IRMI Update—Issue #197
An E-mail Newsletter for Risk and Insurance Professionals
ISSN: 1530-7948
January 7, 2009
In This Issue
Colleague,
Happy New Year, my friend. Even with all the troubles in the world, I am
optimistic about the prospects for 2009. The challenges of difficult times
forge stronger people and stronger organizations, and I believe that we will
emerge from our economic/financial downturn with an improved risk management
focus, a stronger insurance industry, and, ultimately, a stronger economy.
Our goal at IRMI is to help you meet the challenges head-on and to not
only survive but to thrive by providing the most comprehensive and reliable
insurance and risk management information available anywhere.
As is our tradition with the first issue of IRMI Update each year, below
is a review some of the major improvements we made in the
IRMI reference
library during 2008. You probably have access to one or more of our
publications, and this review should serve as a reminder of how they can
help you meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities you
will face this year.
- Expanded, updated, and reformatted the state anti-indemnity statute
summaries in
Contractual Risk Transfer
and
Construction Risk Management.
- Updated and expanded the discussions and analyses of employment
practices liability insurance (EPLI) and fiduciary liability insurance
in
Professional Liability Insurance.
- Discussed the good, the bad, and the ugly provisions of 33 directors
and officers liability forms in
D&O MAPS.
- Addressed approaches to negotiating collateral requirements for
self-insurance, high deductible, and other programs in
Risk Financing.
- Updated and expanded the discussions of the insuring agreement and
the application of umbrellas when the underlying insurer becomes
insolvent in
Commercial Liability
Insurance.
- Significantly expanded the discussion of the ISO commercial property
forms, adding new analyses and citing hundreds of court cases in
Commercial Property Insurance.
- Offered advice for securing an acceptable enterprise risk management
score from S&P to maintain future credit ratings in
The Risk Report.
- Discussed, analyzed, and compared, homeowners policies and programs
for the affluent in
Personal Risk
Management and Insurance.
- Updated and improved the summaries of state UM/UIM coverage in
Commercial Auto Insurance.
- Updated and improved the summaries of state workers compensation
laws in
IRMI Workers Comp.
- Updated and expanded the discussion of international risk management
in
Practical Risk Management.
- Deepened our coverage analyses by citing more than 600 additional
court cases in your IRMI reference library, bringing the total number of
citations to more than 6,200 (not counting the 4,000 plus cases cited in
our insurance law journals,
CGL Reporter
and Canadian Coverage Caselaw).
This is only a small sampling of the many additions to the library in
2008, and much more is headed your way in 2009. Thank you for the trust and
confidence you place in IRMI when you rely on the information on our Web
site or in our publications.
All of us at IRMI send our very best wishes for a happy, healthy, and
prosperous 2009. We pledge to continue doing all that we can to keep you on
the leading edge of risk management and insurance.
Jack
Jack P. Gibson, CPCU, CRIS, ARM
President
International Risk Management Institute, Inc.
Subrogate Multiple Small Claims—Consider this real-life scenario. Our
company van pool vehicle is rear ended, and it is clearly the other party's
fault. No one is seriously injured, but the accident results in 10 minor
work comp claims since everyone was examined at a nearby hospital emergency
room. Under state law, neither we nor our insurer could directly subrogate
the work comp claims against the party that caused the accident. Instead, we
would have to recover from our employee's individual settlements with the
party at fault. Due to the minor nature of the injuries and relatively small
sums involved for each, our employees did not intend to file claims
personally. This left us with 10 work comp claims that we felt should be
subrogated but could not be. We resolved this challenge by getting all of
our injured employees together, clearly explaining their rights to
individually hire an attorney and seek recovery. Alternatively, we offered
to work with them to approach the claims rep for the party that caused the
injury. The employees all agreed to a joint approach and a complete
subrogation was obtained for our company and each employee received a small
sum for their inconvenience. Bottom line tip—there may be some
unconventional means to accomplish your goals to resolve losses. Keep
thinking creatively!
By: Bob DeSmidt, CFO
Klinger Companies, Inc.
Sioux City, IA
SUGGEST A RISK TIP: Send us a practical tip (less than 300 words) for identifying
and managing risks, buying insurance, managing claims, or filling gaps in insurance
coverages. Submit your
IRMI Update risk tips. We'll acknowledge your contribution as we did for
Bob.
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 1,100 risk management and insurance
articles on IRMI.com. Below you'll find summaries of some recent additions
with links to the articles.
Commercial Liability Insurance from IRMI provides the most
detailed analysis of umbrella liability coverage provisions—including
citations of hundreds of cases. Insurers' umbrella forms are also analyzed
to help you negotiate the best coverage. See the
Table
of Contents or request a demo today.
If you haven't already done so, please send
IRMI Update to your business associates. Thanks so much!
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