AAIS member companies can register now for upcoming
web seminars describing AAIS and company action to comply with the
latest extension of the federal terrorism reinsurance program. To
register,
The first seminar is scheduled for 10 a.m. Central
time (11 a.m. Eastern) Monday, Jan. 14. The same seminar will be
repeated on Friday, Jan. 18, also at 10 a.m. Central time. Deborah
Summerlin, AAIS's vice president of insurance lines, will be the
principal presenter.
AAIS affiliates in affected lines
will receive a countrywide bulletin today, Jan. 9, that describes revised AAIS materials
being filed to address the changes in the federal terrorism program.
That bulletin will also include information
regarding company action needed to comply with the latest
extension of the program. Subsequent bulletins will include revised terrorism materials
proposed for each affected line.
States are deciding on their own whether to
institute expedited filing procedures for revised terrorism materials.
(Unlike the previous extension, the latest extension has no provision
for pre-empting state filing laws.)
As state positions on expedited procedures become
known, AAIS is posting summarized filing information in a
table
available on www.AAISonline.com.
AAIS will begin introducing expanded fire protection
definitions in its property lines, starting with the
Commercial Properties Program.
That filing will begin within the next few weeks. This revision is the
first of several enhancements to AAIS programs planned for 2008.
In the Commercial Properties and subsequent filings,
AAIS will increase the number of definitions in its Simplified Fire
Protection Classification System from three to seven. This will give
companies more refined differences among fire exposures while preserving
the overall simplicity of the AAIS approach.
Later on in 2008, AAIS plans to file a rating plan
under its Homeowners Program
that incorporates claims experience; a similar plan will also be
developed for the
Businessowners Program.
Over the course of the year, AAIS will continue to submit
filings to revise territorial definitions on a ZIP Code basis,
incorporate modeled data for several perils, and provide deductible
options and rating variables to address coastal exposures.
Watch upcoming AAIS Advisories for
announcements of program enhancements in personal, commercial, and farm
lines.
Insurers writing homeowners and personal auto
insurance in Maryland have until Feb. 1, 2008 to submit annual premiums
for coverage scenarios laid out in a recent
bulletin from the Maryland Insurance Administration.
Insurers are required to determine what the premium
would be in each of 24 different ZIP Codes under four different
scenarios for owner-occupied homeowners insurance, two scenarios for
condominium coverage, and 12 scenarios for personal auto coverage.
A recent
bulletin from the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation
states that property/casualty insurers that grant underwriting and
pricing authority to their producers are responsible for assuring that
policies are written in accordance with stated underwriting guidelines
and all filings.
According to the bulletin, insurers and producers
found to have underwritten or priced accounts outside of filed and
approved programs will be subject to administrative sanction, including
fines, license suspension or revocation, and/or other penalties.
Insurers writing homeowners, personal lines fire,
and personal auto insurance in Illinois have until March 31, 2008 to
submit data to the state in ZIP Code order, according to a recent
letter from the state's Department of Financial and Professional
Regulation.
This data reporting mandate goes beyond what is
collected by statistical agents, and companies must respond on
their own.
Insurers that write liability coverage are invited
to participate in a special AAIS research study regarding the frequency
and severity of claims for personal injury, such as libel, slander, and
violation of privacy.
In particular, carriers are asked to respond to a
voluntary call for personal injury claims data from 2002 through 2006.
Information and instructions are available in a Microsoft Word
document, and a
Microsoft Excel spreadsheet
is provided for responding to the data call.
The study seeks to determine how the frequency and
severity of personal injury claims have been affected by:
-
The growing use of e-mail, blogs, "gripe sites,"
networking sites, picture/video phones, and other forms of
electronic communication; and
-
The growing incidence of "cyberbullying" and
other offensive behaviors associated with these communications.
All carriers that write personal injury coverage can
participate, whether they are AAIS members or not. Companies that
provide data will receive a report with the aggregate results, plus
analysis.
If you have questions about the study, contact Greg
Jaynes, director of actuarial services, at
gregj@AAISonline.com, or Larry
Thill, manager of data management, at
larryt@AAISonline.com.
