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October kicks off a season full of events such as Halloween activities, fall festivals, holiday parties, craft shows, band competitions and concerts, home shows, car shows, art shows, tree lighting ceremonies, holiday pageants and parades. Inclement weather such as snow or rain often reduces income due to reduced attendance or outright cancellation. Low attendance to holiday parties, New Years Eve events or Valentine’s Day dinners means less income to cover fixed expenses for restaurants, clubs, and banquet halls, not to mention profit. The last thing businesses, associations, promoters, or sponsors should have to worry about is inclement weather. The Travelers… Read More »Weather Insurance: Takes Bad Weather Worries Out of Your Special Events

Your home is one of your most important investments. By keeping it properly maintained in every season, you can help reduce the risk of a loss and ensure the safety and well-being of your friends and family. Please review the following information and familiarize yourself with these important inspection and safety tips. Survival Kit When preparing for a disaster, be sure to make a survival kit that includes: Canned or other non-perishable food Non-electric can opener First aid kit and manual Portable radio and/or television Flashlights Extra batteries Water in non-breakable containers Prescription medicines as needed Extra clothing and blankets… Read More »Disaster Tips – Travelers

Preparing for natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and wildfires, is best accomplished by a team of employees familiar with your facility and it’s local surroundings. Travelers customers can log in to obtain our Disaster Preparedness and Business Continuity Management Guide and Sample Plan to assist with creating a natural disaster and business continuity plan for their organization. Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) DisasterSafety.org Travelers has formed an alliance with the IBHS to offer our customers a disaster recovery planning tool Open for Business®. This Internet-based tool can help you determine the natural disaster risks that… Read More »Disaster Preparedness – Plan Ahead

Lizabeth H. Zlatkus was named executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. in May. She has responsibility for corporate strategy, finance, capital and enterprise risk management, investor relations, real estate, procurement and corporate information systems functions. Ms. Zlatkus previously was co-chief operating officer of The Hartford’s life operations. In an interview with Business Insurance Senior Editor Sally Roberts, Ms. Zlatkus discussed how the current economic crisis is affecting The Hartford and other challenges facing today’s insurer CFOs. Shortly after the interview, Fitch Ratings revised its outlook on the Hartford, Conn.-based insurer to “negative”… Read More »Unprecedented Times

He discusses the links between consistency, quality, work environment, customer experience — and how they impact agents. JH: Customers who have a poor claims experience are much more likely to not renew with you than people who have a really good experience. So the degree to which we can consistently provide a good experience to the customer and at the same time secure a good outcome for the company, means we can drive retention, which drives business. That’s obviously what we’re here to do. In terms of claims, how does The Hartford define quality? JH: We define a quality claim… Read More »Interview with Hartford Claims VP James Hageman

Small business owners are not fully aware of the financial risks involved in obtaining workers’ compensation insurance through self-insured groups, according to the results of the most recent Small Business Opinion Poll conducted by Opinion Research Corp. of Princeton, N.J., for Employers. Of the 501 small business owners and managers surveyed nationwide, 85 percent reported they had not seen, read, or heard about the closure of several self-insured groups in the past year. Seven such trusts failed this year in New York, and litigation continues in the financial failures of self-insured groups in Tennessee, Kentucky and California, according to Employers,… Read More »Risks in Self-Insured Groups’ Workers’ Comp Insurance

Citigroup said Thursday that it was walking away from talks to divvy up Wachovia Corp.’s assets with Wells Fargo adding that it would seek damages from the other two banks but not seek to bar a Wells Fargo takeover of Wachovia from proceeding. Dramatic differences in transaction structures and views of risks made mutually acceptable agreements impossible Citi said in a statement. Wells Fargo and the Federal Reserve were negotiating over the future of Wachovia a regional bank hobbled by the credit crisis but with a valuable network of branches. Citigroup preliminarily agreed at the beginning of last week to buy Wachovia’s banking assets with… Read More »Citi, Wells Fargo, and Wachovia

Three million fewer Americans under the age of 65 received health insurance through employers in 2007 than in 2000, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. The number of individuals receiving employer-sponsored health insurance from their own or a family member’s employer has declined for seven years straight, to 62.9% of the under-65 population in 2007 from 68.3% in 2000, according to the report. The report, “The Erosion of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance,” attributed the growing uninsured population across the country to declines in employer-sponsored health insurance. Despite a slight gain in the number of U.S. individuals… Read More »Health Cover Through Employers – I Wish I Could

When the next hurricane or earthquake hits Hawaii, government disaster responders will be able to talk to each other and share data over a robust, digital microwave radio system. The new $30 million system carries voice, fax and data and can function for seven days without an outside power source. Its transmission capacity is 20 times greater than the 20-year-old analog system that was in place until 2002. Read More

The risk of losing data to human error or hackers is greatly reduced when workers are given regularly updated awareness and education training programs. Educating staff can help mitigate the threat of data loss, KPMG says. “Risks of errors are greatly reduced by implementing appropriate and clearly defined procedures around the use and handling of data,” the report states. “Staff need to understand what is expected of them with regularly implemented, tested and updated awareness, training and education programs.” KPMG researched publicly-disclosed incidents of data loss and found that educational organizations, governments and health care operations are victims of most… Read More »Train Your Employees On How To Reduce Data Loss