Insurance Illustrated | March 17, 2023

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for the week of March 17, 2023

Education + Analysis for the Independent Agent

Categories Included In This Week's Edition

Special Feature * Advantages of Big "I" Membership * Personal Lines * Back to Basics * Agency Management * Commercial Lines * Insurance Laws & Statutes/Coverage Resources

Special Feature

West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Legislation is a Dilemma with No Clear Solution – Yet

The Oxford Language Dictionary defines a Catch 22 as “A dilemma or difficult circumstance from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions. A new West Virginia law that allows employers to voluntarily cover post-traumatic stress disorder in frontline responders is just that – A Catch 22.

Advantages of Big 'I' Membership

Sample Agency Procedures Manual

The Big “I" Professional Liability program has created a free “Sample Agency Procedures Manual"--a template designed for both personal and commercial lines agency workflow. It is critical that if you implement this manual, you customize it to your agency's procedures—and that once customized and implemented, you follow it. Failure to follow your written procedures and to update the manual when procedures change can result in a client alleging an E&O claim against your agency. Member login required.

Personal Lines

E&O Tips: Writing Umbrella Coverage on a PAP

In this article from IA Magazine, read about how exposure for professional liability claims involving umbrella policies can be substantial, but a few simple risk management steps can greatly reduce the chances of a professional liability claim succeeding.

Costly Coverage Mistakes

Are you losing clients to online insurance carriers? Do you worry that an issue of inadequate limits, coverage gaps, or payment snafus can expose your agency to an errors and omissions claim? This article reviews some of the important issues your clients and your agency face in managing their personal and business risk.

When Insurance Strikes (Out): Underestimating Replacement Cost

Underinsurance is still a problem. According to CoreLogic approximately 60 percent of homes are underinsured by 20 percent on average. Obviously, this leads to devastating results for the insured, and possibly the agent from an E&O perspective. We know this in the industry, but now the NY Times is reporting it – and they are making serious charges.

Back to Basics

Back to Basics: Insurance Policies as Contracts

“I’m an insurance agent, not a lawyer. Why do I need to know so much about contract law?” This is a question almost every new insurance employee asks, especially once they begin taking classes toward a designation. The CPCU 410 Speaking the Insurance Language course contains an entire chapter on contract law. This article will introduce you to some basics of contract law as it relates to insurance.

Agency Management

Hiring Help is Finally Here

As agents and broker scramble to hire, whether hiring the right fit or promoting from within, is easier if you test knowledge before making that employment offer.

Year of the Customer: 5 Ways to Prevent E&O Claims in 2023

You and your customers have been battered these past few years by various catastrophes of near-biblical proportions. Your customers don't just want a good year, free of missing coverages and underinsured losses. They need it. Read more about ways to prevent E&O claims in this IA Magazine article.

Addendums to COIs: Bad, But…

Agents may be asked to complete an addendum to a certificate of insurance; in fact, the agency may almost be forced to do so. Should the addendum be completed? The “ivory tower” answer is “no;” the correct answer is, “no;” but…. Sometimes agencies make decisions counter to the correct ones, if the agency plans to ignore the advice, what can it do to protect itself?

Commercial Lines

Hold Harmless Agreements Aren't Harmless

Your insureds routinely sign hold harmless agreements with all kinds of entities...property owners, contractors, large corporations, municipalities, and others. How many of these contracts do you think are covered by your insureds' CGL policies and to what extent? In this article, we'll give you a few actual examples that may have you grabbing for the nearest defibrillation machine.

7 Important Considerations Required to Properly Insure “Fixtures”

Agents learn early that there are two types of property, real property and personal property. Real property is generally defined as land and everything attached to the land such as by roots, by being embedded in the land, permanently resting on the land such as a building or property permanently attached to the building. Personal property is essentially everything that isn’t real property. But there is a middle ground – fixtures. Fixtures begin life as personal property but become part of real property by attachment; however, they maintain their individual identity. Obviously, then, fixtures should be insured as real property. Or should they? Is it really that easy?

Some Employers Shortchanged On Employee Dishonesty Coverage

Agents and insureds often think employee dishonesty coverage on a BOP is the same as coverage provide by Commercial Crime policies or forms. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. This article provides a real-life example of where more is less.

Insurance Laws & Statutes / Coverage Resources

Liability Coverage for Trailer-Related Liability

Download this useful chart that details liability coverage for trailer-related liability.

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