Insurance Illustrated | March 3, 2023

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for the week of March 3, 2023

Education + Analysis for the Independent Agent

Categories Included In This Week's Edition

Advantages of Big 'I' Membership * Agency Management * Life & Health * Commercial General Liability * Insurance Laws & Statutes/Coverage Resources

Advantages of Big 'I' Membership

Trusted Choice

Trusted Choice® is the national marketing brand created exclusively for Big “I” members to help consumers understand the value an independent agent offers. Differentiate your agency from the competition when you leverage our reach, expertise and savvy to increase your business. Need help creating an advertising campaign, looking for content for your social media channels, or want to see how you can optimize your website and improve your customers experience? Trusted Choice offers multiple free resources, tools, training and financial support for utilizing cobranded marketing materials.

Agency Management

National Association of Insurance Commissioners Releases Volume I of its Annual Insurance Department Resources Report

According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), increasing federal attention is on state departments of insurance. This report focuses on resources and regulatory activities of NAIC members. These members include the following: The 50 states, District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Social Media Tips for Insurance Executives

Whether you are new to using social media to increase customer engagement or want to increase new business leads, how you communicate across the multiple social media platforms is critical. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran of tweeting and other platforms or you’re just dipping your toes in the social media waters, this article provides ten top tips for using social media outlets to improve your online presence and increase leads.

Improving Claims Outcomes with Social Media Investigations

Are your clients’ workers’ compensation claims failing to close in a timely manner? Given the injury, does it seem like the claim drags on, with no clear plan of action or solution? Does your insured suspect that an employee is malingering? Social media investigations are an investigatory tool that can help close even the oldest workers’ compensation or liability injury claims.

Life & Health

Key Person Insurance

It may surprise a client to find that the company’s most valuable asset was not insured. This would be especially upsetting for an insured who felt that there was always needed coverage in effect. Property, liability and business income insurance were purchased to eliminate serious losses. What went wrong? Why wasn’t this possible major loss brought to their attention and why wasn’t it insured against?

Beneficiary Designation Considerations

Life insurance is purchased with consideration for others. An insured is not going to receive the policy proceeds. Family members are usually the designated recipients. Selecting the way to protect these benefits requires a great deal of consideration.

Grow Your Business with Critical Illness Coverage

As the marketplace for long-term care insurance continues to shrink, more agents seek ways to expand their revenue and meet their insureds’ needs by offering other coverages. Critical illness coverage, which provides additional insurance protection for medical emergencies such as strokes, cancer, or heart attacks, can offer your clients protection and build customer loyalty.

Commercial General Liability

Pollution Exclusion Found to Hold “Ambiguity” by Rhode Island Supreme Court

When my plumbing contractor husband recently renewed his general liability coverage, he asked our agent if he would have coverage if his employee installed a gas water heater and it later leaked, injuring someone in his customer’s household. His agent said, “Probably not,” based on the total pollution exclusion. Case law regarding what is and is not a pollutant varies by state for incidents of this nature. The case outlined in our article is similar. A heating and air conditioning company installed a new heating system, and in the process, 170 gallons of heating oil leaked into the customer’s basement. The carrier denied coverage. Rhode Island Supreme Court said, “Not so fast.” The court overturned the decision, citing “ambiguity” in the total pollution exclusion. While I’m certainly not suggesting you don’t recommend contractors’ environmental coverage for your clients working with natural gas and other pollutants, I do think this is a must read, because it sure opens the door to a lot of pollution “what ifs.”

Discontinued Operations

This article is about the often misunderstood exposure of discontinued operations. While your Technical Affairs Committee continues to work with ISO to develop stronger coverage for discontinued businesses, this article describes the current state of discontinued ops. With so many business owners retiring and the increased merger and acquisition environment, this issue is front and center on the Big "I"s radar.

The Anatomy of a Hold Harmless and Indemnity Agreement

Although we know that interpreting contracts is a matter of law, because our customers routinely execute hold harmless and indemnity agreements with all manner of entities, knowledge of these contractual provisions is of primary importance. It is important that you have insight to help you better understand the workings of these agreement and how your customer’s CGL policy may or may not provide coverage for the liability created by such agreements.

Insurance Laws & Statutes / Coverage Resources

Workers' Compensation Glossary

Check out this useful glossary of workers’ compensation terms.

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