Experts: Risk Mgrs. Need More Loss Focus

By Caroline McDonald

NU Online news Service, Feb. 8, 4:54 p.m. EST, Edison, N.J.?A risk managers group was advised by industry experts that to cope with a hard market they need to focus on loss control and providing insurers with detailed easily accessible information.

"The thing risk managers have to concentrate on is the 70 percent that they can control, which are the losses," said Mary Beth Hahn, senior vice president, casualty manager with Marsh in Morristown, N.J. speaking to the New Jersey Public Risk Management Association.

Risk managers, she said, need "strong claims-handling in place, good loss control measures and a disaster recovery plan, because that will be key. When they can go to an insurance market and show that they are involved in controlling losses, that's the biggest means to their cost savings."

Risk managers should put together detailed, accurate submissions and be prepared to answer questions, she continued. And whenever possible, "they should get their treasurer, CFO and senior management involved in knowing what is going on in the insurance marketplace."

Anton Schmitt, senior vice president with Marsh, explained that things have changed since the days of the soft market.

"You could get a submission with the name of the insured, the loss record and maybe the total insured values," he said. Today, however, underwriters want information "broken down into finite detail."

This information includes an accurate schedule of locations, street addresses, zip codes, city and state.

Underwriters also want information broken down by real and personal property and business interruption, and "they like it in an electronic format, so that they can upload it to their CAT modeling programs and monitor their exposures in various areas," he said.

Underwriters are also concerned about:

?Contingent business interruption exposure.

?Disaster recovery plans.

?Locations and whether they're in flood zones A and V.

When considering a marketing strategy, Mr. Schmitt said risk managers should be aware that some structures that worked during the soft market may no longer be effective.

"Now we're restructuring programs to maximize the capital available in the market," he said. Risk managers may want to discuss alternative structures, with a broker or agent prior to renewal, he added.

Another consideration at renewal time is whether any covenants or banking agreements exist that require certain levels of coverage, he said. This information is significant going into a program because it could determine placement of a program and the type of coverage needed.

"Also, understand your priorities," he emphasized. Underwriters typically don't look at submissions until 30 days before the renewal date. "This doesn't give the buyer time to figure out different alternative options."

It's important, he said, to rank priorities, such as price, limit or deductibles, "because you won't have much opportunity to explore other options when you're in that 30-day window."

Darlene Villoresi, vice president with Marsh, reported that as of Jan. 1 in the casualty market, many quotes that had been issued were delayed, primarily due to uncompleted reinsurance renewals.

"Many of our carriers were sending out conditional renewal notices," she said. "Not because they didn't want to renew a piece of business, but because states required that carriers give notice prior to renewal if they were going to have significant changes." Changes that occurred were in the areas of program design, pricing and coverages, she said.

"Dramatic increases" were evident for certain classes of business, Ms. Villoresi said, primarily in the chemical, pharmaceutical and trucking industries, "as well as any class of business that the insurance company saw as unprofitable."

Ms. Villoresi noted average rate increases for "good risks:"

? Fifteen percent-30 percent for general liability.

? Twenty percent-50 percent for workers' compensation.

? Twenty percent-40 percent for auto liability.

In some cases, she said, Jan. 1 rates are double or triple what they were last year, particularly in workers' comp for companies with employee concentrations of 100 or more per location.

Workers' comp rates were rising prior to Sept. 11 due to rising health care and medical costs and unprofitable loss experience, she said.

Insurers are currently collecting data from their policyholders, she explained. She said they are identifying catastrophic exposures for a specific account, as well as identifying exposures among multiple insureds within a geographic area. This information will be used to help primary insurers and reinsurers identify their catastrophic exposures within a geographic area.

What is the outlook for the rest of the year? "Though there have been significant increases, we've seen a little pricing stability in December and January renewals," Mr. Schmitt said. "I expect that will continue at least through the end of the second quarter." A determining factor for third and fourth quarters, he said, will be July 1 treaty renewals.

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Experts: Risk Mgrs. Need More Loss Focus

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