An insured’s offer to purchase insurance is made in the form of the application, supposedly completed by the insured. Acceptance flows from the insurance carrier in the form of a policy. Logically, then, the insurance negotiation begins with the application.
Recently I’ve noticed insurance practitioners doing a LOT of cussing. No, I don’t mean using the traditional words that got us in trouble as kids; I am referring to insurance cussing. Yes, there are certain words and phrases used by many insurance practitioners that should not be used in polite company, mainly because they are…
Were you affected by the Equifax breach? There is a 1 in 2 chance you were. Even if you weren’t, there are certain steps you can take to fight identity theft, including “freezing” your credit. Yes, there are some downsides to this, but saving your good credit may be worth the aggravation.
While the number of compensable lost-time injuries have declined steadily for more than 25 years, work comp rates have not dropped. Why? Could the cost of injuries be to blame?
Few commercial structures fully meet the applicable jurisdictional building codes and regulations of the county, city, town, borough, village or township in which they are located. Building codes are routinely reviewed, revised and updated, usually a result of newly developed technology or advances in construction methodologies or materials. Noncompliance has the potential to cost your…
Traveling employees create workers’ compensation coverage nightmares; but many agents are unaware of these travelling landmines until after the injury. The problems arise at the junction of two key concepts: 1) Extraterritoriality and 2) Reciprocity. If these two concepts don’t align, serious coverage implications – including no coverage – can exist.
Personally-owned autos belong on a personal auto policy (PAP), but occasionally a commercial insured intentionally or unintentionally includes one or several personally-owned auto(s) on its business auto policy (BAP). Commercial clients may do this for one of many reasons; but when a commercial client intentionally or unintentionally includes a personally-owned auto on the BAP, the…
The “absolute pollution exclusion” may be the most misunderstood and misapplied exclusion in ISO’s commercial general liability policy. Carrier are misapplying for one of two reasons: 1) they really don’t understand it; or 2) they are looking for a way to deny a claim. Either way, shame on them for torturing the policy to affect…
Once a policy is in effect and has existed beyond the underwriting period, provisions still exist allowing the carrier to cancel the policy during the policy period. These are often referred to as mid-term cancellation laws. All 50 states statutorily mandate the conditions under which a policy can be cancelled prior to the end of…
Contractual risk transfer is a fact of life for any agent working with construction clients. Your client might be the transferor or the transferee or both on the same job. Because insurance is a slave to the contract, you have to understand contractual risk transfer.
