May 18, 2009
Agents Advised to Know How Trusts Differ From Typical Insurance Companies To start off, what exactly is a workers’ compensation group trust? Per the New York State Insurance Department Web site, it is: [A] group of employers who perform related …
May 18, 2009
The skies are filled with smoke, and hundreds of homeowners were evacuated from their homes in Santa Barbara earlier in May. During November 2008’s Tea Fire, which occurred in roughly the same areas as this year’s Jesusita Fire in Santa …
May 18, 2009
Money is the lifeblood of any business. But when it comes to running insurance agencies, money isn’t the main thing that principals look for when they do business with a certain carrier. Claims handling, it turns out, is the truly …
May 18, 2009
What do agents want from their insurance carriers? Surprisingly, compensation is not No. 1 on the list. Rather, independent insurance agents would rather have a good relationship with a carrier that is responsive. One agent explains it this way: “When …
May 18, 2009
Poor customer service is making headlines these days, and to some extent, it’s no wonder. Many companies facing economic pressures have been forced to layoff staff or reduce hours. And remaining employees are forced to pickup the slack, doing more …
May 18, 2009
A wildfire that began on May 5 in Santa Barbara County, Calif. — during Wildfire Awareness Week May 3-9 — continued to burn as of press time, having burned 8,733 acres and destroyed 77 residences as of May 10, 2009, …
May 18, 2009
Despite what you may think, the insurance industry has not changed much in the past century. The insurance industry was regulated in 1945 with the passage of the McCarran-Ferguson Act that allows insurance to be regulated as interstate commerce. Little …
May 18, 2009
Zurich Financial Services Group appointed Francis Bouchard head of the Climate Office. Bouchard will succeed Mike Kerner, who was appointed CEO of Global Corporate in North America. Bouchard will work to institutionalize the company’s climate-related expertise across the organization and …
May 18, 2009
In today’s world, price is everything. Everyone seems to be looking for a bargain — shopping grocery stores for the weekly deals, hunting down the gas station with the lowest price or waiting for retail stores to put merchandise on …
May 18, 2009
Forecasts Normal to Below Normal Potential Across Most of the West Northern California, where nearly a million acres burned last summer, is poised to possibly be another hotspot for wildfire activity in 2009, according to the Fire Season Outlook released …