Insurance News for Today – December 2, 2010

Chinese Drywall – An important development has occurred in the Chinese Drywall continuing saga. In Miami on December 1, 2010. A federal judge in Miami dismissed a Chinese drywall lawsuit. Judge Alan Gold of the U.S. District Court for the District of Florida issued an order dismissing the case between National Union and F. Vicino & Co. Inc. and its two subsidiary companies—F. Vicino Drywall Inc. and F. Vicino Drywall II Inc.—granting the insurer’s motion to dismiss on lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

 According to court documents, National Union, a subsidiary of Chartis Inc., issued three umbrella insurance policies to Deerfield Beach, Fla.-based F. Vicino Drywall that were provided on an excess basis.

In their motion to the court National Union said issued to Vicino contain a pollution exclusion and that it therefore was under no obligation to defend or indemnify the drywall company

The order issude by Judge Gold stated that it was possible that the contractor’s primary insurance will exceed limits due to the number of lawsuits it is involved in , National Union “failed to make any of those allegations in the complaint”.  

In other news today…..

Georgia Storm Damage Estimated to be $5 Million http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2010/12/02/115331.htm

Is Employer Liable for Drunk Employee???? Might want to read this one! http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/midwest/2010/12/02/115329.htm?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Are Property and Casualty Rates Going Up in Florida?http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2010-11-30/property-insurance-reform-reappears

And last for today, not sure about this one…….

The 2010 Hurricane Season Comes to an end and is in The Top 5??http://www.examiner.com/weather-in-lafayette-la/2010-hurricane-season-ends-top-5-most-active-season

That is today’s 411!

A New Insurance Situation

Recent opportunities and obligations, as well as, pursuit of my quest to learn more in the insurance industry has kept me from my regular updates to this blog site. Now I am back and will be bringing you the daily insurance headlines and news of the day. I will also be linking you to helpful sites and information for you to obtain the most current and up to date sources for breaking news in the insurance claims and related areas! I think that you will begin to rely on THE INSURANCE SITUATION as your 411 NEWS SOURCE!

Green means STOP!

Green means STOP! Stop filling our landfills, stop wasting, stop using environmentally harmful products, stop the old way of thinking in construction, building, rebuilding, adjusting. I recently attended the Green Risk I and Green Risk II classes and obtained my GRP designation (Green Risk Professional). This is a great course and a much-needed, must have, one for anyone who wishes to keep up with current and changing trends in the industry.

Whether you believe in Al Gore and those that preach global warming or still haven’t decided yet, it does not matter. Thinking green means that you are aware that we continue to waste and fill our landfills each and everyday. We continue to construct our homes with potentially harmful products. We continue to not value our water usage, power usage, and expendable resources.

This is now affecting the industry. There are green buildings being built and being LEED ( Leadership and Energy in Environmental Design ) certified by the USGBC, and other organizations on point systems which indicates to which level LEED status they have obtained. These buildings must be insured. They must be insured for the same materials and methods of building that were used. If not properly trained in the materials and methods to adjust these losses, you as an adjuster, or other claims person may find yourself compromising the LEED status of that structure. The LEED buildings and homes are based upon being, by definition, sustainable, or “that which satisfies the needs of the present society without impacting the capability of the future society to meet theirs”.

Companies albeit small in numbers at the moment, with others catching on daily, are writing green endorsements. There will be a percentage of your claims that will have this endorsement. Will you know how to handle the loss? Will you know to put separate dumpsters at the site to sort the recyclable products? Will you know what products, methods and costs to use? Exactimate is now integrating some of those products and costs in their estimating system. Do you know what they are and what to use? I must tell you I was amazed at the new green products that are readily available and on the market. Everything from carpets made from recycled plastic bottles, to beautiful counter tops of reused vodka bottles, to insulation made from scrap denim, or blue jean material!

Green means stop to our old ways of construction and adjusting a loss. We need to educate ourselves in this new and rapidly emerging area of our industry. It is vitally important that we all become conscientious of our environment and protecting it. We need to become trained professionals in the industry to keep up with the progressive changes in adjusting losses. Construction companies, such DKI, a nationally recognized company, are seeing the importance of having this knowledge and are sending representatives for training and education so that they can deal with the issues pertaining to green construction and losses with their client companies. Chubb is a leader in insuring green and training their claims professionals in this area of adjusting.

I am at a loss though on one aspect, how many of our cat adjusters will have to part with driving that big fuel consuming pick up truck and put that ladder up on his/her smart car!

email me @ maryannemedina@aol.com and let me schedule you GREEN RISK PROFESSIONAL training today! This is a Vale Training Solutions program. We will come to you!

Hurricane names 2010, are you laughing with me?

Here in the midst of our first hurricane striking the U.S., “Earl”, it occurred to me that I had not reviewed the list of names for the 2010 season. Something I usually do before now, almost with the anticipation of receiving the new edition of Sports illustrated at my house. So I took a look. Really, who names these storms? The next one out there is “Fiona”! Was that even a name before Shrek?

Well here is the 411 on the storm naming. Prior to 1953 the storms were only identified by latitude and longitude. That is what meteorologist used to track them, however, once the general public began to get the information and track the storms they began to name them. It made them easier to remember and identify if they had actual names and not a series of numbers.

Be that as it may, they begin to give storms all female names. Their thinking it has been said was because ships were given all female names, or a better reason was told; was to refer to storms as female because stereotypically women are unpredictable, may change their minds often and on a whim, so it seemed similar to the characteristics of a hurricane. In 1979 they began to name storms with male names. Some have even said that is was because of women’s lib but I do not know if that is true. They do after all still refer to them as Hurricanes, and have yet to change it to a Himmacane!

There are 6 lists of names, alternating male and female. The lists are in rotation. One list is used each year. The names of severe storms are taken off of the list and never used again. They are replaced with new ones. So there will not be another Katrina, Andrew, etc. They are arranged in alphabetical order so in a heavy storm year you travel through the alphabet. You can also somewhat predict if it was an early storm by the letter. Earl – September – 5th on the list. If they run out of names in a storm season they do not move on to the next list. They simply begin using the greek alphabet, alpha, beta, gamma, delta, etc. Coming from a greek background, a sorority and a frat little sis, I would say that is appropriate.

The storms are named once the storm leaves tropical depression state and becomes a stronger storm. So here I give you the 2010 Hurricane names. If I had to bet on our most dangerous storm this year, my money is going towards the end of the list. Tomas, the latino name., and I bet many of those adjusters out there will still call it Thomas.

Alex
Bonnie
Colin
Danielle
Earl
Fiona
Gaston
Hermine
Igor
Julia
Karl
Lisa
Matthew
Nicole
Otto
Paula
Richard
Shary
Tomas
Virginie
Walter

PIFs and Deployment, changing signs of the times!

Storm Season 2010

First I would like to begin by saying that I tried so very hard to get a new post up over the last two weeks. I spent so much time writing and rewriting it. I tried before, and I tried after, the anniversary of Katrina. There was just no way I could do it. I am still so profoundly moved and emotionaly effected by the events preceeding (4 hurricanes that hit Florida) lit, and the devastation following. The way that Katrina forever changed mine and my families’ lives along with countless friends and the coast that I still love so dearly is still difficult for me. Trying to factor in all of that with my profession in the insurance industry and how that came to bring enormous responsiblity and stress. Not to mention division with family and friends. To some we were heroes and to many we were the enemy. I wanted to writ an informative piece but maybe on the next anniversary…….

Now we are in the midst of our first catastrophic event (non-man-made as the Spill) and as the evacuations are being planned, Jim Cantore is in his prime and adjusters everywhere may be able to pay their mortgages. I am amazed at just how far we have come.

Do you know that now the accuracy of predictability of the storm track has improved predictability by   68 %. With the new GOES – 15  technology Operational Environmental Satellite. Companies are now able to, with the pressing of a few entries on the keyboard, determine the PIFs (policies in force) in any given area to determine the possible number of claims. That coupled with wind speeds, area of location, time of the tide and flood zone, it will give companies the heads up on what the damages may be. Better reserving capabilities are always a significant plus.

Even more important is how to manage that damage and do it in the most expeditions and customer service way. Adjusters, whom have already been readied and assembled in the data base are methodically called and put on “stand-by” when the storm approaches and is in an area of reasonable certainty, they are then “rolled” to their destination for orientation and to be briefed on the state issues. As claims begin to come in they are assigned to adjusters in route. Calls are made to insureds and appointments strategically set, and all before the adjuster arrives! What an improvement from long ago. The old getting to your hotel, downloading your claims, waiting till you can have some type of phone service and begin to call your insureds. Amazing improvements that lead to much better customer service.

GPS, Phones, Wireless, Call Centers, Laptops, Processing, Check issuing centralization, ATM cards for advances,  Agent Advocates, Insureds being able to track their own claim progress (or lack there of ) on-line, digital cameras, satellite view of the area and homes, tracking systems, Unbelievable!!!!! What a difference in claims handling!

Even so, you cannot replace a GOOD adjuster, the experience, knowledge, and the human factor that we all need after a catastrophic event. Sometimes we even need it even 5 years later.

Watch for more storm blogs to come as the season progresses! Who knows maybe even some new one on ones for Claims!