What's New—September 2009

Four reference manual updates and new issues of The Risk Report and Captive Insurance Company Reports (CICR) 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 September issue of The Risk Report, the annual Insurance Market Report, provides readers with line-by-line commentary on the commercial general, auto/trucking, environmental, umbrella, D&O, employment practices, and professional liability markets, as well as the property, workers compensation, and surety markets.

The September issue of the Captive Insurance Company Reports features two articles: "How To Be a Savvy Reinsurance Buyer" and "Challenges Facing Captive Domiciles." The first is designed to educate captive owners and risk managers as to what it takes to properly and professionally buy reinsurance, whether directly or through an intermediary. The second discusses global regulations, including Solvency II, IAIS Standards, and the OECD tax challenges, and how these will affect captive growth.

Reference Manuals

Commercial Auto Insurance continues a revision of the annotated business auto policy (section VIII of the manual). Annotations dealing with the policy introduction and the definitions of covered auto symbols are expanded to include significant caselaw on the use of the symbols and coverage questions that can arise in connection with the legal concept of ownership, the scheduling of nonowned autos, and the meaning of the term "hired auto." Also expanded is the annotation of the BAP liability insuring agreement to reflect significant court interpretations of the language found in that part of the policy. This supplement also contains a revision of the commercial auto classification and rating discussion.

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

Construction Risk Management contains updated discussions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, large deductible insurance programs, and waivers of subrogation in builders risk insurance policies. Various charts and exhibits pertaining to workers compensation insurance experience rating and deductibles are also updated, and a review of a new ISO endorsement pertaining to wrap-up projects is also added. The Construction Risk Management Newsletter provides the first of two articles outlining opportunities and strategies for the acquisition of foreclosed properties.

Personal Risk Management and Insurance adds discussions on several of the new and revised countrywide endorsements, including the new homeowners water exclusion endorsements, the updated homeowners water back-up and sump discharge endorsement, the new personal auto custom equipment exclusion endorsement, and the revised personal auto excess custom equipment coverage endorsement. The supplement also updates the first half of personal auto state-specific endorsements, including the incorporation of the latest versions of these endorsements. Other updates provided are: the tables pertaining to the "newly acquired auto" definition for the countrywide form and, for those states that have modified the definition, the lists of countrywide and state-specific endorsements in the ISO personal auto program; and several states' UM pages (CA, MD, MS, OR); and one no-fault state page (OR).

Forms

This month, 335 forms and endorsements have been added to the Forms manuals. These include ISO countrywide and state-specific businessowners forms, and countrywide financial institutions forms. The Forms manuals now include more than 22,855 sample policy forms.