What's New—February 2008

Seven reference manual updates and new issues of The Risk Report, Captive Insurance Company Reports (CICR), and the fall issue of Employment Practices Liability Consultant (EPLiC) have been added to the IRMI infobases. Additionally, the Exposure Survey Questionnaire has been revised and expanded. We have also updated the home page and job function dashboards to facilitate navigation in the site.

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Newsletters & Journals

The February issue of The Risk Report, "Managing the Risk of Corporate Identity Theft," addresses two dimensions of identity theft: a firm's liability to third parties when their confidential information is compromised due to the firm's negligence and the organization's own first-party exposure.

The February issue of Captive Insurance Company Reports (CICR) leads with "Redomesticating a Captive," a very timely topic, as moving a captive from one domicile to another is one option single-parent captives might use to deal with possible tax changes from the IRS. Should a captive owner move its captive? If so, how is it done? Other articles include "Why Solvency II Matters to U.S. Captives," "Speed Dating with Fronters," and news from the recent Nevada captive conference.

The winter issue of Employment Practices Liability Consultant (EPLiC) includes the following articles.

• "Avoiding a Litany of Compliance Exposures in the Hiring Process"
• "What Are You Doing To Protect Your Company Against Wage and Hour Lawsuits?"
• "Corralling the Workplace Bully"
• "EPLI Policy Exclusions: It's Not What They Exclude, It's What They Except,"

Reference Manuals

Canadian Coverage Caselaw features a total of 18 cases from four Canadian provinces, as well as the Supreme Court of Canada. The Canadian Coverage Caselaw Bulletin provides brief descriptive information and links to the case discussions.

Commercial Liability Insurance revises the sections of the Annotated Policy tab that treat policy provisions affected by the new 2007 edition of the standard CGL form—primarily the Coverage A exclusions to incorporate a discussion of the "distribution of material in violation of statutes" exclusion; the Coverage B exclusions regarding a revision to the "infringement of copyright, patent, trademark or trade secret" exclusion; and the supplementary payments section to eliminate court-awarded attorney fees as a supplementary payment. A summary of the changes introduced in the 2007 edition of the standard CGL form is also provided. Additionally, the discussions of new or revised countrywide endorsements pertaining to employment-related practices, real estate agents, snowplowing operations, and canoes and rowboats have been expanded. The supplement also adapts its umbrella analysis to the 2007 edition of the ISO commercial umbrella coverage form. The discussion of mandatory endorsements has been updated to reflect the incorporation of two previously mandatory endorsements into the umbrella coverage form itself. An updated discussion outlines the new obligations of the insured to inform the umbrella insurer of changes in the scope of primary coverages. The discussion of excess supplementary payments coverage has been updated to address the exclusion of attorney’s fees from the definition of "costs" that were previously payable outside of policy limits. Additional updates include improved analyses of the term "ultimate net loss"; the configuration of per occurrence, aggregate, and annual aggregate policy limits; and three types of umbrella policy provisions designed to address the concurrency problem. Finally, the supplement provides a new discussion of basic umbrella pricing methods.

IRMI Workers Comp comprises the second and final part of a complete update of the state law section of the manual. (For a list of 37 states that were updated see the Executive Briefing.) The updated summaries reflect the changes that resulted from the 2007 state legislative sessions. Additionally included in this supplement is an updated overview of state compensation laws that contains summary charts of topics covered in the individual state law synopses.

Pollution Coverage Issues adds 6 cases to the material on allocating losses under a 1973 comprehensive general liability (CGL) policy, bringing the total to approximately 70 cases in our collection on this subject. In addition, this supplement contains the following updated discussions: section 3.B, What Is a "Suit"?; section 4.B, Remediation Costs as Damages; and section 6.B, "Sudden and Accidental" Discharges. This quarter’s edition of the Environmental Insurance Reporter, explores potential CGL coverage for developing global warming liabilities.

Professional Liability Insurance features a revision of the Exclusions discussion of the Common Features of Professional Liability section of the manual. Also included are an updated employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) coverage discussion and the  Professional Liability Loss Control discussion found in the Practical Considerations section. Lastly, there is an updated Topical Index.

Practical Risk Management updates one topic about risk management activities, one topic about crime coverage, two topics relating to environmental liabilities, one property-related topic, and one risk management resource topic. It also includes a new topical index for the manual.

Risk Financing features updates to a number of sections in the manual, plus a new discussion on collateral requirements for self-funded insurance programs. "Reducing Collateral Uncertainty," is authored by Michelle Bradley and Lloyd Kelley of SIGMA Actuarial Consulting Group in Brentwood, Tennessee. It provides examples and offers suggestions for negotiating insurer-required collateral levels. An updated discussion on the Liability Risk Retention Act is also included. The Act allows insureds to form risk retention groups and purchasing groups to address liability exposures. In addition, the supplement provides updates to several captive domicile state’s regulations, plus summaries for two new states—Alabama and Missouri. The regulations of these and the other captive domiciles are summarized in Appendix B. Risk Financing Perspectives is authored by P. Bruce Wright, Esq. and M. Kristan Rizzolo, Esq., tax attorneys with Dewey & LeBoeuf. It offers a brief discussion on recently proposed IRS regulations that could have a significant impact on captive insurance companies. Also in this month’s Perspectives is our regular "Market Corner" discussion, which provides quarterly updates on current property and casualty insurance market conditions.

Other Updates

The "State-by-State Chart: CGL Coverage for Defective Work," (found in the Insurance for Defective Construction), which provides a graphical national summary map showing how the caselaw has developed and a state-by-state matrix of the most frequently cited cases on insurance coverage for defective construction, has been updated to reflect recent state changes and court decisions. Author Pat Wielinski closely monitors this section of the law and periodically updates this appendix in the electronic versions of the book to keep it current.

New IRMI Publication

RMIS Review, a new information service from IRMI, outlines a recommended process for choosing a risk management information system (RMIS) that will meet risk managers' needs and budgetary requirements and provides comparative vendor information. RMIS Review is a one-stop source of key information about the major risk management information systems that will save hours of research and reduce the risk of choosing the wrong system. Learn more about RMIS Review.

New Editions

IRMI Insurance Checklists 2008 provides 58 checklists for reviewing the coverage provisions of personal and commercial lines insurance policies. All the checklists have been updated to consider forms changes implemented since last year.  The checklists are presented in Word documents which you can download, save, fill out, and customize. If you subscribe to this publication on IRMI Online, you now have access to the new edition. If you don’t subscribe, learn more about Insurance Checklists.

The Exposure Survey Questionnaire has been updated to include new exposures and developing trends in terrorism, environmental, media/technology/eBusiness, directors and officers liability, crime, and other exposures. The revision also adds new questionnaires on international, intellectual property, truckers, garage/dealers, mobile equipment, aircraft products, and information technology exposures. The schedules have also been enhanced and organized into a schedule section. If you subscribe to the Exposure Survey Questionnaire on IRMI Online, the new content is available to you now. If you don’t subscribe, learn more about Exposure Survey Questionnaire.

If you would like to add these or other publications to your IRMI subscription, call (800) 827-4242 or order it from our Web site.

Forms

This month 25 forms and endorsements have been added to the Forms manuals. These include state-specific commercial auto forms and state-specific interline forms. The Forms manuals now include more than 19,545 sample policy forms.