People and Places

InVEST welcomes new boardmember: The insurance industry's premierclassroom to career education program, InVEST, appointed Kelley L.Erstine to its national board. He is CEO of theIndependent Insurance Agents of North Carolina(IIANC). Erstine served as the University of CentralArkansas (UCA) vice president of advancement and development priorto joining the IIANC team.

New officers to the board of governors at annual meeting: TheProperty Casualty Insurers Association of America(PCI) elected three new officers to its board ofgovernors during their 2011 annual meeting. Donald G.Southwell, chairman, president and chief executive officerof the Kemper Corporation, was elected as the association's newchair; Jonathan E. Michael, chairman of the boardand chief executive officer of RLI was elected as first vice chair;and Robert P. Restrepo Jr., chairman, presidentand chief executive officer of State Auto Insurance Companies, waselected as the second vice chair.

Lockton Adds Executive to Cargo & Logistics Team:Joe Sheridan has been named Marine specialist inLockton's New York office and will report tothe Lockton LLP London-based Cargo & Logistics Division.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Two insurance outsourcing firms join to agentand broker needs: Patra Corp., which providesback-office and account management outsourcing, andWork-at-HomeVintage Employees, LLC (WAHVE), which providesdomestic remote staffing solutions for insurance firms using theindustry's retiring talent, have entered an exclusive partnershiputilizing their complementary strengths and expertise to createoutsourcing solutions for insurance firms of all sizes. Thispartnership provides small, middle-market and high-end agencieswith new outsourcing options that address challenges ranging fromhigh-volume, highly specialized tasks such as certificate issuanceto sophisticated activity such as quality control and accountaudits.

New Policies

Utica introduces Cybersurance™endorsement: The Utica National Insurance Group and theindependent insurance agents representing them are offeringcoverage to help protect small businesses in the event of a data,privacy or security breach. Utica has introduced its newCybersurance™ endorsement, affording protection to businesses with25 employees or fewer, on Commercial Package policies (CPP) andBusiness Owners policies (BOP). It's also available for independentinsurance agents themselves through Utica's Agents' Errors &Omissions insurance program. Services include incident responseplanning, breach severity assessment, assistance with notificationsand meeting federal and state regulatory requirements, protectingaffected customers and employees, and more.

Grundy offers online services for collector vehicles:GrundyWorldwide, a division of Philadelphia Insurance Co.(PHLY), started a new collector vehicle program website thatfeatures online quoting; one of several new tools on the site. Thenew website allows vehicle owners and their insurance agents toobtain quotes, file claims, pay bills, print policy and ID cards,and access applications. Grundy offers specialized AutomobileLiability and Physical Damage insurance for over 119 antique andcollector car makes in all 50 states.

New program for tattoo artists: Zurich and Marine AgencyCorp. have reported that they are offering a newinsurance program for tattoo and micro pigmentation artists, bodypiercers, massage therapists, estheticians, and cosmetologists. TheDay Spas, Tattoo Studios and Salons program is a commercialinsurance package and offers insurance protection from lawsuitsarising out of the operation of the business and product sales andprotection for business contents and building against losses due toperils, such as fire, smoke, lighting, riot, wind, explosion,vandalism, malicious mischief, burglary, theft and other directcauses of physical damage not otherwise excluded by the policy.

News

New industry resource offered: The National Alliance nowoffers the Insurance & Risk Management KnowledgeAlliance. It is a website that provides resources onpractical and academic levels for insurance and risk managementindustries. Various national faculties of The National Alliance,The Research Academy, leading universities,MarketScout and major insurance publicationswill contribute to this varied tapestry of information. TheKnowledge Alliance website is accessible to CICs, CRMs, CISRs andCSRMs as a benefit. It is also available to others on asubscription basis. An annual subscription is $189 and includes acomplimentary subscription to The National Alliance Resourcesmagazine and 10 percent off Academy Publications.