New regulations in New York make for impossible contractor insurance requirements

New insurance regulations are slated to go into effect in New York City next week, leading many insurance agents to warn contractors in the City that it may be too late to obtain increased coverage. The City’s Department of Buildings has made changes to the requirements associated with general liability coverage. Effective June 13, insurance policies that do not cover liability for completed work, explosions, collapses and other catastrophic events will be prohibited. Several of the new regulations will make it nearly impossible for the majority of contactors in the…

Read More

Business owners may want to rethink cyber liability coverage

The age of technology brings with it risks that have never been faced before. As more businesses adopt technology and become ever integrated with it, they must protect themselves from malicious attacks. The concept of “cyber crime” has, in previous years, been of little concern. Companies both large and small have fallen prey to hackers but they often recover and improve their security methods. However, the recent and continuous attacks against tech giant Sony have spawned a new wave of concern amongst the world’s businesses. Now, protection from the very…

Read More

Higher reinsurance rates predicted

Despite record losses in the first quarter of 2011 and a hurricane season predicted to be exceedingly active, the reinsurance industry is in good spirits. While several insurance companies are dreading hurricanes reaching land, reinsurers expect that one storm causing extensive losses could mark the turning point of the insurance pricing cycle toward their favor. This would mean that higher reinsurance rates, a fact that would go a long way in helping the industry recover from a disastrous first quarter. Henry Keeling, CEO of Guy Carpenter’s International operations, recently attended…

Read More

Workers’ compensation exposure on the rise with more mobile workers

A clear growth of workers’ compensation exposure is now causing alarm among employers and risk managers with the remarkable rise in the number of mobile workers. This was discussed in this year’s meeting of Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) held recently in Vancouver. In the said forum experts advised both employers and risk managers to formulate stable and concrete rules pertinent with workers’ use of any types of mobile devices at work. According to Maureen McCarthy, Liberty Mutual, manager of Workers’ Compensation and Managed Care it is a must…

Read More

Cargo theft is are out of control and costing companies millions

The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) released its latest report on cargo theft for last year. They show more than 740 cargo thefts across the U.S. valued at more than 171 million dollars. Topping the chart for the states with the highest amount of thefts is California. Any time that merchandise is in transport from the shipper to its destination; regardless of transport method, it is considered as cargo. Most thefts occur mainly from truck or railcar mediums but thefts from air freight and goods in between transport modes are…

Read More