Burand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #34
Personal Lines Liability Limits. If an agency has only offered a client $100,000 liability and they have a $300,000 claim, what do you think the answer will be when, on the witness stand, their...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #35
Carrier Rating Notifications. What responsibility does an agency have to notify clients of carrier ratings? On new business, it is a good idea to list the carrier’s rating. However, if the carrier has...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #36
Privacy Compliance. It’s not serious until you get caught, right? The normal individual human reaction to complex laws and laws that defy relatively easy compliance is to acknowledge their existence,...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #38
Inflation Factors on Personal Lines Property. Some personal property forms lack automatic inflation adjustments that increase the structural limit annually. Usually these are dwelling forms, but not...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #39
AOR/BOR Procedures for Benefits. For some unknown reason, I continually find Benefits Producers thinking the P&C AOR/BOR procedures are not applicable to them because the risk on the P&C side...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #40
Claims Draft Checks. Not many agencies have claims draft authority any longer, which I consider a positive change relative to what it was 20 years ago. However, a few specific insurance companies...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #41
Accepting Payment After Hours. Many agencies continue to accept premium payments even when closed. Customers put their payments through mail slots, under the door, wedged between the door and the door...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #42
Policies Subject to Audit. Audits are one of the few E&O exposures agencies have that do not involve a claim. A good method for protecting the agency from audit related E&O claims is to...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #43
Offering Cyber Liability. Almost without exception all businesses need cyber liability coverage today and yet relatively few have this vital coverage. The exposures can be significant both from an...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #44
Producers Not Having Adequate Knowledge of their Clients’ Industry. An agency can have all the right procedures and even follow all the right procedures and still not mitigate one of their biggest...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #45
Loss Control Results Usually Require Disclosure. An agency that uses non-carrier loss control services, regardless of whether it is a third-party firm or an agency’s in-house loss control service,...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #46
The Value of a Name. Applications are called applications and quote sheets are called quote sheets for good reasons. A quote sheet is only supposed to be for quoting and even then, it is a conditional...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #47
Policy Change Requests Can Only Be Made if Requesting Party Has Authority/Insurable Interest. Many years ago when I first entered the industry, I remember an experienced underwriter telling the story...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #48
Notifying Umbrella Carriers of Potential Claims. Every reader likely knows the importance of notifying an excess/umbrella carrier of potential claims in a timely manner. When the excess/umbrella...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #49
Date Stamping. Could any E&O blog address a simpler subject than date stamping? Maybe not, but date stamping correctly to mitigate E&O exposures is something too few agencies practice. Most...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #50
Binders Redux. A binder is a temporary insurance contract. This is a fact. The Acord 75 field Description states, “A Binder is a temporary insurance contract which provides coverage in advance of the...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #51
State Guaranty Funds. Many agency owners, producers, and CSRs believe state guaranty funds provide blank insolvency protection for any client insured by an admitted carrier. This is not true. Many...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #52
Update Census Forms on AORs/BORs. When an agency takes over a group benefits account by AOR or BOR, it is likely picking up the prior agency’s/broker’s mistakes. Sometimes, for many different reasons...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #53
TPA Activities. Some agencies are unknowingly conducting TPA activities. Others are knowingly offering these services without knowing whether their E&O policy will provide coverage. Many insurance...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #54
Fees & Agency’s Standard of Care. An agency’s Standard of Care requirement has many moving parts and variables. Simple answers generally do not exist because the applicable standard is case and...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #55
Fees & Agency’s Standard of Care. An agency’s Standard of Care requirement has many moving parts and variables. Simple answers generally do not exist because the applicable standard is case and...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #56
Personal Lines Quote Sheets. In most agencies, CSRs base their personal lines quotes off the data gathered per their quote sheets. Two common problems exist using quote sheets. The first is many...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #57
Review Renewals. While my recommendation to review renewals might seem so simple that even mentioning it might seem like I’m scratching the bottom of the barrel, I am writing this recommendation...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #58
ACA Grandfathering Disclaimer. According to the Wall Street Journal (Nov. 6, 2013), the first E&O suits have been filed against an insurance company for allegedly misleading a consumer into...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #59
Renewal Processing Time. Due to many reasons, including agencies cutting staff too much, I find many commercial CSRs are far behind in checking their policy renewals. Being behind creates significant...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #60
Quality of Quotes. Sometimes in the hurry hurry world of the CSR or producer, an insured will request quotes for certain coverages. Whether they do so as a result of the agency using a coverage...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #61
Proper Authorization to Change Coverages Part II.In Blog 14 I wrote about the need to verify the party requesting a change in coverage has the required authority to make such a request. Another...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #62
Producers and Staff Do Not Adequately Know the Agency’s Procedures.More often than many might expect, staff and particularly producers do not adequately know the agency’s procedures. This can be...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #63
Inflation Factors are Missing.Some property policies, particularly dwelling policies in personal lines, lack automatic inflation adjustment factors. These same policies often get less attention than...
View ArticleBurand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #64
Confirmation That Suit Papers Have Been Received by the Carrier.While not an every day occurrence, most agencies receive suit papers from various parties several times a year and these papers must be...
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