IRMI Update

Risk Management & Insurance Commentary, Tips, and Tactics
October 21, 2009 | Issue 216 | ISSN: 1530-7948

In This Issue

Risk Tip: Where Is It?
Covering Additional Interests under Property Insurance
New Expert Commentary
Assure Your Contracts Include the Proper Protection

Colleague,

The culmination of several years of hard work by our IT, editorial, and production staffs resulted in the roll out of a brand new version of IRMI Online last month. IRMI Online is the publishing platform for our subscription reference manuals and newsletters (they are also available on the SilverPlume platforms). The new IRMI Online uses the most up-to-date Web technology, is significantly faster than the old version, and relies on a modern Google search tool. Last week we took another major step in our Web site modernization plan by moving the Expert Commentary articles, Construction Risk Conference handouts, and IRMI Update archives into IRMI Online.

This will be a major improvement because it now allows you to use the same drill-down table of contents feature and organizational system for these articles as we employ for our paid subscription publications. If you also subscribe to our publications on IRMI Online, it offers the further advantage of allowing you to search and access both your subscription publications and our free content through the same interface.

As part of this rollout, I am also proud to announce the availability of a new free publication on IRMI.com. Nearly 2 years ago, we commissioned Dr. George Head to write a primer on the topic of risk management. Our goal was to develop a publication that could provide executives with the fundamentals of traditional risk management in a concise and entertaining format—a publication that risk managers would give to their bosses, and agents/brokers could give to their clients. The result was Risk Management—Why and How, and it is available on our Web site without cost to allow you to easily share it with those who would like a readable overview of the topic. Please take a look at George's last contribution to the industry, place a link to it on your Web site and forward it to your colleagues and friends.

We sincerely hope you enjoy Risk Management—Why and How and all the free content in IRMI.com.

All the best,

Jack

Jack P. Gibson, CPCU, CRIS, ARM
President
International Risk Management Institute, Inc.

Risk Tip

Where Is It?

Unfortunately, we don't have a risk tip for this month because no one sent one in for us to use. Why don't you send one for the next issue? It's a great way to put yourself and your company in front of 36,000 risk professionals without paying for an ad. Risk tips are short (200 words) tips giving specific risk and insurance management advice. Of course, product promotions are not eligible—that's what the sponsor ads are for. Submit an IRMI Update risk tip.

What's New in Your IRMI Library

Covering Additional Interests under Property Insurance

While not surrounded with the same degree of controversy as adding additional insureds to liability insurance policies, there is still considerable confusion about the best way to cover the interests of people or organizations other than the named insured in commercial property insurance policies. There are various mechanisms for covering the interests of lenders, lessors, and others, for example, with the use of additional insured endorsements, loss payable clauses, and mortgagee clauses. Recently, Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO), revised some of these forms and introduced new ones. The discussion of "Protecting the Interests of Others" in Commercial Property Insurance has been updated to review the new and revised endorsements, and discuss the pros and cons of the various approaches. If you subscribe to Commercial Property Insurance, be sure to check it out (see SilverPlume or IRMI Online). For summaries of other new and updated information in your IRMI library, go to What's New on IRMI Online or What's New in SilverPlume.

New Expert Commentary

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.

OCP Insurance versus Additional Insured Coverage—Whether OCP insurance or additional insured coverage is preferable depends on many factors, per Craig Stanovich.
Insurers' Profits Plunge, Risk Managers Reap Benefits—Recession delays rising premiums, according to recent Advisen survey.
Claims and the Captive—Can a captive deny its owner's claim? Certainly, per Michael Mead, and risk managers need to be prepared.
Risk Management/Insurance Intern Preparation—Brenda Wells urges you to determine what they'll do and how you'll manage them before they walk in the door on their first day.
Underwriting and Claims: Time To Become Friends?—Citing commentary and legal developments, Dr. Tim Ryles says the failure to coordinate increases risk.

IRMI Featured Publication

Assure Your Contracts Include the Proper Protection

Contractual Risk Transfer is a one-of-a-kind reference manual that provides the most thorough explanation available on how to allocate risks in all types of contracts. You'll save hours of drafting time with "boilerplate" insurance clauses. Use the state-by-state analyses of how the courts interpret hold-harmless and indemnity clauses to bulletproof your contract language. Understand when and how to require additional insured status. Plus, find many more strategies to protect your company or your clients. See the table of contents for this IRMI best-seller.