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!