you're in business your year starts with the new fiscal year. Here at the library, it's not official, but I feel like the year starts again after The Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony is over (I might be the only one here who feels that way).

We just completed another busy start to our fall season and had a very successful (we think) event on Friday. So I feel it is time to make some new resolutions about our coming year. I vow that the library blog will no longer sit sadly neglected. We will attempt to post at least once a week, if not more.

While I cannot promise that each post will be long and descriptive, we would like to see this space be a place where we discuss current happenings at the library and in the insurance field as a whole. It might be that we just pop in and mention a great article in the New York Times that describes Insurance Exchanges (with a helpful image for clients); that we announce that the library has started an insurance fiction section (we have the entire set of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone Mysteries); or we might ask you to respond with suggestions/comments on events and offerings from the library.

Did You Miss Us?

The blog went on a short sabbatical last month. Between holiday closings and staff vacations, the library was busy just keeping up with requests!

Speaking of requests, The Library gets a number of interesting requests each year. We highlight some of the requests in our newsletters each quarter and provide a number of them online in our Q & A section of the website. But did you know that the library was featured in Star Magazine December 29, 1987? That's right, On the Front cover is "Jeane Dixon Predicts for 1988" and Bruce Willis and Demi Moore were hot honeymooners (not to mention Michael and Bubbles, and Charles and Di) and inside is an article entitled Wild & Wacky Insurance Claims for which we provided the fodder.

This week an instructor was asked what type of policy insured Liberace's hands and Bette Grabel's legs. He replied that it was a surplus lines policy, probably a disability policy in particular. Slate.com discussed just that three years ago when Mariah Carrey also apparently insured her legs.

Perhaps, considering all that's gone on in Haiti in the past week or so, you think this blog post is full of fluff? Maybe you'd like answers to more pressing questions? Are you wondering about insured losses in Haiti? According to a National Underwriter article citing AXCO Insurance Information Services, Haiti is "one of the smallest markets in the Americas with a total non-life premium income of just under $20 million." To put that number in perspective, total non-life direct premiums earned in the state with the lowest dpe,Vermont, is 1,094,361,000 (according to the NAIC 2008 Market Share Report by State and Countrywide) or nearly 55% more.

Insurance Journal has an article that does bring some hope to the situation, at least as far as re-building efforts. Haiti is a member of The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) and it appears they will give about 8 million dollars to Haiti after a 14 day waiting period so they can hurry the process of rebuilding along. National Underwriter cites Eqecat as saying the property damage is in the hundreds of millions.

Every little bit does help, though and those in the insurance industry have not neglected Haiti. According to another article by the National Underwriter, many companies have sent donations to a number of relief organizations over the last week. The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation, gives details on at least four of the donations. The CPCU Society has also set up a matching program for individual CPCUs and Chapters of up to $25,000 for the Clinton/Bush Haiti fund.

If you'd like to contribute to help Haiti, there are many organizations out there ranging from rebuilding projects, to health and human welfare organizations, far too many to list. The FBI issued some guidlines to make sure you donate to reputable organizations.

Nonprofit

While the library has always been a nonprofit organization, the last year or so has been non-profitable for many across all business sectors. At a national meeting of insurance educators, it was revealed that most of the schools experienced a 20% or more drop in enrollment. This was attributed to employers being less willing or able to pay for education and employees, unsure if they will still have a job, not being willing to pay for the education and hope for reimbursement when they've completed it.

We have had several individuals and firms drop their memberships, despite how much more cost-effective it is to leverage the library's many subscriptions instead of having to subscribe to them separately. One member told us that they had not renewed their membership "for budgetary reasons, i.e. the evil geniuses / scoundrels of Wall Street negatively affected our business."

The library, too, has directly felt the effects of the market decline. We rely on memberships, class enrollments, and endowments to fund the provision of our services. Those endowments are invested and when the market dipped, so did our accounts.

Despite the poor economic atmosphere, the library still manages to provide services at the same level to our students, members and to the public. We have maintained a full course schedule, giving member discounts to those who are unemployed and maintaining the high standards for which we're known.

In the face of budget constraints, the library still maintains subscriptions to most of the leading insurance publications, and we've continued our commitment to preserving our historical collection (this is especially assisted by generous donors who support our adopt a book program and amazon wish list)

Consumers are more hesitant than ever when choosing an insurance company and the library is more than happy to help them through the maze of available information. When appropriate, we point them in the direction of the Division of Insurance, and The NAIC consumer information source (which provides consumer complaint information) to help them make insurer choices. We also assist them with Financial Stability Ratings so they can gauge what companies are likely to stay in business in the future and be financially able to pay claims.

This week we've had several new people and organizations join the library; twelve class sessions have met; and the stock market has improved. Clearly, this is all great news for the library, and we like to think bodes well for the economy in general. As an organization that has weathered The Great Depression and now what could be referred to as a Dysthymic Economy, we plan to stick around, no matter what the outlook, for quite some time.

On a completely separate note, we wanted to include one last picture from our big event --it's my personal favorite from all eight years, we hope you enjoy it too.

In This Case, You'll Have to Settle for 1,000 Words

We're new to this blogging thing, and have only had a digital camera for the last six months. . . these are the excuses we're using for why we forgot to take pictures at Friday's wine and cheese reception for the Society of Risk Management Consultants. It may also be because we were too swept up in the fun; multiple tours were given of our facility, and there was plenty of lively discussion of insurance related issues, not to mention a fair amount of wine and cheese consumption.

We did promise pictures though, and we always deliver on our promises. We've managed to post the pictures for the Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony earlier than we planned. If you're interested in taking a look at all of the pictures, please just click over to our shutterfly site. The library will continue the tradition started last year and make a photo book that will be available for perusal at next year's event (we don't have an exact date yet, but it will be sometime next fall, stay tuned for more information).

The sponsor board which was located outside of the entrance to the event. These
generous sponsors help make the event possible.

The Award, it's hard to see the beautiful dupioni silk matting and the hand
lettering in this picture, but trust us, it's gorgeous.

The award winners past and present (not pictured are Ronald Mariano and John B. Conners).

The awarding of the award, by president of The Library's Board of Trustees, K. Douglas Briggs.

Each year, CAR has generously donated a portrait of the winner which is hung in the library for a year and then given to the award winner. Above, Ralph "Buddy" Iannaco, president of Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers and 2005 Insurance Professional of the Year Award winner is presenting Richard W. Brewer with his portrait.

Again, more pictures are available on the shutterfly site we've created.

A Whirlwind

Perhaps you've noticed the library hasn't posted lately? The annual Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony took up so much of our time it was hard to stay on top of our research requests etc. let alone keep up with the blog.

The event was great (if we do say so ourselves). The winner was a popular choice and the speeches given were heartfelt and inspiring. Today, we're still playing catch up with some of our requests from Friday, but over all the schedule is back to normal. We should be able to post a link to pictures of the event in the next couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, we're looking at a lovely bouquet of flowers kindly sent to us from the award winner (thank you) and working on planning a tour of the library and reception for the Society of Risk Management Consultants on Friday (more pictures to follow from that next week).

Moving Right Along

As mentioned in our previous post, The Insurance Library Association of Boston's Insurance Person of the Year Award Ceremony is fast approaching. In the last couple of weeks, we've:

received the Award in the mail

and prepared it for framing

we've ordered tassels for the programs

and dusted off our seal

We've also started formatting the letter of congratulations to be published in the October 9, 2009 edition of The Standard. Starting in 2007, The Insurance Library and others in the industry published a letter of congratulations for the winner of the Insurance Professional of the Year Award in The Standard. While it is a fairly young tradition, we think it's a very visible demonstration of our pride that the winner is a member of our community. A copy of last year's letter can be seen on our website.

The letter is also a good way for individuals or companies who might not be able to attend the event to show their support for the winner. If you're interested in "signing" the letter of congratulations for Richard W. Brewer, either by having your logo included or your name printed under the letter, you can be added by clicking here. It is $125 and we must have all logo submissions by September 18, 2009 to ensure that our letter will make it in the October 9, 2009 edition of the standard.