Insurers Not Tackling Super Bowl Ads

For the second consecutive year, insurance companies have not turned to the year’s most-watched television event—the Super Bowl—to advertise their products, according to the latest issue of BestWeek U.S./Canada.

"What we see is a lot of insurance companies playing it safe in these times—not just with investing in a Super Bowl ad but in general,” said Kim Paterson, of Creative Insurance Marketing in Belmar, N.J. “They (insurers) seem to be playing it safe,” she said.

Also, in BestWeek Europe, the European Union’s proposed solvency rules for insurers are getting a real-life stress test courtesy of the current worldwide financial markets turmoil, according to A.M. Best Co. A study by A.M. Best analysts concluded that the current turmoil in the financial markets “underscores the importance of a risk-based solvency regime and presents a real stress-test scenario for the Solvency II Directive.”

Solvency II, the proposed solvency standard for the 27 member states of the European Union, is not expected to go into effect before 2013, as it makes its way through EU legislative procedures, BestWeek Europe reported.

In BestWeek U.S./Canada, one year after Washington State’s bad-faith law went into effect, proponents and opponents remain both as divided as ever and unable to draw firm conclusions as to its impact on the insurance industry. The law, enacted by a November 2007 statewide referendum, made it unlawful for insurers to “unreasonably” deny claims and exposed carriers in most lines of business to potential treble damages in bad faith litigation for unfairly denying claims. The industry spent a state record $11.4 million to defeat Referendum 67, but voters approved it by a 14-point margin, according to BestWeek U.S./Canada.

BestWeek is published by A.M. Best Co. for insurance professionals. To subscribe, visit http://www.ambest.com/sales/BestWeek, or e-mail your request to customer_service@ambest.com.