Monday, August 3, 2009

NATIONAL NEWS ZONE......

Failed office romances can lead to more than hard feelings; they can also trigger insurance claims. In its August issue, Best’s Review magazine’s cover story, “Love, Labor, Losses,” reports how claims involving office romances are difficult to prove but can ultimately be costly for insurers.

If a supervisor is involved with a subordinate, the severity of the claim goes up as does the payout, said Melissa Mattioli, employment practices liability vice president for Liberty International Underwriters.

A failed relationship alone would typically not be enough to trigger coverage. Claims made under an employment practices liability policy must result from some sort of wrongful employment act that is tantamount to employment discrimination, harassment, a hostile workplace or some retaliatory action, said Catherine Padalino, vice president and employment practices liability product manager for Chubb.

“Love, Labor, Losses” also provides insight into one of the latest office romance loss mitigation methods—love contracts. Experts detail the legal parameters and pitfalls of instituting the contracts and how state laws may prohibit them. The August feature also contains a list of steps to take to achieve legally compliant employment practices. Senior Associate Editor Al Slavin also offers his insights on the article via video available on www.bestreview.com.

The August issue also contains Best’s Review’s special Captive Domiciles and Services Issues & Answers section featuring interviews with Joel Chansky of Milliman and Brian First of SPARTA Insurance Holdings Inc.

Both interviews can be downloaded at www.bestreview.com/captives09.html.

August’s Other Highlights:

  • “Sea Change” explains how tight capital and volatile equity markets will influence the negotiations at Les Rendez-Vous de Septembre.
  • “Benefit Performance” answers the question: have variable annuities’ lifetime withdrawal guarantees become too expensive for insurers?
  • It’s finally here, insurers are using mobile devices for marketing and advertising— check out how in “On the Go.”

To read these articles and more, subscribe to Best's Review by visiting: www.bestreview.com, calling the A.M. Best customer service department at (908) 439-2200, ext. 5742, or e-mailing your request to customer_service@ambest.com.


  • Crawford & Company has launched a new Command Center designed to further improve service to clients by providing up-to-the-minute information on claims status and key performance indicators that are critical measures of the success of a claims management program.

  • The Crawford Command Center, which initially will be used by the Company's U.S. Property & Casualty segment, is located in Crawford's Atlanta headquarters. Its centerpiece is the Performance Dashboard, a joint development of Crawford's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) department and U.S. Property & Casualty. The dashboard provides real-time data and analytics to track claims and identify claims handling trends and issues.

  • The Performance Dashboard provides an in-depth, real-time view of all open inventory in CMS2, a recently introduced and enhanced claims management system, on a nationwide basis and by client, region and product line.

  • It displays a graphical representation of claim data for six key performance indicators: acknowledgement, first contact, first report, first inspection, status and closing report. Analysts working in the Command Center monitor the dashboard and review data, identify trends and develop initiatives to continually improve service to clients.

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