National Underwriter P&C January-22, 2009
Cover Story
Reinsurers Expect Hardening Market, But Don't Foresee Skyrocketing Prices
Reinsurance leads the way on rate turnaround for a change, observers
Opinion
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Risk Management Really Should Mean Better Financial Management
The focus on risk management has intensified as crises have roiled through markets, such as the collapse of major corporations due to mismanagement and daily developments on Wall Street arising from
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It Could Be Worse
The mood was not so much somber as shell-shocked at last week's Property-Casualty Insurance Joint Industry Forum, as you might expect in the midst of the worst financial crisis since The Great
News
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Will Microsoft Layoffs Affect Insurance Tech?
Microsoft announced last week that it will cut 5,000 jobs due to declining sales, but what, if anything, will those layoffs mean to technology in the insurance industry? NU's Ara Trembly weighs in
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Global Warming: Our Catastrophe Du Jour
Ever since the infamous Chicken Little freaked out about the imminent descent of the sky, alarmed people everywhere have taken a certain morbid delight in anticipating the next great catastrophe to
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How Should Insurers Respond on Global Warming?
Despite conflicting scientific evidence on the severity of the threat posed by climate change, the insurance industry seems intent on throwing lots of money at the problem. How should insurance
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Soft Market Over, But Price Hikes Remain Problematic, Survey Finds
Richard Kerr, CEO of Dallas-based MarketScout--which conducts the monthly "Market Barometer" survey--said the decline in insurance prices will be coming to a halt because rates have become inadequate
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Dinallo Warns Against Making Federal Regulation 'Optional'
American International Group's bailout by Washington does not prove the need for a national regulator, but if a federal charter is established by Congress it should not be optional and Uncle Sam
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Insurers Entering First 'Invisible Hard Market,' MMC's Duperreault Says
The property-casualty industry is entering an "invisible hard market" as exposures disappear in a contracting economy, which hides the bottom-line benefits of rising prices, Brian Duperreault, the
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GAO Report Concedes Congress Should Consider Pros & Cons Of OFC
NAIC warns against 'unjustified changes' that would 'essentially result in
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Madoff Scandal Should Be Very Costly For E&O Insurers
Jonathan Legge, a managing director with Mercator Risk Services, said while it is too early to estimate a worst-case scenario in terms of total claim costs, the E&O reverberations will likely
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NU Extends Agency Tech Award Deadline To March 9
The entry deadline for the second annual National Underwriter "Agency Technology Achievement Award" program, run in partnership with the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum, has been extended until
Buyers Report
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Risk Managers Urge Colleagues To Toot Their Own CRO Horn
While the crises roiling the economy and financial markets may be taking most organizations into uncharted territory, risk managers eager for advancement know exactly where they want to go--up to the
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Half Of RRGs Formed In 2008 Were Physician Med Malpractice
In 2002, with the onset of the last hard market, physicians turned to the Liability Risk Retention Act as commercial insurers raised their premiums to exorbitant levels or stopped writing liability
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Democrat Gains, Investment Losses Likely To Boost 2009 Workplace Class Actions
The 2008 presidential election, against the backdrop of a litany of woe--the housing, financial and automaker crises; a consumer confidence rate at the lowest level in recorded history; a plunging
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'Joe The Risk Manager' Restoule Sees Opportunities Despite Economic Threats
Coming off a U.S. presidential campaign in which the "Joes" of the world assumed a very prominent role, perhaps it is only fitting that it was "Joe the Risk Manager" who took over the presidency of
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Sinking Economy Challenges Retail RMs
Risk managers of retail businesses are broadening their definition of what constitutes risk to include the fallout of Draconian cost-cutting measures, as well as problems with suppliers and other
E&S Extra
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Aon: Airline Renewals In For 'Interesting Year'
In a January report on the airline insurance market, Chicago-based Aon reported that lead hull and liability premiums rose 5 percent during the month of December with almost all end-of-year renewals
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House Votes Reversal Of Supreme Court Rule On Wage Bias
"Today we face a transformational moment," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., chief sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act. "With a new Congress, a new administration, we have a chance to finally provide
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Builders Risk Insurers Left In Lurch As Recession, Credit Crisis Cut Projects
Economic malaise for housing, commercial building may keep market
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Dinallo Says N.Y. Exchange Still Possible, Warns Against Optional Federal Regulation
The idea of resurrecting the New York Insurance Exchange, floated last year by the New York Insurance Department and New York Gov. David Paterson, has not been sunk by the financial meltdown and
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Bad Economy Will Negate Hard Market, Duperreault Warns
NEW YORK--The property-casualty industry is entering an "invisible hard market," with the bottom-line benefits of rising prices undermined by disappearing exposures in a contracting economy, the head
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Is The Soft Market Over?
Recent weeks have seen no shortage of market forecasts that will impact insurers and brokers inside and outside the E&S/specialty insurance sector. Two of the latest, published in January, predict
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2008 Discrimination Charges Up 15 Percent, EEOC Report Says
The information on the year ended Sept. 30, 2008 is available in the "Fiscal Year 2008 Performance and Accountability Report," posted on the EEOC's Web site,
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Hyundai Offering Job Loss Protection On New Car Loans
Automaker Hyundai said it is offering a program, said to be unique in the United States, that will allow consumers to return cars and cancel their auto loans if they lose their jobs or experience any
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The LTC Liability Market Is No Place For Mavericks
The convergence of Wall Street's meltdown, falling insurance industry surplus, uncertainty over the future of medical care financing and a persistently soft commercial lines market has created a
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Madoff Fallout To Cost D&O, E&O Insurers Nearly $2 Billion: Aon Benfield
With the looming prospect of nearly $2 billion in professional liability claim payments, fallout of an alleged Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Bernard Madoff, insurers will likely embark on more careful
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Madoff Scandal An Additional Headache For E&O Insurers
Jonathan Legge, a managing director with Mercator Risk Services, said the reverberations will likely register as investment advisors and banks that invested clients' money through Mr. Madoff are hit
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FI Insurers Take Another Hit
In a recent analysis, reinsurance broker Aon Benfield put a best estimate of direct insurance losses from the alleged Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Bernard Madoff at $1.8 billion, citing a range of
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AIG's Sale of HSB Tops List Of Recent Specialty Deal Values
The late-December deal which has American International Group selling Hartford Steam Boiler to Munich Re Group is the biggest recent deal in dollar terms to hit the specialty sector, but broker deals
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Specialty Executives On The Move
While many specialty insurers doing the hiring this month were beneficiaries of executive departures from American International Group, there were a host of other personnel changes contributing to a
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Financial Firms Targeted As Hot Spots For Securities Class-Action Litigation
Delivering bad news for directors and officers liability insurers who cover defendants in securities suits, studies show the number of class actions jumped 19 percent in 2008, and that large
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Surplus Lines Groups Continue Push For Reform
Insurance associations representing brokers who sell excess and surplus lines insurance say they will work aggressively this year to get federal legislation reforming and modernizing the surplus
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Insurers Lose Big Toxic Cleanup Appeal In Calif.
Six insurers could be on the hook for a total of $100 million under the latest court ruling in a 15-year legal battle between California and its liability carriers over a claim for toxic waste
