Insurance Illustrated | April 14, 2023

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for the week of April 14, 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 * Workers Compensation * Agency Management * Insurance Laws & Statutes/Coverage Resources

Special Feature

Danger Will Robinson! Maniloff Tackles ChatGPT

We keep hearing how ChatGPT is going to revolutionize the written word, putting millions of copywriters out of business and creating a plagiarism nightmare for the educational system. However, how strong is ChatGPT when answering specific coverage questions? Randy Maniloff has some answers, and here’s a sneak peek – Don’t fire your insurance copywriters any time soon. If you do, you may face an errors and omissions claims arising from coverage description and other mistakes in your website or social media content.

Advantages of Big 'I' Membership

Big 'I' Hires

Big "I" Hires is available to members as a robust online recruiting platform developed to help insurance agencies of all sizes hire top-performing sales and service staff. An array of tools and resources are available to find the right candidate with a few simple clicks and manage the entire process in one online location. When the new hire is identified utilize assessments, then onboarding and education resources for the right experience and acclimation into your agency culture and operations.

Personal Lines

A Real-World Insurance Learning Laboratory

Although May is the National Wildfire Awareness month, June is the month that brings back memories of the two most catastrophic wildfires in Colorado’s history. A hard lesson learned was how poorly coverage was written for many homeowners.

Preparing a Home Inventory Before Storm Season Eases the Path to Faster Claim Settlements

With hurricane season a concern and unpredictable weather on the rise, homeowners’ losses can be devastating. After your insureds submit a claim, the insurer will request they document their damaged contents. Remind your insureds that homeowners’ claims are always much easier to settle if they prepare a home inventory before they experience a loss. Now is a perfect time to remind your insureds to create a home inventory. With today’s sophisticated cell phone cameras, it may be as simple as walking through the house and videoing contents with accompanying verbal descriptions. There are many online tools available, as well.

Margin Clauses and Blanket Insurance

Commercial insurers have increasingly incorporated provisions into their coverage forms and/or endorsements that can create significant coverage gaps when property is insured on a blanket basis. The use of a margin clause places a cap on how much an Agreed Value option will pay on a blanket policy. In addition, a margin clause also functions with coinsurance, where applicable. This article explains the danger with real life, tangible examples.

Back to Basics

Lead with Workers Compensation Coverage

Read any insurance trade journal, and you’ll see articles about how agents can “lead with workers compensation insurance.” Savvy insurance agents can increase their business by targeting employers with considerable workers compensation exposures. Often after the sale of the work comp policy, agents don’t stay as involved as they do on other lines of coverage. If you have considered leading with workers compensation coverage, the first step is to ensure you understand the coverage the work comp policy provides. This article highlights the basic coverages under the workers compensation and employers liability policy.

Workers’ Compensation

“Workcation” and Work Comp

The employee decides to take his or her work “on the road” now that they are allowed to work from home – or anywhere. When the employee takes a “workcation” away from their residence, are any workers’ compensation issues created?

Calculating the Insured’s Lowest Possible Work Comp Mod

Once the mystery is removed from the experience mod worksheet, development of the lowest possible experience mod is quite easy. This article shows how to develop the lowest possible mod while at the same time highlighting the fact that achieving this mod may not have the intended result.

Employee or Independent Contractor

Classifying a worker as either an “employee” or “independent contractor” is problematic for more than just workers’ compensation. In an attempt to minimize the problems and confusion, the Department of Labor has proposed the codification of five tests to help in classifying a particular worker as an employee or independent contractor. Although not necessarily developed for the insurance industry, these tests can be used for workers’ compensation clients.

Agency Management

Are You Missing Opportunities to Cross Sell?

According to Insurance Thought Leadership, it costs a business seven-to-nine times more to acquire a new customer than to retain a current client. So why aren’t today’s agents focusing more on cross-selling? This article examines ways to cross sell, with a thorough list of cross-sell coverage opportunities.

11 Requirements for Management Success

Employees are your greatest expense, but they are also your most valuable asset. The loss of great or even just a “good” employee has a tremendous effect on the agency. How do you manage employees according to their style while giving them a sense of place and accomplishment? Follow these rules of management success.

Agents’ Duty to Report Claims to the Carrier

Many agency problems arise over claims. The agent’s duty to report claims to the carrier can be one area that can generate many different scenarios and opinions. Failure to timely report a claim to the insurer can generate an errors and omissions claim or can damage your relationship with your insurer. Recommending your insured report a claim can cause their policy to non-renew due to frequency or other issues such as maintenance concerns. What’s an agent to do? Here are some top tips for the dos and don’ts of claims reporting.

Insurance Laws & Statutes / Coverage Resources

The Underwriting Period

Every state and the District of Columbia grants insurance carriers an “underwriting period.” Insurance carriers are granted broad authority to cancel a newly-written policy during this statutorily-limited period.

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