New IRMI Information in Your SilverPlume Library:

October 2006

Four reference manual updates as well as new issues of The Risk Report and Captive Insurance Company Reports (CICR) have been added to the IRMI infobases.

Log into SilverPlume Sage

Newsletters & Journals

In response to requests from subscribers, we are now making an Adobe Acrobat version (PDF file) of the current issue of each of our newsletters available each month. This will allow you to quickly and easily print an attractive copy to toss in your briefcase and read at your leisure.

The October 2006 issue of The Risk Report, "Construction Risk Management: The Owner's Perspective," examines the risks an owner will have arising out of a construction project, the contract notwithstanding. Starting with a project risk analysis, it explores the risk control and risk financing aspects along with the various types of insurance on construction projects, including general and umbrella/excess liability, workers compensation, auto liability, builders risk, professional liability, and environmental liability. It also explains controlled construction insurance programs. A detailed exhibit illustrates points an owner should consider and decisions that will have to be made. This issue was written by Ron Rakich, president of Ron Rakich & Associates, Inc., a risk management consulting firm specializing in construction risk management and consolidated insurance programs.

In the October issue of Captive Insurance Company Reports (CICR), the lead article, "Drilling Deeper on Fronting Relationships," comes from interviews with Carol Frey of ACE. Carol (and CICR) outline additional questions that captive owners should ask that go beyond the traditional ones on fronting fees and collateral demands. She outlines other relationship issues that should be addressed because of the following: changing captive needs; evolving insurance marketplace; rating agency and regulatory needs; being a bundled or unbundled service provider; handling emerging risk transfer rules; being a surrogate adviser; providing risk management services; providing timely documentation; and problems from manuscripted policies. She also is concerned about organization issues because of increased corporate governance demands. "Retiree Medical Financing: Challenges and Myths" continues CICR's second series of articles on captives and employee benefits. Author Kathleen Waslov of Towers Perrin outlines several pervasive myths, such as trapped assets, low after-tax yields, and high-cost complexity of using insurance, and then proceeds to debunk them, including how captives can provide a solution. Editor Emeritus Hugh Rosenbaum provides an editorial, "Sidecars and Captive Similarities," drawing parallels between captives and sidecars, the recent and new reinsurance trend that has provided significant new reinsurance capacity.

Reference Manuals

Contractual Risk Transfer features a new discussion of oilfield anti-indemnity statutes. It also provides a new discussion of nonstandard CGL endorsements that provide a broader or narrower scope of coverage as compared to the standard additional insured endorsements.

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

IRMI Insurance Cancellation Guide has been updated with the most recent information and Web sites concerning laws and regulations that govern the cancellation and nonrenewal of commercial and personal lines insurance policies.

IRMI Workers Comp contains a new discussion on the conflict between workers compensation and Medicare. Included in the supplement is updated information on state benefits and updated information relating to payroll limitations for sole proprietors, partners, executive officers, and limited liability company members by state. The supplement also contains the first part of a complete update of the state law section of the manual. The updated summaries reflect the changes that resulted from the 2006 state legislative sessions.

Practical Risk Management updates three topics about important risk management activities -- "Risk Identification," "Marketing a Large Account," and "Reports to Management" -- and one topic about an emerging issue -- "Enterprise Risk Management." There is also an updated discussion of "Workers Compensation Self-Insurance Requirements by State," which includes a summary in chart form of self-insurance requirements for each state. Lastly, this issue of Risk Management Notes looks at the issues and implications in the ongoing debate over the extension of TRIA; the recent Katrina court decision on wind versus water; and Web resources for risk identification, mitigation, and monitoring of natural hazards. A new feature, "Marketplace Musings," is introduced.

Risk Financing features updates to two sections of the manual. First, a new discussion on statistical concepts by Dr. Lars Powell of the University of Arkansas at Little Rick and Risk Management Consultant Daphne Williams has been added in section II.I. The discussion, entitled "Basic Statistical Concepts," offers explanations of statistical terminology such as the mean, the median, the mode, and standard deviation, and provides examples of loss frequency and severity distributions. Updates to the captive insurance regulation summaries for U.S. domiciles (Appendix B) are also provided. Appendix B begins with a side-by-side comparison of some of the important aspects of captive domicile legislation and contains additional explanation of the regulations for each domicile. Supplement 91's issue of Risk Financing Perspectives offers a discussion by Michelle Bradley and Lloyd Kelley of Sigma Actuarial Consulting Group titled, "Reducing Collateral Uncertainty: A Primer for Negotiations." It focuses on strategies insureds can adopt to control the amount of security required for different types of loss-sensitive insurance plans.

Classification Cross-Reference has been updated to include recent changes in classification codes.

How To Add IRMI Titles to Your SilverPlume Library

Information is the key to success in a firming insurance market. To add IRMI titles to your SilverPlume Library, call 800-677-4442 or .

Past Issues