ACE Group Names Andrade to Expanded Role for Overseas Business

January 8, 2013Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

The ACE Group has named Juan Andrade, division president, Global Personal Lines and Small Commercial Insurance, to the additional post of chief operating officer of the company’s Insurance

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Insurer Aviva Nearing Sale of U.S. Business

November 8, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleCommentsAviva, the UK’s second-biggest insurer, is closing in on the sale of its underperforming U.S. business, a key part its drive to strengthen its finances in an uncertain economic climate and revive its share price.

The disposal, expected “reasonably soon,” is set to fetch less than the

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Conn.-Based Business Risk Partners Appoints Senior Underwriter

December 14, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Business Risk Partners (BRP), a Windsor, Conn.-based managing general underwriter, appointed Jayne Downey as a senior underwriter overseeing the firm’s technology errors-and-omissions (E&O) and data breach/privacy products.

For over a decade, Downey worked as an underwriter with Chubb Specialty Insurance in its wholesale unit where she helped launch Chubb’s cyber products and managed underwriting for the western region. Her experience also includes E&O underwriting for miscellaneous professional liability, media, and lawyers.

Founded in 2000, BRP is a managing general underwriter in specialty insurance. It partners with global carriers and specialty agents and brokers nationwide to offer services for middle-market customers. BRP provides professional and management liability products to agents and brokers and their clients.

 

Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: East NewsTopics: Business Risk Partners, Jayne Downey, PeopleHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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Lockett Named Senior VP of Business, Diversified Services at TDECU

November 9, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

TDECU, headquartered in Lake Jackson, Texas, has appointed Robert S. Lockett III as senior vice president of Business and Diversified Services.

Lockett, who has more than 20 years of experience in the financial industry, will be responsible for overseeing the operations of TDECU Wealth Advisors, TDECU Insurance Agency, TDECU Real Estate, Century Oaks Title and TDECU Business Services.

Previously, Lockett served as interim vice president of Business and Diversified Services and as vice president of TDECU Business Services.

Prior to joining TDECU, Lockett served in top leadership positions at Firehouse Charcoal, Royal Oak Enterprises LLC, SouthTrust Bank, Compass Bank and Wachovia.

 

Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: Texas / South Central NewsTopics: lockett, People, people photo available, tdecu, TexasHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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Insurance Noodle Expands Online Quoting Platform for Personal Lines Business

October 4, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Insurance Noodle, part of Willis North America, a unit of Willis Group Holdings plc has launched its immediate personal lines quoting hub.  Expanding on the functionality of the company’s commercial lines quoting hub, the offering allows insurance agents to login and complete an online application to get real-time quotes for home and auto risks in 38 states.  The quoting hub connects member agents to products from personal lines carriers.  Currently, five top insurance carriers offer quotes via the hub, with additional carriers coming on in the next few months.

Insurance Noodle is the distribution vehicle for the Willis Commercial Network North America, which provides products and services to small insurance agents and brokers nationwide.

The personal lines automated quoting platform has been pilot tested by existing members since July, with nearly 1,000 members adopting the platform within the first month.  It is now being offered for widespread distribution to small agencies across the country.  While available carriers vary by state, the platform delivers at least two options (on personal lines) for most locations.

The Insurance Noodle platform also provides agents with a database of their Insurance Noodle book of business.  All client records, quotes and policies from all carriers are stored in the member’s profile on the Insurance Noodle website. Agents can quote, bind, service, and renew business, all online. More enhancements to the network are in development.

Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: National NewsTopics: Markets/Coverages, online broker, online sales, Personal LinesHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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Moonlighting: Getting Business People to Listen to You

Holiday season is in full blast now, so what better time to discuss traditional end-of-year topics like performance reviews, gifting at the office, and what it’s like to advise business clients. Okay, so maybe that last one’s not quite the merrily common topic at around this time. But I’m already getting weary of all this have a happy holiday however it is you celebrate, and here are also some brand-spanking new year wishes! thing, so bah. This is what we’re talking about today.

How companies expect their lawyers to advise them differs among companies. If you’re lucky, you work among people who appreciate and value lawyers for both their legal advice and their business sensibilities. (And if you’re really lucky, among people who are strangely okay with you blogging on a gossipy legal news site.) Business people who listen to your legal and business advice may respect that you work across several business units and get to see stuff that the individual groups don’t. Or they may just blindly trust you. That works too (for you).

At other companies, business people just want the in-house lawyer to stay focused on talking about legal issues and only legal issues, and don’t want to hear about any of the non-legal perspectives the lawyer may have to offer. And of course, there are other business people who don’t even really care for listening to any of the legal stuff (this may pose a bit of a problem if lawsuits or jail are some of the things they are interested in avoiding).

To be fair, the level of appreciation that business people have for their counsel’s advice, whether legal or non-legal, depends a lot on the individual lawyer’s capabilities….

The ideal business environment is collaborative and team-work oriented. The ability to be creative and adaptable is highly valued and important for the success of most companies. So yeah, we lawyers are kind of screwed from the get go. But never fear! With experience, even we who colored inside the lines at six weeks of age can learn to think out of the box! (Or at least appear to be trying to cooperate with others.)

According to In-house Lawyering 101, the following is not a satisfactory response:

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Business Groups Sue SEC Over Dodd-Frank Anti-Bribery Rule

October 12, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleCommentsFour business groups on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s new rule requiring oil, mining and gas companies to disclose payments they make to foreign governments.

The lawsuit marks the latest in a string of legal challenges against regulators still struggling to finalize dozens of rules included in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.

A key argument in the suit – filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Petroleum Institute, and two other groups – is that the SEC failed to adequately weigh the rule’s costs and benefits.

Problems with economic analysis have proven to be a successful tool for the industry in combating prior SEC rules, including its “proxy access” rule that would have empowered shareholders to nominate directors to corporate boards.

“The rule as written would impose enormous costs on U.S. firms and put them at a competitive disadvantage against government-owned oil giants not subject to the rule,” said API Chief Executive Officer Jack Gerard in a statement late Wednesday.

“Not only will the rule hurt the millions of Americans who own shares in oil and natural gas companies, it will also cost jobs and damage America’s energy security by making it more difficult for U.S. firms to gain access to resources abroad.”

SEC spokesman John Nester said the agency is still reviewing the lawsuit, but that the SEC thinks it is on solid legal ground.

“We believe our legal interpretation and economic analysis are sound and we look forward to defending the rule that Congress directed us to write,” Nester said.

The SEC’s resource extraction rule is one of the most controversial Dodd-Frank requirements.

Championed by humanitarian organizations, the rule aims to combat bribery abroad by U.S. energy companies. But industry groups have argued the rule is far too costly and would give rivals sensitive business information.

The challenge to the SEC’s rule is being headed up by Gibson Dunn attorney Eugene Scalia, the son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He has a winning-streak in knocking down other SEC regulations, such as the proxy access rule last year.

Late last month, Scalia also helped other trade groups win a court battle against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over another Dodd-Frank rule that would have imposed “position limits” on commodity speculators.

In addition to challenging the rule on the basis of flawed economic analysis, Wednesday’s lawsuit deploys three other legal arguments.

It alleges, for instance, that the SEC “grossly misinterpreted its statutory mandate” in claiming that Dodd-Frank gave the agency no choice but to adopt the rule in the form that it did. The groups say the law only requires companies to provide a “compilation” of the payment data – and not a detailed list of every payment, as the SEC’s final rule calls for.

Scalia used a similar type of argument that helped him win the position limit case last month, after a federal district court judge ruled that the CFTC could not simply claim Dodd-Frank mandated position limits without first showing why they were necessary.

Wednesday’s lawsuit also says the SEC is violating companies’ First Amendment rights because the forced disclosure would be “in violation of their contractual and legal commitments.”

The disclosure required by the rule “does not further the investor protection purposes of the securities laws,” it says.

A First Amendment argument was similarly waged in the battle against proxy access, but the Washington D.C. circuit court did not take it up and based its decision to strike down the rule on the cost-benefit argument.

In addition, the Chamber and API’s case makes use of a legal argument not used in recent challenges to SEC rules – that the agency could have used its discretion to provide an exemption from its rule and failed to consider it. “The commission arbitrarily rejected any exemption from the rule’s disclosure requirements,” the suit says.

The SEC adopted the resource extraction rule in August in a 2-1 vote, with Republican Commissioner Daniel Gallagher voting no and two other commissioners recused from participating. In his dissent, Gallagher said the SEC had failed to determine the benefits of the rule and disregarded the “significant costs” to companies and shareholders.

The other two groups to challenge the rule on Wednesday were the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the National Foreign Trade Council.

The case was filed in both the District Court for the District of Columbia and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia until it can be determined which court will have jurisdiction to hear the case.

 

Copyright 2012 Reuters. Click for restrictions.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: National NewsTopics: anti-bribery law, Dodd Frank Act, ScaliaHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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West Virgnia Business Court HQ Opens in Martinsburg

October 12, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

The West Virginia Supreme Court’s first division to be located outside Charleston is open for business.

The new business court division’s headquarters opened Wednesday in Martinsburg. The Supreme Court says about 100 people attended the ceremony.

The division will focus on complex issues that arise in commercial litigation, such as contract and shareholder disputes, trade secrets and securities cases. It also will relieve circuit court judges from handling novel or complex issues that they may not be trained to handle.

Court officials said in a news release that the Eastern Panhandle’s growing population and business development were factors in locating the business court division’s headquarters in Martinsburg.

 

 

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: Southeast NewsTopics: business lawsuits, commercial litigation, West Virginia business courtHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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Post-Sandy Snowstorm Causes New Damage, Complicates Business Insurance

November 8, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleCommentsBusinesses in New York and New Jersey that were preparing insurance claims for losses from Superstorm Sandy now have a second headache: how to deal with new losses from an early winter snow storm.

The snow and wind from the nor’easter made continuing power outages worse, once again snarled road and rail traffic, and may have contributed to fresh damage at businesses that had not made repairs yet from Sandy.

Disaster modeling companies expect Sandy caused as much as $20 billion in insured losses, not counting flood damage that could add billions more to the total.

Insurance experts say the nor’easter will only complicate what was already going to be a difficult and prolonged negotiation between commercial policy holders and insurance companies over what was covered, when and for how long.

“If an adjuster wasn’t already out to identify what Sandy did – and there’s probably a pretty good chance that hasn’t happened in a lot of instances – and you had damage from (the nor’easter), you wouldn’t necessarily know that,” said Rick Miller, chief broking officer for the U.S. property insurance practice at Aon Plc’s Aon Risk Solutions.

The most significant questions will be around coverage known as business interruption (my shop was damaged by the storm and so I couldn’t transact business) and contingent business interruption (my shop is fine but my supplier’s warehouse was damaged and they cannot ship me goods to sell).

Sandy was already expected to cause not only billions of dollars in business interruption losses, but also years of litigation over whether certain kinds of interruption qualified for coverage or not.

Policies typically have limits on how many hours coverage lasts once the interruption begins. Figuring out whether the nor’easter caused a new interruption or was part of an existing one, where time had expired, will be one of the thorny questions to be addressed.

For homeowners, the questions around the nor’easter are much simpler than for business owners: is my house damaged or not, and was it wind or water that caused the damage? Those questions have their own complications, but on a much smaller scale than the disputes potentially facing large corporations.

“It gets complicated because policyholders and their insurers are going to have to work out where the different causes of their property damage came from and how that implicates the provisions of the policy,” said Jonathan Cohen, an insurance litigator at Gilbert LLP in Washington.

CAN’T TELL THE DIFFERENCE

Allianz, the German insurer, released a report last week indicating business interruption claims generally accounted for up to 70 percent of the catastrophe losses on commercial insurance policies.

Experts like Aon’s Miller say it is almost certain that property insurance policies will treat Sandy and the nor’easter as two separate events. That means two separate deductible payments for policyholders, raising costs even further.

“It may well become impossible to separate them out,” said Robert Muir-Wood, chief research officer of RMS, one of the main firms used by insurers to model their disaster losses. “Having an extra storm like that, from what I’ve seen, it’s more that it delays everything, it adds another day or two to recovery.”

Muir-Wood said lower Manhattan, which he described as the “epicenter” of losses, suffered a storm surge from Sandy so severe it would be considered more than a once-in-250-years type of event.

That will create even more problems, Aon’s Miller said, for businesses that had flood coverage but whose policies treated severe floods differently, or excluded them entirely.

“It’s very hard to make a generalization because each of these contracts is going to stand on their own,” he said.

 

 

Copyright 2012 Reuters. Click for restrictions.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: East NewsTopics: Hurricane Sandy business interruption, Hurricane Sandy insurance claims, Hurricane Sandy loss estimate, Post-Sandy snowstorm damage, RMSHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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Kodak to Sell Film and Photo Paper Business

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How is your business supporting your community? Here’s an idea…..

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New York Judge Orders Anonymous Blogger into Court Over Business Reports

May 14, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle2 CommentsA New York judge has ordered an anonymous blogger to appear in court next week over accusations that the blog Alfredlittle.com wrote false reports about a Chinese company to drive down the stock.

The blogger was served with a subpoena via email to appear in state Supreme Court in New York on May 16, according to a court filing on Friday.

The blogger could not be identified or reached for comment.

Deer Consumer Products, a Chinese appliance maker listed on the NASDAQ exchange, last year sued “Alfred Little” and several unnamed contributors for defamation.

The lawsuit, which also names the investor website, claims that Alfredlittle.com falsely accused Deer of engaging in fraudulent land transactions in China, driving down its stock price. The lawsuit sought to recover as much as $100 million in trading profits.

Bloggers have gained attention for accusing U.S.-listed Chinese companies of fraud while at the same time shorting their stock. The companies have hit back with lawsuits, saying the bloggers are distorting facts to make money. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has taken action against several China-based companies that are listed on U.S. exchanges for violations of U.S. securities law.

The lawsuit brought by Deer Consumer Products is one of a trio of cases brought against “Alfred Little” in New York. Similar cases were filed by Silvercorp Metals Inc., a Chinese silver producer, and Sino Clean Energy, a producer of a coal-based slurry used as fuel.

According to the lawsuit brought by Deer Consumer Products, the company’s stock went from $11.03 to $7.90 during nine days in March 2011, while short interest rose by more than 500,000 shares. The company’s stock closed at $3.01 on Friday, down 7 percent on the day.

Attorney Joseph Johnson of Eaton & Van Winkle, who said he represents an individual who uses the name Alfred Little, declined to comment.

Eaton & Van Winkle has sought to have the lawsuit dismissed, saying its client is operating outside New York state and therefore outside the court’s jurisdiction.

At a hearing on Wednesday, attorney John Bostany, who represents Deer Consumer Products, told the judge that a second contributor may have ties to New York. Justice Carol Edmead then directed “Alfred Little” to provide that contributor’s email address so a subpoena could be served.

In a ruling on Thursday, the judge ordered that individual to appear to help determine whether she has jurisdiction over the case. She said the courtroom would be closed for the appearance.

Edmead also ordered “Alfred Little” to provide Deer with documents identifying the owner of Alfredlittle.com.

Martin Garbus, another lawyer at Eaton & Van Winkle, has said in court papers that his client’s comments have helped save U.S. investors from “frauds” perpetrated by Chinese companies.

The SEC suspended trading in PUDA Coal, one of the companies targeted by the bloggers, last year. The agency brought a lawsuit against PUDA Coal in February, accusing it of defrauding investors into believing they were investing in a Chinese coal business that was in fact an empty shell, according to an SEC press statement.

Florence Harmon, a spokeswoman for the SEC, declined to comment on whether Alfredlittle.com had any influence in the PUDA Coal case.

 

Copyright 2012 Reuters. Click for restrictions.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: East NewsTopics: alfredlittle.com, blogger liability, media liabilityHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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Evolution Underwriting in Deal with Beazley to Develop PI Business in UK

May 14, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

“Broker only” commercial underwriting specialist Evolution Underwriting announced that it has “entered into an exclusive underwriting and distribution partnership with the Beazley Group.

Under the terms of the deal Evolution has been appointed to manage and develop Beazley’s professional indemnity portfolio for UK SME’s

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Gonzalez to Head New A.M. Best Miami Office for Latin American Business

May 8, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A.M. Best Co. announced that it has opened an office in Miami, Florida “to serve the growing market for insurance ratings in the Latin American region. Rating analytics for Latin American companies will continue to be performed by teams based in Oldwick, New Jersey.” Best opened an office in Dubai, UAE earlier this year. Miami is its fifth global office location.

Best has appointed Jorge A. Gonzalez to manage the office, which is located on the 9th floor, 1221 Brickell Avenue in Miami.  He is an “insurance and reinsurance veteran who has worked and resided in Latin America and Miami for decades,” said Best.

Gonzalez reports to Tina Bukow-Truman at Best’s corporate headquarters in Oldwick, New Jersey. The Miami office will be used for management meetings and other activities focused on the Latin American (re)insurance markets.

Best’s Executive Vice President Larry Mayewski noted: “With the increasing focus on solvency and enterprise risk management, we have seen a growing awareness of the importance of insurance ratings worldwide. The rapidly expanding insurance markets in South America, Central America and related regions command an increasing portion of our attention and resources.”

Best announced that it will also host its inaugural

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Riviezzo Joins Safety National as Business Development Rep.

April 3, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

St. Louis, Mo.-based Safety National Casualty Corp. announced that James Riviezzo has joined the company as business development representative. He will be based in Safety National’s New York City regional office.


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Kemper Changes Name for Specialty Business Unit

April 9, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Kemper Corp. has changed the name of its Unitrin Specialty business to Kemper Specialty, effective April 9, 2012.

The next step will be to rebrand the Unitrin Direct business in the near future, the company said.

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Is Your Pet Walker or Groomer Insured? Tell Them To Get Covered Here..!

Standard markets can provide coverage for pet service operations.

The coverage can be written on businessowners policies or commercial package policies. It can also be written by attaching a business endorsement to a homeowners policy.

This approach can satisfy many of the coverage concerns. However, there are unique exposures that standard policies may not cover.

"Most dog walkers and pet sitters are emerging businesses operated by individuals, and many of these people are not aware of the need to secure insurance," states Jason Shroot with JasonSellsInsurace.com.  These individuals typically love animals. They may care for the animal at the animal's home or at the sitter's home. More and more, these micro-businesses are becoming aware of the need for insurance.


Someone who goes into a customer's home to provide pet care services faces many of the same exposures as individuals and businesses that do housecleaning and provide other in-home services. A frequent cause of claims is when the pet sitter or dog walker loses keys. If a key can't be found, the lock may have to be replaced. The pet sitter may cause property damage or be accused of stealing items that belong to the pet's owner.

Additional exposures arise because the animal is a living creature. Jason Shrot says, "Because of weather, illness, car trouble, or other factors, the pet sitter or dog walker may not get to the customer's house in a timely manner, and the pet may be deprived of food and water or medicine. In other cases, it may injure itself, become ill, or cause damage to property."Individuals who perform dog walking services also have liability exposures because they are responsible for controlling the animal. If a dog being walked bites or injures a third party in some other way, the dog walker could be found negligent and responsible for the damages.
Professional liability coverage is also needed but may be easily overlooked.

Groomers do not have to be licensed, but there are a variety of training programs through which they can be certified. The best groomers (and the most desirable from an insurance standpoint) are highly trained and certified. A groomer’s training and experience is a major consideration in the underwriting process. We offer professional liability coverage for groomers and recommend that they buy it.” The major exposure for any pet care facility or pet care provider is injury to (or death of) an animal while in the facility’s care, custody, or control.” Groomers, trainers, and other pet service providers must have professional liability coverage, as well as veterinary expense coverage.

Lost pet reward and recovery coverage is another important option to consider.
Mobile groomers drive specially equipped vans to their customer’s location and wash and/or groom the pet in the van. Mobile groomers face essentially the same exposures as groomers who work in stores or kennels, but they also have auto-related exposures. Mobile groomers have customized vans with permanent fixtures that need to be covered in case of accident or theft. These businesses also need to ensure that they have downtime coverage and business income coverage in the event the equipment is vandalized or breaks down. And, they need protection in the case of loss or injury to the pet.”

For Your Pet-Related Business To Be Properly Insured Please Contact Jason Shroot at www.jasonsellsinsurance.com or 714.988.3325.