Should employees elect to purchase insurance coverage when renting a car for business? This is one of the most commonly asked questions we hear from our clients. The answer – it depends. It depends on what types of insurance coverage your company currently carries, and whether the employees will be renting in the U.S. or internationally. There are nuances in the coverages purchased to mitigate issues when having employees rent vehicles. It also helps to develop a concise internal protocol for when asked the insurance question.
Let’s start with the basics. When your employees rent vehicles for business there are two main types of insurance coverages to consider: Liability and Physical Damage coverages. Liability coverage protects against bodily injury or property damage to a third-party Read more…
What sounds like an esoteric battle between obscure government agencies has some significant implications for the Property and Casualty Insurance industry. Outlined in a recent New York Times story is a battle of the bureaucrats over the value of a single human life. The number, used to calculate the effectiveness of certain risk management and loss prevention steps, has jumped under the Obama administration.
Depending upon the agency in question, the value of a life has moved to over $9 million. This figure is important to the Property & Casualty (P&C) community since wrongful death claims under Products Liability and General Liability claims scenarios may rely on this benchmark in making settlements with litigants. A higher federal benchmark equals bigger payouts from P&C insurers.
Connect with Phil Edmundson on LinkedIn.
A federal judge in VA declared “the individual mandate” unconstitutional yesterday. “The Individual Mandate” is a component of the Health Reform bill that requires each American citizen to carry health insurance by 2014. The passage of the landmark Health Reform Bill earlier this year has resulted in close to 20 lawsuits around the country. This recent ruling by the Honorable Henry Hudson, however, is especially noteworthy as it is the first by a federal judge. The lawsuit was supported by a VA state law that was passed in anticipation of the health reform bill that made it unlawful to require its citizens to purchase health insurance. The US government’s position is that virtually every citizen is in the health care system. Even if they do not have health insurance coverage currently, they eventually need medical care at which point they become part of the health care system. Both sides acknowledge that this will likely end up in front of the Supreme Court prior to the year 2014 when the individual coverage component will become effective.
Year-end seems like an an opportune time to offer some thoughts on how to catalogue and inventory items that are valuable to you. Given the potential increase during the Holidays to what you own, perhaps 2011 maybe a good year to get a handle on all your valuable belongings. Why? Knowing exactly what you own, the value and where it is allows you to make better decision when it comes to security, insurance, and gifting.
For those of you who might enjoy self-managing this process there are a number of very good software programs that help catalogue & inventory your holdings. Benefits of this method is having first hand knowledge of your inventory, cost savings, a flexible timeline. WGA’s recommended product in this area is called Collectivity, more information can be found at their website: www.collectify.com.
The other option is using a full-service operation which provides turn-key programs for cataloguing, inventory management, appraisals, and art advisory services such as restorations & conservation. Two firms in this field are – Asset Archives, Inc. (recommended by Chubb) and Collector Services (recommended by Chartis).
There is so much to consider when you send you child to college, enrolling in classes, meal plans, books, dorm rooms, spending money, tuition, clothes, safety, the list seems endless. An article from our colleagues at Hemenway & Barnes touches areas of preparedness we may not think of, but are nonetheless very important. One area being insurance – most college students are covered under parent’s health care policies. Recent federal reform allows them to stay on as dependents until the age of 26. Additionally, many colleges also offer plans for students not already covered. Parents should also review their homeowners policies to determine in their child’s belongings would be covered in the dorm. If renting an apartment, leases may require a separate policy to cover the contents. If you have a college-bound child, I urge you to take a moment to review this article, it could save you time and worry (speaking as the father of three recent graduates).
Most healthcare providers look at their insurance policies more as a costly expense, a nuisance and a necessity for their licensing rather than a legally binding contract. However, that is a oversimplification. A medical malpractice insurance policy IS a contract and must be treated as such. The terms and conditions of the contract can vary from company to company and even among different policies issued by the same company.
Few contract items demonstrate this more clearly than the wording surrounding the issue of “triggers”. For simplification purposes, we will assume coverage is on a claims-made coverage from. Claims made policies exclude coverage for incidents that were reported to previous insurance companies. Read more…
Today every company faces some kind of global challenge. We held an hour-long webcast earlier today that explored the complexities of protecting an international operation and spoke specifically on how to protect executives and board members, whether traveling overseas or those managing from the U.S. The list of nuances to consider within certain countries is endless, but we managed to touch on those that we see most often. We explored different exposures that foreign resident directors face when serving on the board of an international company, including the potential for both civil and criminal liabilities. For example, did you know that officers can be held personally liable in France if deemed to have mismanaged a company, or that a breach of data privacy in the U.K. is considered a criminal offense? We also touched on some countermeasures that can be taken to protect directors, officers and other management in these situations. If you have execs traveling overseas or coordinate a global insurance program, the recording of the presentation is worth checking out.
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Should employees elect to purchase insurance coverage when renting a car for business? This is one of the most commonly asked questions we hear from our clients. The answer – it depends. It depends on what types of insurance coverage your company currently carries, and whether the employees will be renting in the U.S. or internationally. There are nuances in the coverages purchased to mitigate issues when having employees rent vehicles. It also helps to develop a concise internal protocol for when asked the insurance question.
