What's New—February 2009

Five reference manual updates and new issues of The Risk Report, Captive Insurance Company Reports (CICR),  and Employment Practices Liability Consultant (EPLiC) have been added to the IRMI infobases. 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 by Lisa C. Hartman, ARM, explores "Best Practices for Workers Compensation Claims," including both external and internal methods risk managers should use to ensure these services are delivered as promised.

The lead article in the February issue of Captive Insurance Company Reports (CICR), "Irrational Despondency?", addresses the current investment climate. Written by Claude Parenteau, it presents an overview of the seven major actions taken in 2008 to address the current economic malaise, the impact on the investment markets, captives and their own investment approaches, and eight action steps that can be taken by captive owners and managers to protect themselves from possible fraud by investment counselors and investors. "Importance of Periodic Coverage Reviews" and "Transforming a Captive into a Cell" round out the issue.

The winter issue of Employment Practices Liability Consultant (EPLiC) includes a helpful "Prelayoff Checklist" to reduce the risks inherent in downsizing initiatives. The following articles round out the issue.

Reference Manuals

Commercial Liability Insurance updates and expands a number of the manual's introductory discussions to provide more complete overviews of general liability loss exposures (section IV.C); coverage amendment endorsements (section VI.K); and additional insured endorsements (section VI.H). A recently introduced coverage amendment endorsement—CG 24 27—that provides intermediate form contractual liability coverage with respect to railroads is discussed in the VI.K pages.

Canadian Coverage Caselaw features a number of "classic" cases that have shaped Canadian coverage law as well as some cases where the trial or motion decision was previously reported and an appeal has now been heard. The Canadian Coverage Caselaw Bulletin provides brief descriptive information and links to the case discussions.

D&O MAPS has been expanded to include the following policies and analyses.

IRMI Workers Comp comprises the second and final part of a complete update of the state law section of the manual. The updated summaries reflect the changes that resulted from the 2008 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. An update on payroll limitations for sole proprietors, partners, executive officers, and limited liability company members by state and updated state benefit summaries are also included in this supplement.

Risk Financing features revisions to a number of sections in the manual. Two discussions on risk pools in section IV.D have been updated. The first is titled "Pool Administration: In-House or Contract Services." Also, the discussion titled "The Legal Aspects of Governmental Self-Insurance Pools" is updated. Our biannual updates to the summaries of captive insurance rules and regulations for the non-U.S. domiciles can be found in Appendix B. This supplement's issue of Risk Financing Perspectives presents a discussion of the federal Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) Law, authored by John D'Alusio of Avizent in Columbus, Ohio. Also in this month's Perspectives is our regular "Market Corner" column, which provides quarterly updates on current property and casualty insurance market conditions.

New Editions

IRMI Insurance Checklists 2009 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. Learn more about Insurance Checklists...

Forms

This month 223 forms and endorsements have been added to the Forms manuals. These include ISO countrywide and state-specific general liability forms, countrywide and state-specific umbrella forms, countrywide and state-specific management protection forms, state-specific medical professional forms, and state-specific personal auto forms. The Forms manuals now include more than 21,365 sample policy forms.

The ACORD Forms manual has been updated (thru Jan. 2009) with new and revised forms. The ACORD Forms manual now includes more than 625 forms.