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Congress has extended the National Flood Insurance Program through the beginning of March 2009. “While we would have preferred that Congress pass a long-term extension with much-needed reforms, it was vital to ensure that the NFIP would not lapse on Sept. 30,” David A. Sampson, president and chief executive officer of the Des Plaines, Ill.-based Property Casualty Insurers Assn. of America, said in a statement. “If the program were to expire, real estate transactions in flood-prone areas would come to a halt,” he added. “Given the economic challenges our nation already faces, we could not take the chance of allowing… Read More »Flood Insurance Program Extended

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed three bills he said would have interfered with the state’s workers’ compensation system. SB 1115 Permanent Disability Apportionment would have prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, religious creed, color or status in other protected classes. Current law prohibits improper discrimination and the bill would have injected uncertainty into the apportionment process, according to the American Insurance Association. SB 1717 Permanent Disability Benefits would have increased permanent disability indemnity benefits paid to injured workers by increasing the number of weeks that such benefits are paid. AB 2969 Utilization Review Physicians would have forbid the… Read More »California Governor Vetoes Workers’ Comp Legislation

A new survey shows that nearly one in three doctors in Connecticut are not happy practicing in the state and are considering changing jobs or moving.  The doctors complained that malpractice insurance costs too much, managed care is imposing too many restrictions and the cost of living and doing business in Connecticut is too high.  Read More

Specialty boat repairers involved in woodworking, deck and hull repair, engine maintenance, canvas and sail repair and many other marine services face the challenge of obtaining affordable insurance that addresses both their marine and non-marine exposures in a seamless fashion.  Travelers announced this week several substantial enhancements to its Shipwright policy which combines marine general liability, ship repairers’ legal liability and miscellaneous property coverage in a single policy for this specialty market. Travelers’ Shipwright improvements include broadened eligibility along with options for increased property and liability limits, workboat coverage and lower deductibles. Now available for boat repairers with revenues up… Read More »Travelers Offers Enhancements for Boat Repairers Policy

A new law that took effect on September 23 and allows fuel-efficient three-wheelers such as the Zap Xebra (ZEE’-bruh) and the Myers Motors NmG to be registered and titled as motorcycles in Ohio.  Read more

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed AB 2150 by Assembly member Patty Berg that helps protect consumers by preventing the financial abuse of seniors. AB 2150 provides that insurance agents and brokers may not use a “senior” designation in the course of marketing and selling insurance products unless they have completed required hours of training, and the designation has been approved by the Insurance Commissioner. This new law will prohibit agents and brokers from misrepresenting themselves as senior experts, which has previously resulted in seniors making poor investments or becoming victims of fraud. According to state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner,… Read More »California Offers Protections for Seniors

A newspaper investigation finds that few fire departments in fast-growing central Ohio are meeting the national standard for response time to fires. The Columbus Dispatch reports that of 84 departments in the central Ohio region, 49 make it to building fires within six minutes less than half the time. The National Fire Protection Association wants departments to get to a fire within six minutes nine out of every 10 runs. The Dispatch analysis of more than 14,000 runs to fires between 2003 and 2007 found only two central Ohio departments — Lancaster and Grandview Heights in suburban Columbus — met… Read More »Many Ohio Fire Departments Lag in Response Time

Despite assurance from state regulators that the insurance subsidiaries of American International Group (AIG) are financially sound, insurance producers are moving accounts from AIG. A survey by Insurance Journal of 1,000 insurance producers including 782 who say they have accounts with AIG found that 343 producers have had clients ask them to move their account out of AIG. That’s 43.8 percent of producers with AIG accounts. Slightly more than a quarter (202 producers or 25.8 percent) of AIG agents and brokers said they have in fact already moved or agreed to move accounts from AIG. The survey was answered by… Read More »Insurance Producers Start to Move Business from AIG to Competitors

Insurers are not allowed to bring equitable subrogation actions premised on professional negligence against attorneys, the Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled. According to State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., as subrogee of Running Bear Homeowners Association v. Robert G. Weiss and Weiss and Van Scoyk LLP, attorney Robert Weiss ddrafted a association covenant for Running Bear Homeowners Association. The HOA wanted to amend its covenant to limit rental periods to not less than 30 days, and Weiss incorrectly advised his client that they could make the amendment without the consent of people who owned the individual units. When a unit… Read More »Insurer Can’t Bring Subrogation Claim Against Attorney

Trucking companies should work harder to enforce that their drivers get rest, and the government should move toward mandating the use of alarm systems to alert exhausted truckers, a federal board recommended. While drivers are ultimately responsible for getting enough rest, trucking companies and the government should also make the nation’s roads safer by studying fledgling technology that would keep drivers alert, the National Transportation Safety Board said on September 16. The board hearing, held in Washington, D.C., and streamed live on the Internet, was held in response to an early-morning crash in western Wisconsin three years ago in which… Read More »Wisconsin Sleep-Related Truck Crash Prompts Federal Call for Research