All the headlines from our Chris Burand Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Jul 25 2013 // 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 continue to believe draft...
Jul 23 2013 // 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 does not exist on the...
Jul 19 2013 // 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 always. In any given...
Jul 18 2013 // Mailing Certificates of Insurance. You should always do what companies tell you to do because they always look out for the agent, right? If an agency issues a certificate of insurance that affects the cancellation of an...
Jul 1 2013 // I wrote two columns in the summer of 2012 that elicited more online comments and emails than any article, out of the hundreds, that I’ve written.One column’s subject was that producers are paid to produce. If...
Jun 21 2013 // A huge amount of press has been devoted to how important price is to insurance buyers — and it clearly is. But this is not specific to insurance. Price is a key factor in almost all buying decisions, excluding medical...
Jun 19 2013 // 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, give them lip...
Jun 12 2013 // 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 an A.M. Best...
Jun 7 2013 // 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 attorney asks them whether...
Jun 3 2013 // A huge amount of press has been devoted to how important price is to insurance buyers – and it clearly is. But this is not specific to insurance. Price is a key factor in almost all buying decisions, excluding medical...
May 24 2013 // E&S Binding Limits. Extremely few, if any, retail agencies have any binding authority whatsoever with their E&S brokers. This is such a simple E&O tip that most readers probably see it as a complete waste of...
May 15 2013 // AOR/BOR Procedures. If the current agent is so good, why is the insured moving their policy? AOR/BOR selling strategies have increased in popularity exponentially over the last decade. Some sales consultants and producers...
May 6 2013 // Some inside knowledge and a lot of experience strongly suggests that many agencies and brokers are cutting processing corners. I am not writing about immaterial corners. I am writing about them cutting large, material...
Apr 24 2013 // Record Retention. It’s not as simple as everyone thinks.Significant and dangerous myths exist relative to this increasingly important topic. The first myth is that “records” means all records, not just...
Apr 17 2013 // Felony Background Checks. An important step in hiring people. If an employee has a felony conviction and the agency has not obtained the proper waiver from their state’s insurance department, the agency may be...
Apr 10 2013 // Flood Insurance. Who Ever Said Mortgage Companies Know Everything About Flood Insurance?In agency after agency I visit, flood insurance is usually only offered to people if their mortgage company requires it. De facto,...
Apr 8 2013 // “So baby, let’s sell your diamond ring Buy some boots and faded jeans and go away This coat and tie is choking me In your high society you cry all day We’ve been so busy keepin’ up with the...
Apr 3 2013 // Job Descriptions. A simple solution to minimizing E&O exposures. One of the most significant E&O exposures is literally a “he said, she said” issue. Producers think a CSR will do something and CSRs...
Mar 27 2013 // Agency Catastrophe Plans. How to keep a catastrophe from becoming an even bigger catastrophe.I don’t know who said it, but they correctly concluded that the best E&O audit is a natural catastrophe because so many...
Mar 20 2013 // Bond Specifications & Company Ratings. Do you check?When commercial clients need a bond, they almost always have a contract that requires the bond meet certain specifications. Among those specifications is the bond be...