People and Places

InVEST welcomes new board member: The insurance industry's premier classroom to career education program, InVEST, appointed Kelley L. Erstine to its national board. He is CEO of the Independent Insurance Agents of North Carolina (IIANC). Erstine served as the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) vice president of advancement and development prior to joining the IIANC team.

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

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

Mergers and Acquisitions

Two insurance outsourcing firms join to agent and broker needs: Patra Corp., which provides back-office and account management outsourcing, and Work-at-Home Vintage Employees, LLC (WAHVE), which provides domestic remote staffing solutions for insurance firms using the industry's retiring talent, have entered an exclusive partnership utilizing their complementary strengths and expertise to create outsourcing solutions for insurance firms of all sizes. This partnership provides small, middle-market and high-end agencies with new outsourcing options that address challenges ranging from high-volume, highly specialized tasks such as certificate issuance to sophisticated activity such as quality control and account audits.

New Policies

Utica introduces Cybersurance™ endorsement: The Utica National Insurance Group and the independent insurance agents representing them are offering coverage to help protect small businesses in the event of a data, privacy or security breach. Utica has introduced its new Cybersurance™ endorsement, affording protection to businesses with 25 employees or fewer, on Commercial Package policies (CPP) and Business Owners policies (BOP). It's also available for independent insurance agents themselves through Utica's Agents' Errors & Omissions insurance program. Services include incident response planning, breach severity assessment, assistance with notifications and meeting federal and state regulatory requirements, protecting affected customers and employees, and more.

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

New program for tattoo artists: Zurich and Marine Agency Corp. have reported that they are offering a new insurance program for tattoo and micro pigmentation artists, body piercers, massage therapists, estheticians, and cosmetologists. The Day Spas, Tattoo Studios and Salons program is a commercial insurance package and offers insurance protection from lawsuits arising out of the operation of the business and product sales and protection for business contents and building against losses due to perils, such as fire, smoke, lighting, riot, wind, explosion, vandalism, malicious mischief, burglary, theft and other direct causes of physical damage not otherwise excluded by the policy.

News

New industry resource offered: The National Alliance now offers the Insurance & Risk Management Knowledge Alliance. It is a website that provides resources on practical and academic levels for insurance and risk management industries. Various national faculties of The National Alliance, The Research Academy, leading universities, MarketScout and major insurance publications will contribute to this varied tapestry of information. The Knowledge Alliance website is accessible to CICs, CRMs, CISRs and CSRMs as a benefit. It is also available to others on a subscription basis. An annual subscription is $189 and includes a complimentary subscription to The National Alliance Resources magazine and 10 percent off Academy Publications.

Special Reports /

New Executives, Board Members and Officers with InVEST, PCI and Lockton - Around the Industry

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