Already in 2008, insured losses from severe weather systems have surpassed $1 billion—about $850 million stemming from the Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak in the mid-South on February 5 and February 6. Early damage estimates from a March 14 tornado that struck in downtown Atlanta and surrounding counties are at $340 million.

While hurricanes and earthquakes, on average, tend to generate higher losses per event, tornadoes and related weather events have caused nearly 57%, on average, of all U.S. insured catastrophe losses in any given year since 1953. In 2007, losses from these perils generated 69% of total insured catastrophe losses.

Smaller insurers, particularly single-state writers with exposure concentrated in tornado prone states, are facing increasing pressure on profitability from several years of high back-to-back losses.

For policyholders in tornado-prone regions, this may mean increased premiums and deductibles, and coverage interruptions. www.bestweek.com www.ambest.com

To review or download the report, visit: http://www.insurancebroadcasting.com/tornado-ambest.pdf 

The objective of Eastbridge’s latest report, Voluntary Marketing Practices 2008, is to address how the marketing practices of voluntary carriers (in all the areas mentioned above) compare to one another. The report addresses questions such as:

How are marketing departments structured?

What types of marketing plans are developed?

What are the branding strategies? Does the voluntary business have a separate brand or logo?

What type of marketing is done for each audience?

What types of programs work and don’t work?

What type of research is done?

The report gathers data from 22 voluntary carriers. It is the second of the Marketing Practices studies conducted by Eastbridge. The first was conducted in 2001. Where appropriate, the latest study draw comparisons to the findings from the 2001 report.

The report is available for sale for just $3,000. For more information, contact Eastbridge at info@eastbridge.com or phone the company at (860) 676-9633.  

Eastbridge Consulting Group, Inc. is a marketing advisory firm serving insurance and financial services organizations in the United States and Canada.

"There is no light at the end of the tunnel," one of the sources said on Friday, adding the likelihood was Flowers would walk away, unless the insurer engaged in discussions.

Friends -- which has been in the throes of a strategy review since it failed to merge with rival Resolution (RSL.L: Quote, Profile, Research) last year and ousted its chief executive -- last week rejected a 3.5 billion pound ($6.9 billion) cash offer from the U.S. buyout group.

(Editing by Will Waterman and Mike Elliott)

The 113 hospital executives who responded to one of those surveys early this year gave three of the nation's five largest health plans more negative scores than positive ones. By far the most disliked and least trusted health plan operator was UnitedHealth Group, which received an unfavorable rating from 91% of respondents. The average unfavorable rating among the other plans was 41%.

Among the chief complaints against United were ones tied to claims denials, low reimbursement rates and an unwillingness to "fix claims." When asked which health plan was most difficult to negotiate with, 64% of hospital executives cited United, while 2% pointed to Aetna, Inc. United also was ranked as the slowest to process and pay claims. Overall, Aetna fared the best, with only 37% of respondents citing an unfavorable opinion of the company. Results of the survey were released this month by Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Davies Public Affairs. All participants were responsible for negotiating contracts with health plans and represent more than 10% of the nation's hospitals, according to Davies.

United was quick to dismiss the study as "narrow" and "non-scientific." The study failed to reflect the favorable relationships that United has with most of its 4,800 network hospitals, says United spokesperson Daryl Richard. "We work directly and collaboratively with hospitals to decrease administrative cost and complexity so that hospitals receive fair compensation for services, at the same time balancing overall health care costs in line with the Consumer Price Index on behalf of our customers," he says.

This article has been excerpted from AIS’s Health Plan Week. To read the full story, visit http://www.aishealth.com/PressReleases/PR2008_0410_hbd.html. 

To protect against this occurrence, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company has expanded its water loss protection program to include a premium discount to policyholders who install a water leak defense system.

“Fireman’s Fund is interested in protecting homeowners from water losses and in water conservation. Offering a premium discount will give homeowners the additional incentive to install a new device that may prevent such occurrences,” said Mark McCormick, Director of Service Innovation for Personal Insurance. Fireman’s Fund has teamed with Sentinel Hydrosolutions LLC to offer the Leak Defense System that stops water flow from plumbing leaks before major damage occurs. “This further enhances our overall strategy to prevent water losses and promote water conservation,” said McCormick.

“Our Leak Defense System is installed on the incoming water line to a home, apartment, or commercial building and constantly monitors water flow,” said Jeff Traczewski, president of Sentinel Hydrosolutions. “The owner sets the target water flow and the amount of time before the system determines an alarm condition. At that time, the audible alarm sounds and the water is shut-off.”

Mike Broach, Vice President of Sales With Sentinel Hydrosolutions claims the leak defense system also provides eco-friendly or ‘Green’ benefits to the homeowner. “Not only will the system prevent potential losses from a plumbing leak, it can pay for itself in the short-term by alerting homeowners to leaky appliances such as toilets and slab leaks that often go undetected for years.” A study in Portland, OR revealed that silent toilet leaks could account for up to 300 gallons of water a day costing upwards of $500 a year.

Fireman’s Fund offers a comprehensive strategy from water loss prevention solutions to surface water/flood insurance. Statistically, a home is three times more likely to incur damage from flood water than from fire.

More comprehensive coverage and limits than the National Flood Insurance Program offers are available to Prestige® Home Premier policyholders. Surface water or flood damage doesn’t only result from natural disasters; substantial damage can also result from construction site runoff, melting snow, inadequate drainage systems and leaky dams or levees. www.firemansfund.com

“To more effectively manage capital gains tax for high-net-worth investors, we offer a tax-loss harvesting strategy that should be invaluable to clients who are averse to paying excess taxes,” said Gary Tangwall, MBA, ChFC, CLU, senior financial consultant with Thrivent Financial. “Clients with highly concentrated stock positions with significant capital gains in their portfolios should benefit from this new service.”

Through the service, financial consultants associated with Thrivent Financial’s Landmark Group and the client will together determine how best to diversify the portfolio, reduce tracking error and meet the client’s predefined tax budget. The service then obtains managers’ investment models and manages the portfolios on a discretionary basis, balancing tax implications against managers’ stock selections. The required minimum for this program is $1,000,000 of investable (after-tax) assets.

The program’s quantitative tools select optimal trades by factoring risk characteristics of each stock, tax implications of potential trade combinations, correlation between stocks in existing and target portfolios, transaction costs and clients’ capital gains budgets.

“This program offers strategies with the objective of helping clients retain more dollars by being better allocated and tax-efficient,” said Todd Gillingham, JD(a), CFP, ChFC, CLU, Thrivent Financial senior financial consultant. To learn more about this program, contact Thrivent Financial’s Landmark Group at 651-779-9720. www.thrivent.com

Pet Insurance in North America, 3rd Edition evaluates new companies entering the arena, charts historical sales and projections through 2012, takes a close-up look at established players as well as entrepreneurial upstarts and notes the consumer trends behind the numbers. For further information on this report from Packaged Facts visit: http://www.packagedfacts.com/Pet-Insurance-1391937/ 

“Zurich is committed to winning in the North American market,” said Mike Foley, CEO of NAC. “Our industry-leading approach – particularly in areas of underwriting, claims and risk engineering – is a crucial contributor to our success. We are focused on delivering an even stronger experience to our customers and distributors, while maintaining our underwriting discipline and reducing expenses in targeted areas. The positions eliminated were primarily non-market-facing roles to ensure our actions will not disrupt customer service.” www.zurichna.com

The U.S. Real Estate Fund I offers primarily high net worth investors represented by registered investment advisors access to the institutional real estate experience of TIAA-CREF, and the company’s sixty years of experience with that asset class.

“The Fund will aim to provide investors with a total return experience through an actively managed portfolio of primarily office, retail, industrial and multifamily properties in a wide variety of markets across the United States,” according to Philip McAndrews, managing director and head of portfolio management for TIAA-CREF Global Real Estate. “The seven to 10 year term of the fund provides the portfolio management team latitude to seek maximum capital appreciation over the long term."

http://www.tiaa-cref.org/advisors/pdf/prospectus_real_estate.pdf

COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company (Nationwide) and the Tavis Smiley Group (TSG) today announced an exclusive three-year partnership.

Under terms of the new partnership, Smiley’s exclusive affiliation with Nationwide will include:

-- Nationwide's exclusive sponsorship of Smiley's PBS television program as a provider of property & casualty insurance products. 

-- Nationwide's national sponsorship of the 2009 State of the Black Union event to be held next February in Los Angeles. 

-- Nationwide's sponsorship of an exclusive five-city tour in which Smiley and Nationwide will join forces to promote economic empowerment and financial literacy. www.tavistalks.com www.nationwide.com

HARTFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Phoenix Companies, Inc. (NYSE: PNX) today announced it will sell an office building at 56 Prospect Street currently housing its asset management subsidiary, Phoenix Investment Partners, which is scheduled to be spun-off to shareholders later this year. The property, considered Class A office space, is located between State and Grove Streets in downtown Hartford and has been listed for sale with CB Richard Ellis with an asking price of $10 million. Phoenix has owned the building, which has 93,000 square feet of office space with underground parking for about 100 cars, since 1994.  www.phoenixwm.com. 

(Dublin, Ireland) – 10 April 2008 – A leading expert on cross-border employee benefits says global firms are facing new challenges as they develop benefit programs to attract and retain globe-trotting professionals.  Speaking today at the IBIS Academy in Dublin, Ireland, Pam Enright, Director of International Benefits for Lockton, said multinational employers strive to formulate consistent benefit plans for expatriates regardless of their home country or host location.

Lockton is the world’s largest privately held insurance broker and provides leading companies with employee benefit consulting services. 

“The employees want a robust benefit program that provides them comprehensive medical care and access to the best hospitals, clinics and physicians when they are far from home,” said Enright.  “Employers are intent upon attracting and retaining talented executives and technicians for expatriate assignments, and once they have them in the field, it’s imperative to keep them healthy and productive.”

• Enright said that benefit trends also indicate that global companies want to provide to their expatriates:
• Portable, comprehensive and effective coverage for all assignees and their dependents
• Coverage for war and terrorism risks
• Emergency evacuation and assistance services 
• Global ancillary benefits including life, accident and disability insurance
• Enhanced claim payment options for international health care costs

Enright noted that a properly managed expatriate benefit plan can reduce the risks of a global assignment failing for an executive.  “A good plan takes away significant worry and helps overcome the anxiety of a global relocation and adaptation to a host country – both for expatriate employees and their dependents.” www.ibisadvisors.com  www.lockton.com

“The report underscores the problems associated with today's complex compliance requirements,” said Robert Kerzner, president and CEO of LIMRA, LOMA and LL Global. “Producers are overwhelmed by the compliance function yet all of the complexity is not giving clients a better understanding of the products they are buying and we are continuing to lose qualified producers.”

The report, Practice Management Support: Giving Producers What They Need, is the result of its most recent LIMRA Producers Panel survey, which focused on their use of technology, the impact of compliance, professional development opportunities, and the type of field support provided by their carriers and Broker-Dealers (B-D).

While more than 80 percent of the producers hold at least one FINRA license, increasingly, they are dropping their Series 6 license because of the burdens of compliance regulations. Many producers said the volume of investment business did not justify the additional requirements or expense. www.limra.com

ONTARIO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--California-based Self Insured Solutions – which manages five remarkably successful self-insured workers comp groups in the highly-competitive California workers comp marketplace – has achieved record growth in the past twelve months, according to Tom Wheeler, Vice President of Marketing. Self-insured workers compensation groups are owned by the companies the groups serve, and those five groups that are managed by Self Insured Solutions – which specializes in cost-effectively providing workers comp insurance for high-risk industries, such as construction and agriculture – hold annual member meetings to brief these owner-members on the success of their workers comp provider. The first of these meetings, for the California Contractors Network Self Insured Group, was held April 7th at the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, with others scheduled for later this month at the Bellagio.

“Each of our managed groups achieved significant growth during the most recent fiscal year,” Wheeler explained. “Representing the industry’s growing confidence in self-insured alternatives to conventional workers comp coverage, we have grown to 325 members during the fiscal year just ended, up from 228 the year before – a growth of 97 member companies, 70 percent member companies more than we had a year ago. Even more important to our members – and reflecting the primary reason for our dramatic growth – we have experienced a loss ratio of just 19.3 percent, well below the national average, which ranges from 60 to 75 percent depending on the risk-level of the industry.

“We have achieved this dramatically low loss ratio – which saves all of our self-insured members a remarkable amount on their workers comp coverage costs,” Wheeler said, “because of our strong and steady focus on promoting on-the-job safety. This is coupled with our commitment to pay claims quickly and get workers back on the job, and our equal commitment to prosecute fraudulent claims. Together, these three elements ensure that our members pay low rates for high-quality workers comp coverage – and this successful formula is reflected in our substantial overall growth in the past year.” http://www.calsig.com