Insurance Scores Can Raise Rates
Friday, May 06, 2005
May 6--Jean Matarangolo received a letter from her car-insurance company last month saying she did not qualify for the lowest premium based on her "insurance score." Erie Insurance Group had been providing her home and car insurance since 1964. As she recently learned from Erie Insurance, the number of retail credit accounts you have is one factor that can affect your credit standing, which in turn affects your insurance score....

 Berkshire to Buy GE Insurance Provider
Friday, May 06, 2005
OMAHA, Neb. - An insurance arm of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has agreed to pay $825 million for a General Electric Co. business that provides liability insurance coverage for doctors and dentists.The Fairfield, Conn.-based industrial, media and financial services conglomerate said Friday its GE Insurance Solutions plans to sell Medical Protective Corp. to National Indemnity, a unit of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway.Billionaire investor and Berkshire chairman Warren Buffett said in a written statement that Medical Protective will be "a great addition to the Berkshire Hathaway group of businesses....

 Google Complies With Response Insurance Request to Stop Suspected Trademark Infringement in Search Results
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
MERIDEN, Conn., May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Response Insurance, a national direct-to-the-consumer auto insurer, gained the cooperation of Google to stop a company suspected of violating the Company's federally registered trademark RESPONSE INSURANCE by using the name to link to a non-Response Insurance sponsored web site. However, the practice employed by that company -- AutoandHome.com -- appears to continue with other insurers, among them Allstate, Nationwide, Travelers, The Hartford, Erie, and Liberty Mutual."Competition is healthy, but only when everyone plays by the rules," said Mory Katz, Chairman and CEO of the Response Insurance Group....

 Allstate Reduces Auto Rates Saving Customers Nearly $50 Million; Additionally, Upcoming Feature-Rich Auto Product to Offer Policyholders Even More
Monday, May 02, 2005
Allstate Insurance Company and Allstate Indemnity Company, with New York State's Acting Superintendent of Insurance Howard Mills, announced today that they will save New York policyholders an estimated $50 million by reducing auto premiums an average of 3% to 5%. "Allstate is proud to announce that we will be saving our customers nearly $50 million on their auto insurance in New York State," said Allstate Field Vice President Vince Fusco. Allstate Financial Group provides life and supplemental accident and health insurance, annuity, banking and retirement products designed for individual, institutional and worksite customers that are distributed through Allstate agencies, independent agencies, financial institutions and broker-dealers...

 Allstate to Cut Rates on Car Insurance in New York ; Others May Cut Rates to Stay Competitive
Monday, May 02, 2005
The state's largest auto insurer, Allstate Corp., has agreed to cut rates in New York state this year by at least 3 percent, saving customers $50 million, state regulators will announce today.With the agreement, Northbrook, Ill.-based Allstate becomes the ninth insurer to agree to a rate cut since state regulators began a campaign to lower auto insurance premiums in New York in November.In all, regulators claim, consumers will save more than $300 million from the rate cuts....

 OPM Asks Health Providers for IT Plans
Monday, May 02, 2005
Office of Personnel Management officials want companies that provide health coverage for federal employees to convert to electronic health records, and they want providers to submit their information technology plans soon.Officials have asked health insurance carriers to submit information by May 31 on their health IT plans for the next season, which begins in November, when federal workers can switch health plans."Electronic medical records will be a collaborative effort among health plans, pharmacies and the whole system," said Anne Easton, OPM's insurance policy manager....

 History Lesson
Sunday, May 01, 2005
An invitation to delve through the minute books of the early meetings of the now non-existent Lloyd's Motor Underwriters Association (1931 - 2004) painted a very clear picture of the UK motor insurance scene in the years immediately following the passing of the Road Traffic Act 1930.Not only that, but there were many important lessons waiting to be learned. Payment of premiums by instalments was a source of considerable heat within the LMUA membership as long ago as 1932 and the hostility toward such payments persisted for many years with an eventual change of heart only coming in 1967....

 What's New?
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Insurance players in Sunday Times rankingsFor the second year running, Portsmouth-based BDML Group has been placed in pole position in the table for The Sunday Times Profit Track 100, this time, overtaking its 2004 ranking of third. BDML results published on 10 April 2005 for the financial year ending 2004, show profits have grown by 159% a year from 778,000 in 2000 to 13.6m in 2004....

 Insuring Business Continuity
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Transurance helps companies protect themselves from losses that aren't covered by their traditional property and casualty insurance policies.A new insurance product called Transurance helps companies pay for business continuity expenses that are collateral to insured property and casualty losses but aren't covered by those policies.To Transure collateral losses, a company must create a relationship between the amount of collateral losses and the size of the insurance recovery it is likely to receive....

 Assuring Adequate Health Insurance: Results of the National Survey of Children With Special Health Care Needs
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Results of the survey indicated that 59.6% of CSHCN nationally met the health insurance core outcome using the 3 components of presence of insurance coverage, continuity of coverage, and adequacy of coverage. The survey results also demonstrated the importance of continuous and adequate health insurance, because children who met the health insurance core outcome had fewer unmet needs. Pediatrics 2005;115:1233-1239; children with special health care needs, adequate health insurance, National Survey of Children With Special Health Care Needs....

 Taking Control of Health Care Costs
Sunday, May 01, 2005
A major health-care crisis is brewing in the United States. Health insurance premiums for American workers are rising three times faster than wages, and health costs eat up a quarter of the earnings for more than 14 million Americans, according to a recent report from the nonprofit Families USA.Without adequate health insurance coverage, families could be setting themselves up for financial disaster....

 Agencies Provide New Guidance on Independence of Appraisals
Sunday, May 01, 2005
With new question and answer guidance, the federal banking agencies recently reaffirmed the importance of ensuring that independence is maintained throughout the process of selecting appraisers and ordering and reviewing appraisals for any real estate lending activity.Regulated institutions may not accept a borrower-ordered appraisal, allow a borrower to select an appraiser from an institution-approved list of appraisers or provide information that would unduly influence an appraiser or suggest a property's value, the guidance explains, citing these and other examples of independent conduct in responses to 25 frequently asked questions on the agencies' real estate appraisal regulations and guidelines.Additional guidance states that staff appraisers must be independent of the lending, investment, and collection functions and not be involved in approving loans....

 Do You Really Need Malpractice Insurance?
Sunday, May 01, 2005
It's impossible to say for sure, but one thing is certain - as the number of lawsuits increase, it's growing more and more likely that you could end up in court facing an accusation of malpractice.For years, many DCs dismissed the need for malpractice insurance, feeling secure in the knowledge that, as a drugfree and non- invasive approach, chiropractic was extremely safe. Back then, most DCs had small family practices, where they knew most of their patients by their first names and were friends and neighbors with many of them....

 Lloyd's Syndicate Marches into the U.S.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Beazley is first to open U.S. office to write small to mid-sized commercial risksThroughout the huge losses that Lloyd's sustained as the result of the asbestos situation in the United States, throughout the years of lawsuits from disgruntled investors at Lloyd's, throughout the painstaking reconstruction of that venerable institution, Beazley Furlonge has never had a loss year since its inception in 1986. Currently, Beazley writes some $628 million in premiums in the United States, mostly large-scale business written through Lloyd's brokers....

 The Naic and Smart Act Falter
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Scandals derail deregulation effortsThe National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) closed its Spring National Meeting in a bigger mess than when the convocation started. And while the situation is getting worse for the NAIC, federal policymakers seem to be taking a more mature position toward building a new insurance regulatory framework....

 Court Case Summaries
Sunday, May 01, 2005
For decades PF&M Analysis Service has offered summaries of lawsuits involving insurance disputes in a wide variety of lines of business. In nearly all instances, the summaries involve cases that have experienced at least one level of appeal. Please refer to PF&M case summaries that appear with each month's update....

 Governmental Affairs Becomes More Proactive
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Testimony convinces regulators and legislators to exempt MGAs on disclosure requirementsWhen New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced his investigations into the insurance industry-specifically allegations of bid rigging on the part of major brokers and insurers and questions about the workings of the contingent commission system long held acceptable in the insurance business-it sent shock waves throughout the industry and forced insurance regulators and legislators to reexamine compensation disclosure laws. The AAMGA Governmental Affairs Committee, headed by its chair, James A. Roe of Arlington/Roe & Company in Indianapolis, moved right into the fray....

 Buffalo Insurer Merchants Group Sees Quarterly Profits Rise 47 Percent
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Apr. 30--A steep drop in loss expenses helped Merchants Group's first-quarter profits soar by 47 percent, the Buffalo-based insurance company said Friday. Because Merchants had no investment gains during the first quarter of this year, its operating profits more than doubled from $562,000, or 26 cents per share, a year ago. Merchants Mutual Insurance Co. owns a 12.1 percent stake in Merchants Group....

 Manchin Signs Insurance Legislation
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Summary. Couching it as but a first step, insurers joined Gov. Joe Manchin on Friday as he signed legislation that bans certain lawsuits against them and makes other changes sought by the industry. Throughout the 60-day legislative session that ended April 9, Manchin promised at least $50 million in auto insurance savings - or up to $100 off every vehicle policy in the state - if Senate Bill 418 became law....

 A Tuneup for Auto Insurance
Saturday, April 30, 2005
State Insurance Commissioner Julie Bowler yesterday OK'd a major overhaul in the way the state grades motorists' driving records - with the goal of bad drivers paying more for auto insurance while good drivers receive extra discounts.But Attorney General Tom Reilly immediately blasted the move, asserting it will harm drivers in Boston and other cities and possibly undermine efforts to change the state's auto-insurance system."There is no reason to change the rules midstream and adopt a plan that will make Massachusetts drivers, especially our urban drivers, pay more," Reilly said....

 Belleville News-Democrat, Ill., Business Beat Column
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Apr. 30--GET BETTER RATES ON AUTO INSURANCE: Are you getting the best rate for auto insurance? Credit score -- Many insurance companies use your credit score to determine your auto insurance premium. They also tend to have fewer accidents and auto insurance claims than drivers with low credit scores....

 Problems Multiply When Workers Are Uninsured
Saturday, April 30, 2005
The star's view: A politically diverse coalition is pushing for new ways to cover people who face crippling medical bills. There is no Republican, no Democrat, no partisan affiliation associated with the 20 million working Americans without health insurance.And it will need a solution that focuses on the people rather than the politics....

 Appraisal Fair
Friday, April 29, 2005
Collector, TV personality and New Era columnist Harry Rinker will conduct an appraisal fair Thursday, May 5, at the Valencia Ballroom, 142 N. George St., York.Rinker also will present "How to Think Like a Collector: Confessions of a Dedicated Accumulator" at a dinner and lecture. Both events are sponsored by Historic York Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of York County's historic architecture....

 Allstate to Cut Auto Rates, Delay Other Increases, Insurance Company Cites Ban on 'Bad Faith' Lawsuits As the Reason
Friday, April 29, 2005
Allstate is cutting bodily injury liability rates for auto policyholders in West Virginia and will not increase rates for homeowners policyholders for at least a year. Bodily liability rates will be reduced an average 4.2 percent statewide, effective in July, Allstate said.A spokeswoman for Insurance Commissioner Jane Cline did not immediately return a telephone message on Thursday...

 Motors: Drivers Paying the Price
Friday, April 29, 2005
DRIVERS risk paying up to 25 per cent more for their insurance premiums as a result of minor motoring misdemeanours. This is the claim of an insurance broker, which says that many insurance companies wrongly penalise drivers for the culmination of points for trivial offences. Under the totting-up procedure, many motorists who travel in and out of busy areas daily can incur as many points for relatively insignificant transgressions as dangerous drivers....