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 website 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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