National Underwriter P&C September 17/24, 2012
Cover Story
Protecting the Grid: Risk Management in Electric Utilities
Electric utilities are highly complex and technical businesses, and their risk managers face a daunting array of threats to employees, customers and physical assets.
Cover Story
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Three-Pronged Approach to Worker Protection Cuts Lost-Work Days
In the last four years, Terry Nay, director of safety & operational excellence at UNS Energy Corp., has taken a three-pronged approach to worker health, emphasizing: safety-leadership training; a behavioral-based safety program within the workforce; and a safety-process auditing system.
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Despite Protections, P&C Losses Lead to Higher Rates
As is the case with the majority of the energy-utilities industry, UNS Energy Corp.’s P&C risk portfolio is balanced between casualty risks from the operation of high-voltage electricity and property exposures stemming from multibillion-dollar power-generation facilities. These property risks are insured by FM Global.
Special Report
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Bed & Breakfast Market Warms Up With New Coverage Opportunities
As B&B owners find new ways to differentiate themselves, they’re also creating new exposures and opening new business for savvy agents and brokers.
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‘Greener’ Getaways
Dave Lanford and his wife Heidi have run the Iris Inn of Waynesboro, Va., for five years, and in that time they have succeeded in creating a bed & breakfast haven that is eco-friendly—a distinction insurers say is driving business to some inns over others.
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Business Travel Coverage Expands into Global Space
As economies grow ever more connected across international borders, the potential hazards of business travel have inspired policies covering everything from luggage retrieval to extraction from hot spots.
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Case Study: Emergency Treatment Half a World Away
A sales representative in Luanda, Angola, wakes up early one morning experiencing chest pain. Her employer, an American-based beverage company, provides a comprehensive travel-assistance program to its employees, and the sales rep has been instructed on how to use its services if she should experience an incident while traveling abroad.
News
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Execs, Analysts Try to Make Sense of P&C Market Cycle
While there is near-universal agreement that carriers are achieving rate increases for P&C business, analysts and company & brokerage executives are struggling to ascertain what the current, gradually hardening market will look like in the long term.
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Florida Citizens Looks to Loan Its Surplus to ‘Take-Out’ Companies, to Reduce Exposure
Florida Citizens Property Insurance Corp. plans to make up to $350 million available to private insurers willing to assume its policies, offering low-interest, 20-year loans from its surplus to qualifying “take-out companies”—those approved by the state Office of Insurance Regulation to remove policies from Citizens in order to reduce its...
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MarketScout: P&C Rates Continue Their Incremental Rise in August
Average rate increases for commercial and personal lines continued their slow ascent through August, rising an additional point over the prior month, says MarketScout.
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Reinsurers See Rate Increases Continuing into 2013
Several factors in the reinsurance marketplace point to continued moderate rate increases going forward, Swiss Re and Hannover Re stated as the annual Reinsurance Rendezvous kicked off in Monte Carlo.
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Managing the Cost Clock: A Five-Point Checklist for Accelerating Captive Approval
When it comes to captives, does speed really matter? If there’s any doubt, just ask a prospective captive owner who has been hobbled by red tape for months. Legal expenses and other incurred costs can quickly erode the upsides of alternative risk management.
Opinion
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‘Power’ Player: FM Global’s Mark McAdams
Mark McAdams, high-hazard occupancy specialist for FM Global, maintains its underwriting requirements for power generation, mining and service interruption. McAdams spoke with NU about some of the common exposures for companies in the power-generation industry and the underwriting considerations that come into play with high-voltage risk.
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Enlist Employees in the Workers’ Comp Cost-Control Crusade
Instead of keeping employees in the dark about how the Workers’ Compensation system functions for fear of encouraging more fraudulent claims, organizations would likely be better off proactively enlisting their people in their cost-control efforts.
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Telematics Pressure Is On for Midsize Carriers
It would seem as though the Personal Auto insurance industry has shifted into overdrive as large insurance companies like Progressive, State Farm and Allstate are aggressively promoting their telematics programs and associated discounts to attract the best risks. Many of these large carriers have been developing their telematics (or pay-as-you-drive)...
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Commercial P&C Growth Also Leads to Higher Agency Valuations
The news for insurance agents & brokers concerning organic growth continues to be positive: According to the 129 producers who participated in Reagan Consulting Inc.’s most recent Organic Growth & Profitability Survey (OGP Survey), such growth continues to accelerate in 2012.
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