What Does an Agent Owe a Certificate Holder?
Do agents owe any duty to a certificate holder? Opinions differ. Given the reality of the COI, its intended purpose and the parties to the various contracts related to a…
Commercial Lines
17 “Tests” to Decide: Employee or Independent Contractor
Constant debate swirls around the difference between independent contractors and employees. It seems that every contractor wants everyone to believe that everyone on the job site is an independent contractor;…
Weird Legal Liability Theories You Probably Never Heard Of
Practice the insurance profession long and you begin to hear and learn various legal liability terms ranging from the basic ideas of “negligence” and “torts” to more specific concepts like…
Improper COPE Information Costs Billions – for More Than Just the Insurance Carrier!
Commercial property underwriters have utilized essentially the same information for nearly 400 years: Construction, Occupancy, Protection and Exposure. Known to us mortals as “COPE.” When the correct COPE information is…
The Insurance Industry’s Opinion of Warren Buffett’s New 3-Page Policy
Berkshire Hathaway announced the release of its new small business policy, THREE, on February 11, 2019. In response to this announcement, the VU published its critique of the policy on…
Fatal Work Injuries and the Most Dangerous Occupations
Fatal work injuries in the United States dipped slightly in 2017 to 5,147 from the 5,190 fatal injuries reported in 2016 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Likewise,…
Exclusions j.(5) and j.(6): Appeals Court Provides a Simple Tutorial
Decisions addressing the applicability of exclusions j.(5) and j.(6), given their often fact-intensive nature, are sometimes complex. But not MTI, Inc. v. Employers Insurance Company, No-17-6206 (10th Cir. 2019). It…
Warren Buffett Champions an Inferior Product
Warren Buffett introduced the newest insurance disrupter – the THREE. As the name suggests, this is a three-page insurance policy intended for small businesses. If that isn’t amazing enough, this…
Why Defining Actual Cash Value is Amazingly Difficult
The concept of actual cash value (ACV) is far more complicated than “replacement cost minus physical depreciation.” In fact, the meaning of replacement cost differs based on the state. To…
Bird Flu, Swine Flu, Just the Flu and Pandemics: How Workers’ Compensation Responds
Threats of specific kinds of flu and pandemics garner heavy media attention. When any disease strain threatens a large geographic area, it gets lots of press as the next pandemic.…
