Declarations

Contingent commissions

“It is grossly unfair to impose contrived restrictions on the ability to compensate producers in a legal and honest manner … PIA believes that authorities should be prohibited from using their settlement powers to bring about a ban on all contingent compensation.”

National Association of Professional Insurance Agents Executive Vice President and CEO Len Brevik comments on the notice of the ban on contingency commissions. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has notified four leading insurance companies that, under agreements reached with his office earlier this year, they may no longer pay “contingent commissions” to agents and brokers who sell automobile, homeowners and certain other insurance products. This notice comes as part of settlements that each of the insurers – ACE, AIG, St. Paul Travelers and Zurich – entered into earlier this year, resolving charges of bid rigging and other improprieties related to contingent commissions. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan also joined in sending notices to ACE, St. Paul Travelers and Zurich.

Domestic partners

“The court has affirmed that Mr. Brinkman’s daily life is unaffected when the domestic partners of lesbian and gay university employees have health insurance and he therefore has no standing to bring a lawsuit.”

James P. Madigan, staff attorney for Lambda Legal, a national advocacy group that represented two Miami faculty members comments in a news release after a ruling came down in which a Butler County court dismissed a lawsuit filed by a state legislator who challenged Miami University’s same-sex partner benefits policy based on Ohio’s 2004 constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Common Pleas Judge Charles Pater ruled that state Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr., R-Cincinnati, had no legal standing to sue the university as a taxpayer. Brinkman said the dismissal was “based on a technicality” and he would appeal.

Seniors on the road

“Age can sneak up on seniors … traffic on the roads today is not like it was 30, 40, 50 years ago. The rules are different. You have to adjust.”

LeRoy Fladseth, AARP Michigan’s driver safety coordinator’s comments support efforts to pass the proposed Michigan legislation that would require insurers to give discounts to seniors who take approved safe driving classes. The legislation is perceived as a starting point to persuade Michigan insurers to offer senior discounts as well as get more seniors to take safety classes. Nearly 53,000 people in Minnesota completed the AARP class in 2005, while Michigan had just 2,800 graduates.