IRMI Update—Issue #181
An E-mail Newsletter for Risk and Insurance Professionals
ISSN: 1530-7948
April 9, 2008
In This Issue
Colleague,
It is a great pleasure to announce that we have added the
Glossary of Insurance and Risk Management
to IRMI.com. IRMI first published this Glossary in 1978, and it is only fitting
that we open it up to the world on its 30th birthday. With definitions of more
than 3,000 terms, it is one of the most comprehensive and up to date insurance
and risk glossaries available. Previously it was only available to those who
purchase it or subscribe to it on SilverPlume Sage or IRMI Online. Now the insurance
Glossary
is available to anyone.
Our goal is to involve the risk and insurance community in growing and improving
the glossary in the future. You can do this by suggesting improvements in existing
definitions or suggesting new terms and definitions to include. If we accept
your definition, you will be listed in a special contributors section of the
online Glossary, and this listing will
include a valuable link to your Web site. We are also making the index to the
glossary available for you to put on your web site. This will allow you to easily
add a glossary feature for your visitors to use and also include more than 3,000
key terms on your site that may help its search engine rankings. Add a
Glossary link to your Web site.
I am very excited about this expansion of IRMI.com and hope you and your
colleagues find it helpful. Please tell your colleagues and industry friends
about it, and let me know what you think.
All the best,
Jack
Jack P. Gibson, CPCU, CRIS, ARM
President
IRMI
Certificate
of Insurance Collection and Validation Service—Ebix-BPO—Compliance
monitoring of incoming certificates of insurance is both a time-consuming task
and an administrative hassle. Ebix-BPO is a niche specialist company that manages
the entire process of soliciting certificates, validating coverage, resolving
coverage deficiencies, and image-storing all incoming certificates. Two hundred
organizations in 20 different industries engage Ebix-BPO to help them achieve
their certificate compliance objectives (including residential and commercial
construction). For information or a price quote, please call (800) 996-9964,
ext. 101, or visit
Ebix-BPO.
The tragic crane accidents that recently occurred in Miami and New York are
terrible reminders of just how dangerous construction cranes can be. Any contractor
employing cranes must take every possible precaution to minimize the possibility
of such a calamity. Additionally a superior crisis management plan must be in
place to deal with them if they do occur in spite of such precautions. The winners
of the very first Gary E. Bird Horizon Award (in 1999—before the award was named
for Gary) were Gayle Jones and George Bragg. They were recognized for developing
an excellent crane safety program, and that crane safety program can be downloaded
from the Construction
Risk Conference section of www.IRMI.com. Take a
look at it for ideas to help with your (or your clients') crane safety program.
We have recently updated a number of the reference manuals in the IRMI library
and published new issues of The Risk Report
and Captive Insurance Company Reports.
To make sure you don't miss any of this new information take 30 seconds to scan
the "What's New" summary page.
For
IRMI Online and Print subscribers
For
SilverPlume Sage subscribers
There are over 1,000 risk management and insurance
articles on IRMI.com. Below you'll find summaries of some recent additions
with links to the articles.
One more location remains for this seminar series on wrap-ups, construction
defect, and two new programs on construction contract risk management. See the
detailed agendas, speaker bios, and reserve your spot today for Dallas, April
22–24, for these important construction seminars.
We are in the process of updating our annual Professional Liability Market
Directory. The directory listing is provided as a service to our readers and
at absolutely no cost to you. If you are a direct source for professional liability
coverage (e.g., insurer, managing general agent) you and your firm can have
a free listing in the Professional Liability Insurance Market Directory. Simply
go to the Insurance
Market Listings page and complete the appropriate information.
IRMI Update 180 discussed the softening insurance
marketplace and asked readers whether they thought insurance buyers focused
too much on cost rather than coverage terms and service.
-
Soft Market Blues: I agree with Jack's thesis about the error of focusing
only on cost, but it's difficult for buyers not to do exactly that. The
tough part for brokers is creating value as the prices level the playing
field. Soft markets are generally a bad time to change brokers since conditions
create an artificial moment of parity that can disappear quickly when the
market turns.
—David Thayer, Consultant, David Thayer Consulting,
Washington
-
In my 35-year insurance career, I have been a "national accounts" branch
underwriting manager for a top 10 insurance company; a marketing manager
for a large agency; a principle and president of a large multi-office agency,
and producer of personal book of business. In all my years of experience
from all angles, it is about price approximately 80 percent of the time.
Yes, there is the 20 percent where coverage or relationship or customer
loyalty play into the purchase decision. But if I am 20 percent less expensive,
I will close the deal most of the time.
—Jim A. Sammons, Producer, Watkins Insurance Group,
Austin, TX
-
As Yogi Berra would say, "It's déjà vu all over again!" And it has nothing
to do with a hard or soft market. Buyers complain about service, but very
seldom change. Buyers want the lowest price until there is a claim and then
blame the broker/insurer for not giving them the proper policy wording.
What's new?
—Henry Good, Risk Management Consultant, ABD/Wells
Fargo, Florida
-
Broader coverage is available. However, I am concerned at the low premiums
being charged by the wrap-up carriers now. The premiums appear to be way
to low since they are covering everyone who works on the job site now and
not just one company (i.e., developer or contractor). I fear that they will
go out of business eventually when claims come in. We went through this
before, and carriers went out of business. Is history going to repeat itself?
—Dorna M. Brown, President, Development Solutions
and Services, Inc., Calabasas, CA
-
I think buyer and provider can assure service levels remain high through
better (savvy) exploitation of technology—a buyer with access to quality
and reliable information will be empowered to demand and negotiate a better
service. The provider who can offer the optimum solution based on an intimate
understanding of "buyer" needs and circumstances will raise confidence in
its service offered.
—Christopher Riordan, Director, eCom90, Crawley,
West Sussex, United Kingdom
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