Conflicting Signals: Making Sense of the Latest Workers’ Comp Data

Claims frequency is down and written premium is up, but the sector’s inadequate reserve position needs to be watched closely

By Stephen J. Klingel

August 20, 2012  

The 2012 edition of the National Council on Compensation Insurance’s (NCCI) annual State of the Line report, evaluating Workers’ Compensation fundamentals and conditions, reveals a market characterized by a number of countervailing indicators as to its forward trajectory.  read more..

Workers’ Comp State Legislation Battles to Watch

By Brian Allen

August 20, 2012

 

The lazy, hazy days of summer are about to give way to a frenetic presidential campaign season for the most powerful political position in the world. Lost in all the hype surrounding this national political drama are hundreds of barely watched and little noticed campaigns for legislative seats in statehouses across the U.S.  read more..

NFL: Make Insurers Defend Concussion-Related Lawsuits

By Chad Hemenway, PropertyCasualty360.com

August 16, 2012

The National Football League is seeking coverage from insurers that it says have refused to provide a defense as the league faces hundreds of concussion-related lawsuits from former players.  read more..

Par for the Course: Golf-Cart Accidents

By David D. Thamann

August 20, 2012

 

Being a once-in-a-while golfer, I was interested in an article I received from CED Investigative Technologies concerning the rise in golf-cart accidents. According to the article, a local woman in Selma, Ind., died in a golf-cart accident that the coroner called an extremely tragic freak accident; and in Franklin, Tenn., a 15-year-old boy was killed and three other teens injured in a golf-cart crash. From personal experience, I can say that a good friend of ours had her shoulder shattered when she was hit by a golf cart while on the course.  read more..

6 U.S. Cities on the Edge of a Fiscal Cliff

By Dan Berman, AdvisorOne

August 23, 2012

Bankruptcy was once a last-ditch act reserved for companies and individuals. Declaring that creditors could not be paid carried a stigma that no one wanted to be associated with—and rarely would a municipality file for Chapter 9, the city version of Chapter 11. How times have changed.  read more..

Top 10 Most Sensational Fraud Stories of the First Half of 2012

By Christina Bramlet, PropertyCasualty360.com

August 2, 2012

Anxious consumers and businesses are increasingly turning to insurance fraud to escape financial turmoil, giving little thought to the very real consequences of perpetuating this serious crime. Just as their schemes have gained in complexity and vigor, so too has the investigative acumen of law enforcement, insurance carriers, and industry organizations.  read more..

Going For the Gold: A Litigious Claims Environment

By Christopher Tidball

August 3, 2012

With the summer Olympic games underway, "going for the gold" seems like an opportune topic. However, many policyholders are not seeking a medal these days but rather money from insurers. In fact, a new personal injury lawsuit is filed every two seconds in the United States, making it the most litigious nation on earth.  read more..

'Super' Independent Adjusters Pursue Education

Certifications, Learning Offer Competitive Advantage

By Christina Bramlet, PropertyCasualty360.com

August 8, 2012

There are certain immutable commonalities that unite people the world over. One is our reverence and childlike glee for Olympic hopefuls and superheroes alike—long after the flame has been extinguished and Hollywood has exhausted a seemingly endless barrage of sequels predicated on graphic novels.  read more..

Independent Adjusters Stand Out

Training, Education Vital to Competitiveness

By Christina Bramlet, PropertyCasualty360.com

July 27, 2012 

There are certain immutable commonalities that unite people the world over. One is our reverence and childlike glee for Olympic hopefuls and superheroes alike—long after the flame has been extinguished and Hollywood has exhausted a seemingly endless barrage of sequels predicated on graphic novels.  read more..

10 Costliest States for Car Insurance

By Caterina Pontoriero, PropertyCasualty360.com

August 13, 2012 

Think car insurance rates are high in your state? Many factors affect rates, including the costs of car repair and medical care, the level of insurance fraud in a state, the number of uninsured drivers, and population density.  read more..

Eratosthenes and Auto Collisions: Science At Work

Investigators Can Learn from Greek Mathematicians

By Tom Morris

August 14, 2012

Eratosthenes was a Greek mathematician who lived in Egypt in the 3^rd Century BC. He observed that in Syene, on the longest day of the year, columns cast no shadows when the sun was directly overhead. However, at the same time, the columns in Alexandria cast a significant shadow. This simple observation led Eratosthenes to conclude that the only way for both columns to cast shadows of differing lengths at the same time was if the surface of the earth was curved. A few simple geometric calculations later, he had calculated the circumference of the planet.   read more..

NAIC Launches WreckCheck App to Help Protect Privacy After an Accident

By Mark E. Ruquet, PropertyCasualty360.com

August 14, 2012

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners released a new mobile application to help guide policyholders on what information they should disclose after an auto accident.  read more..

IIHS Luxury Safety Test: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly -- Slideshow

By Caterina Pontoriero, PropertyCasualty360.com

August 14, 2012 

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently evaluated 2012-year-model midsize luxury and near-luxury cars in a new small overlap frontal crash test. Of the 11 vehicles evaluated, only three earned a “good” or “acceptable” rating, with the remaining eight cars earning either “marginal” or “poor” ratings.  read more..

Study: Drought Could Cause $2.8B in Losses for 12 Crop-Producing States

By Phil Gusman, PropertyCasualty360.com

August 10, 2012

Due to prolonged drought conditions in the Midwest, underwriting losses for 12 major corn and soybean producing states could be more than $2.8 billion, a recent report warns, and the trade group representing the crop-insurance industry says insurers have already paid out $822 million so far this season.  read more..

Little Relief Seen from U.S. Drought Despite Cooler Trend

By Sam Nelson, Reuters

August 14, 2012

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Midday weather maps indicate drier conditions this week for the already drought-stricken U.S. crop region than earlier forecasts had shown, an agricultural meteorologist said on Tuesday.  read more..

Claims Due Diligence Minimizes BI Losses

By Rich Curtis

August 7, 2012

The scenario is common. A piece of equipment (medical, manufacturing, communication) is damaged by an external electrical trauma such as lightning or a power anomaly. Your insured will oftentimes provide a quotation for a replacement system. The claims handler may perform research to determine if the claimed replacement is of like kind and quality when compared to the claimed system.  read more..

Improve Claims Performance with Better Information, Earlier

August 7, 2012

The insurance industry has always made use of data to make better decisions. The underwriting department of an insurance company has been at the forefront of data use for many years – using historical claims data as well as factors such as driver age, gender, credit score, and so on to project potential for loss, and make risk determination.  read more..

Analysis: Evidence for Climate Extremes, Costs, Gets More Local

By Alister Doyle (Reuters)

July 27, 2012

OSLO (REUTERS)-Scientists are finding evidence that man-made climate change has raised the risks of individual weather events, such as floods or heatwaves, marking a big step towards pinpointing local costs and ways to adapt to freak conditions.  read more..

Do Small-Business Buyers Like Insurers More Than Banks?

By Sam J. Friedman

August 8, 2012

Insurance companies have struggled to maintain a positive image for customer service in light of the mainstream media’s focus on isolated incidents of unpaid claims, disputes over underwriting criteria and price-hike controversies. But as it turns out, insurers might be doing a better job than banks in keeping clients satisfied, at least when it comes to small-business consumers.  read more..

Exercise and the Older Worker

By Christine G. Barlow

August 2, 2012

It's well known that Americans have gotten heavier over the years, such that 37.5 percent of adults were considered obese in 2009-2010 by the Centers for Disease Control. This higher weight adds to the chances of an individual having hypertension, diabetes, stroke, cancer and other health problems. Likewise, the Baby Boomers are aging at a rapid rate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that workers 55 or older numbered 28 million in 2008—and by 2018 that number was expected to grow to 40 million.  read more..

The Dark Side of Energy

Lightning-Induced Radiant Barrier Fires

By Marcos Hazan-Cohen

June 26, 2012

If you live in the southern portion of the United States, you have probably looked into different ways of lowering your energy consumption and cooling costs during the hot summer months.  read more..