Board?

We're overwhelmed with preparations for two big events this fall. The first is our Education Fair,scheduled for Thursday September 8th. We'd love it if you stopped by the Library to explore some of our course offerings, get education counseling or just to take a look at some of our spruced up classrooms. We'll have refreshments and drawings for some great prizes as well as insurance-related items free for the taking!

We're also working on preparing printed invitations for The 10th Annual Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony printed this week so that we can mail them out next week. We have 26 tables already reserved, leaving 9 still available (if you're interested, you should probably act soon!).

Since we’re so busy and I’m finally making a blog entry, you might think I would be popping in to discuss hurricane-related subjects-- a lively wind vs. water debate, perhaps. You'd be wrong though. I saw something interesting on the web and thought I would share it here for those who are interested. This spring, I wrote on earthquakes and one of the earthquakes mentioned was the one in New Zealand which damaged Christchurch Cathedral.

They've come up with a unique solution for an interim church. They're creating a cardboard cathedral. The architect has built similar structures in Japan, following their earthquake. You can read more about the solution here, here and here. I think (though I might be misunderstanding the model) that they'll even have stained glass windows. It's not a cheap solution, but it is supposed to last for a decade, at which point they hope to have a suitable replacement.

For those of you disappointed we didn't talk about hurricanes this time, I leave you with a link to this article. It reminds me of a scene from Low and Behold, an independent film dealing with claims adjusters in post-katrina New Orleans. There's a point in the movie where the main character attends a claims adjuster conference and the leader says:

I used to lay in bed at night and pray to God that he would bring a natural disaster on this country, a disaster so large as to bring massive property damage. No one would get hurt or die. But it would yield the largest claims the industry had ever seen.

The director said that he'd actually heard this speech given when he was training to be a claims adjuster but that no one believed him. Perhaps he wasn't making it up. . .

Still disappointed? How about this article from the New York Times which mentions:

While insurers have typically covered about half of the total losses in past storms, they might end up covering less than 40 percent of the costs associated with Hurricane Irene, according to an analysis by the Kinetic Analysis Corporation.

Tin, That's All?

The first year I started at the library was also the first year the library hosted The Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony (for a history of the award please refer to this post). It's with much pride that we've reached the 10th anniversary of this award!

It turns out that classically 10th anniversaries aren't anything particularly special (they're not golden, or silver, just tin or aluminum). It is a notable achievement for the library, though. This year is the first year that a person from the greater New England area has been selected to receive the award. It is also the first year the award has been given to a woman.

The Library is happy to announce that this year's winner is Sandra G. Parrillo, CPCU, President and CEO of The Providence Mutual of Providence, Rhode Island and its subsidiary Providence Plantations Insurance Company. Ms. Parrillo is very active in the insurance industry nationally, including in her role as Director and Chairman of The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), as well as in her local community. A brief biography may be found on our website.

If you'd like to join the library in a letter of congratulations to Ms. Parillo, you're welcome to "sign" a letter which will be printed in the October 14th, 2011 edition of The Standard by going to our website. You can also register now for a seat or a table for the October 21, 2011 event at the same time, if you'd like. The options are listed on the left side of the ecommerce section of our website under the title: Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony Reservations. We will be sending out an official email announcement about the event next week followed by printed invitations sometime next month. We thank all of you for the continued support which has made the past ten years possible!

Back to the (Marriage) Future

The last real blog post here discussed wedding insurance. In the course of another research project, I came across an interesting letter from the Department of Insurance in Lansing, MI dated April 9, 1931. The letter discussed speculation in marriage futures.

You have submitted to this Department a Specimen of a Contract. . . which
certificate has the form of an insurance policy. . . .The object of the
corporation, as expressed in its articles, are 'to encourage marital relations
by aiding prospective candidates for matrimony, to provide funds therefor and to
enter into contracts in relationship to the same in the state of Michigan, and
elsewhere in the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada.'

You request an opinion from this Department as to whether the proposed
contract is an insurance policy and therefore subject to the jurisdiction of the Insurance Department.

The marriage speculation insurance appears to have been set up like a fraternal benefit society. Members paid in and then received funds for their wedding once they got married. Unlike Fraternals though, the marriage contracts didn't seem to meet the criteria of insurance.

The Michigan Division's letter goes on to describe the definition of insurance citing case law and Couch on Insurance. It also makes clear that marriage "insurance" is not new, there was a case in Alabama on marriage insurance which found such a contract void (in this case the contract paid more the longer you postponed your wedding). Similar cases had the same findings in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Maine.

If you are interested in seeing the letter in full, please feel free to contact the library. We also have some information on the history of fraternal benefit societies in general.

Falling Off the Wagon

Dear readers (if there are any left). I am so sorry I've failed to write for so long. There are lots of things currently in the works here at the library (stay tuned for updated information on the Insurance Professional of the Year Award Ceremony and an Education Fair!) and I got distracted from my commitment to keep this blog current.

Back when I made the commitment, I had said sometimes the blog posts would be light and merely mention some articles we found interesting. I should have at least kept up posting those light posts because when you stop blogging for awhile there's a pressure to come back with something big.

I have a post that was started back in May on wedding insurance, but other than that, I think we'll have to be content with light content. I promise something more researched by the end of summer though (any suggestions on areas of interest?).

As always, thank you for your continued support, of the library and this blog!

Get Me (and the Caterer) to the Church on Time

Photo: Hugo Burnand/Clarence House
Found on The Telegraph Website

I know I'm (really) late to the party, but with William and Kate's wedding still on everyone's mind, and being three weddings into a seven weddings season myself, I thought it would be an appropriate time to discuss wedding insurance.

Clearly Lloyds thought so too since on April 26th they offered a somewhat humorous, but informative article on wedding insurance in light of the royal wedding. Closer to home, the Massacusetts Division of Insurance provides a consumer guide for wedding insurance.

Back in 2009, Rough Notes Magazine provided an outline of what wedding insurance covers. They mention more information could be found in their PF&M publication, which the library does have access to, if you're interested in more detailed research.

The Insurance Information Institute also offers helpful advice on wedding insurance on their website. They mention that you might not need all the coverage available in a stand alone wedding contract and to check with your credit cards and homeowners or other insurance to see what coverage would be available there.

If you're confused about what other insurance you already have which might be able to provide similar coverages to a stand alone wedding insurance contract, your insurance agent should be able to explain your coverages and what options are available.

Not Another Brick in the Wall

I have to admit, I'm a little proud of the title of this blog post, mostly because I think of it as a double entendre. I plan on announcing an educational opportunity for you, specifically one that has to do with construction!

Next week you, dear readers, have the opportunity to attend a Builders Risk and Insurance Seminar or Nuts and Bolts of Contractual Liability (or both). These seminars are being lead by Donald S. Malecki and Greg Deimling of Malecki Deimling Nielander & Associates, LLC.

Donald Malecki may be well known at our library for his Additional Insured Book, but he's literally (co-) written the book on Builder's Risk. He is a prolific writer and one need only take a look at some samples from Malecki On Insurance (or order a subscription to see it all) to realize how important his contribution to insurance is. Both Mr. Malecki & Mr. Deimling were major contributors to the MCS-90 book a comprehensive text with no equal.

In addition to his insurance expertise, I will always think of Mr. Deimling as a super-hero because of his help in averting disaster one year when he joined us in stuffing almost 400 name tags before our big event. I mention this so you get a peek at their character as well. I consider Don Malecki and Greg Deimling insurance Superstars, in the best possible sense. Not only are they leading consultants working on analyzing and interpreting the confusing world of insurance, but they're approachable and eager to share their expertise. I sincerely hope you get a chance to attend next week's seminars; not only so you get to witness insurance greatness, but because of the invaluable knowledge you'll take away.

Plate Movement

That's not exactly the kind of plate movement I plan on discussing today. As I mentioned last week, I planned on writing a post on earthquakes before I got interrupted by another snow storm. Luckily, because of the lag time before posting far more people have written on the topic of earthquakes and I can provide you with links for further reading. Just like the 2001 "summer of the shark" 2010 could have been called "the year of earthquakes." The number of earthquakes in 2010 (and so far in 2011) does not seem to be above average. You can look at earthquake data for the last decade from the U. S. Geological Survey for confirmation. According to the June, 2010 Reactions Magazine article, The $1trn Exposure "The number of earthquakes this year [2010] has been normal but the casualties and insured losses have not. Risk Modellers are asking where the next Mega quake could strike." UPDATE: This sentiment was re-affirmed today by the Wall Street Journal article: Swiss Re Expects Quakes to Become Deadlier, Costlier. The article goes on to provide some forecasting of the most vulnerable regions world wide. The region in Japan they thought most likely to cause severe damage (and casualties) was not the one where the current earthquake has hit. Wired Magazinee discusses this error in their article Japan Quake Epicenter Was in Unexpected Location. I believe if you asked the average person where they think the next big US-based earthquake would be, they would respond California. They wouldn't necessarily be wrong. Cascadia is listed as a "most vulnerable area" in the Reactions article cited above. Los Angeles is listed as a U.S. Megadisaster threat for earthquakes on an informative map that Risk Management Magazine published in March of 2010 (for more from this map, feel free to contact us, or stop by the library to take a look). George Santayana would be disappointed in those responses though, especially in this, the bicentennial year of the New Madrid earthquakes. According to Risk Management Magazine's Risk Atlas mentioned above, "recent research suggests that the [New Madrid] fault line may be more stable than ever, but FEMA has said that a 7.7 magnitude quake here could lead to 'the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster in the United States." The fault line affects Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee but when it quaked in 1811 and 1812 it affected states even farther away. BestWeek, in a February 28, 2011 article said: "The area along the Mississippi River is no longer a sparsely populated area with the occasional log cabin. If a series of three major earthquakes were to strike that area today, it could cost an estimated $79 billion in insured property losses, according to AIR Worldwide." The article is accompanied by a colorful loss map illustrating the losses in millions for the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Of course, insured losses are different than total losses; this is especially true in the United States where flood and earthquake insurance are not included in the standard homeowners or commercial property policies. BestWeek published another article in their February 28, 2011 issue titled Costly Quake Covers Limit U.S. Policies. The article points out that 90% of the homeowners in New Zealand (the site of two earthquakes in the last six months) have earthquake insurance. New Zealanders attending a meeting on earthquake insurance, were shocked to find out that 90% of Californians do not have earthquake coverage. According to Advisen's front page news on Monday, The Wall Street Journal published an article examining coverage in the United States for major disasters like those in Japan. The article, entitled: Disaster Insurance: How Well Are You Covered, addresses some of the same concerns as those mentioned in the BestWeek article. Risk Management Magazine has an article in the March, 2010 edition titled After Haiti: The Future of Disasters. They end their article with this: "Catastrophes are just as possible domestically as they are abroad. The longer we go without taking the necessary steps to increase preparedness, the sooner we will have to stop calling these natural disasters and start calling them man-made catastrophes." Perhaps that's a bit sensational, but it does get across the point that natural disasters, especially earthquakes, require preparation on our part. The library stands ready to answer more in-depth questions about earthquake insurance, both for consumers and those in the industry. We have access to any of the articles mentioned in this blog post as well as statistical information on earthquake insurance and groups writing such insurance in various states. We even have some (though not a lot) of information on earthquake and other natural disaster forecasting. Please feel free to contact us if you're interested in any specific information.