The IIABNY Board of Directors held a regularly scheduled meeting
at the Desmond Hotel and Conference Center in Albany, NY on
January 22, 2008. The following is a summary of the matters
discussed at the meeting.
Producer Compensation Disclosure.
IIABNY has been following developments with potential Insurance
Department regulation addressing disclosure of producer compensation.
The Association’s thrust on this issue will be towards
voluntary, as opposed to mandatory, disclosure, possibly only
if asked by a prospect or policyholder.
CSR Education.
The new IIABNY Essentials
program was rolled out this month and has already generated
much interest. The curriculum is comprised of several modules,
the initial phase of which is the “Knowledge Check”
component that is essential before directing study to the
various modules. So far, 161 people have enrolled in the program
and taken the “Knowledge Check” evaluation as
their first step. Agencies are encouraged to look into this
new educational program for their staffs.
Carrier Advocacy.
This program has met with much success through the independent
agency surveys and their results that have been conducted
to measure carrier activity. There were 269 responses to the
winter survey compared to 199 for the summer survey. Although
carrier composite scores were similar, the top 5 ranking carriers
shifted positions between the two. We may reduce the number
of surveys each year from quarterly to either twice or three
times a year in order to give insurers time to react to the
findings. So far, nearly all insurers included have expressed
much interest in the findings as a means of assessing their
effectiveness with agents and consumers.
Improving the E&O Program. IAAC
continues to explore alternate insurers for this program.
This effort will give agents more choices and competition
should help keep pricing in line.
Company Field Representatives.
One of the regional insurers has asked IIABNY to explore the
effectiveness and value of having field representatives for
the agency force today. The Association will undoubtedly conduct
a survey of member agencies to gauge the pulse on this issue
and summarize its findings with carriers.
Public Policy & Legislative.
The business group litigation over NY Labor Law Sections 240/241
was dismissed, but the proponents see a chance for an appeal.
This is the case brought by a NY business group coalition,
which IIABNY has supported, over the constitutionality of
the NY Labor Law that holds owners and contractors strictly
liable for worker injuries on jobsites after falling from
a height, with no possibility of defense. Further funding
will be needed for this effort.
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Governor Spitzer has established a Financial
Services commission to study the possibility of combining banking,
insurance and securities regulation into one agency. The latest
word is that if this proposal comes to pass, there may still
be separate, dedicated arms for each of the industries involved.
Although the producer community is not represented on the commission,
IIABNY intends to stay active with this issue, press for representation
on the commission (none of whose members has ever been engaged
in actual insurance sales) and make its concerns and recommendations
known.
The new Assembly Insurance Committee Chairman is Assemblyman
Joe Morelli (D) of Rochester and Senator Jim Seward (R) of Oneonta
remains as the Senate Insurance Committee Chairman. We believe
they will work well together on insurance matters that come
to their respective houses.
The difficulty of small and minority owned contractive firms
to obtain surety bonds for jobs that require bonds has been
eased. Following a meeting of the parties involved, the SBA
has developed a program to allow them to back up small and minority-owned
contractor bond, which apparently satisfied the concerns of
the sureties that had been reluctant to provide them with bonds.
The NYC Office of Emergency Management met with the American
Insurance Association, IIABNY and building owners to discuss
emergency procedures. Meantime, Superintendent Dinallo is setting
up 6 insurance emergency centers to address insurance issues
following a catastrophic event. IIABNY will participate as a
member of a new emergency council that will meet three times
a year to refine procedures.
All IIABNY members are encouraged to make their contributions
to the national InsurPac campaign. We need funding to make ourselves
heard in Washington. Contact IIABNY for the forms that election
laws require. Under current election law, all InsurPac contributions
must be via personal checks or personal credit cards.
IIABA Chairman Elect, Brett Nilsson
of Utah attended the meeting and commented on the direction
the national association is taking. (Brett also attended our
L-Day on Wednesday.)
State National Director, Steve
Spiro reported on the recent IIABA
Board meeting.
Insurbank,
our own bank and financing company seeks an amendment to the
NY regulation requiring physical presence in the state in order
to deposit premium funds. This will allow agencies to use this
facility for that purpose. IIABNY and Insurbank’s president
will soon meet with Superintendent Dinallo to address this issue.
Insurbank can finance agencies for acquisitions, purchase of
buildings, equipment and perpetuation, in addition to regular
accounts and CD deposits. Agents contacting the bank for any
of these needs will find they understand our business better
than commercial banks.
Trusted Choice. Expanding membership
in this program is important, so all are encouraged to do
so. We will get more company support as Trusted Choice membership
grows and several larger insurers will likely join this national
branding effort if more of their agents are members. Commercials
on several national cable channels are about to start again.
Workers Compensation. The State
Fund NY Assessment procedure is being addressed. Also, rumors
are circulating that the Absolute liability standard in the
Labor Law was waived for WTC claims which seems to violate
the law which does not allow for waiving absolute liability.
L-Day on January 23rd was again
well attended, but because both the Senate and Assembly called
for sessions during the day, we did not get to meet with all
of the legislators in their offices, as is usually the case,
or get to our luncheon. However, for some, this proved a mixed
blessing since a number of us from Long Island were invited
to attend the Assembly session where we were introduced by
Assemblyman Jim Conte as a group and had a photo session on
the Assembly floor with our representatives. We did meet with
some legislators and several of legislative aides and discussed
the major issues confronting us: NYPIUA permanency, coastal
property insurance and late notice of claim declinations by
insurers. We believe that our legislators have a better understanding
of these issues now.
The state association agenda remains full and between the
volunteers and staff, we continue to represent our members
and our industry on the issues that face us all.
Respectfully submitted,
Russ Vollmer
Regional Director, IIABNY
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