NAPSLO Nixes TRIA Extension
By Susanne Sclafane
NU Online News Service, Sept. 22, 1:22 p.m. EDT, Orlando, Fla.?The president of a surplus lines association said the group has notified the Treasury department of its opposition to the mandatory offer aspect of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.[@@]
Speaking at the annual convention of the Kansas City, Mo.-based National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices yesterday, NAPSLO president James Griffith was referring to a provision of the Act which requires carriers to offer terrorism insurance that expires this year.
"NAPSLO believes that the cost of documenting the vast number of rejections of this insurance is substantial, perhaps in the tens of millions of dollars," said Mr. Griffith, who is also the president of Princeton Risk Managers, a N.J.-based wholesale brokerage.
"Compared to the few [insureds] accepting TRIA coverage, the cost is not justified and the mandatory offer of coverage should not be renewed," he said, voicing the position of the organization of surplus lines brokers and insurers.
Mr. Griffith was followed to the podium by William S. Cohen, former Secretary of Defense, who gave a frightening list of all-too-real terror possibilities that the nation could face on any given day.
"We're witnessing the intersection of terror and technology," Mr. Cohen said, reviewing scenarios involving the loss of radar communications monitoring air traffic in major U.S. cities, the takedowns of satellites that the United States uses to monitor military activities abroad, and other possibilities.
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