Declarations

Stellar statistic

“This is the most remarkable statistic of all. The combined ratio we estimate to be about 94 for the year. That would be the best result since 1955.”

— Dr. Robert Hartwig, president and chief economist of the Insurance Information Institute, talking with Insurance Journal’s Andrew Simpson about the numbers, or estimates, for the property/casualty insurance industry for 2006. He noted that the results for 2006 were “quite good.”

Praiseworthy practices

“I take ethics very seriously. I’ve taught ethics on a national level for the American Bar Association, so that’s something that’s very important to me. At the local level, if I can instill that in the staff, it’ll be key in really going in the direction where we want to go.”

— New Mexico Insurance Superintendent Morris Chavez discussing how he will restore ethics to the Department of Insurance after much turnover in the position due to questions about ethical practices in former employees. Chavez said he was fortunate to have been selected, but right for the job because of his administrative and regulatory experience.

D&O headed downward

“Barring any major disruptions in the market in 2007, premiums are likely to plummet further, and risk going into a freefall.”

— Advisen Ltd.’s “The D&O Market in 2006” report indicating that directors and officers liability premiums are likely to fall in 2007. Advisen released a report noting that changing corporate governance practices and excess capital in the insurance market have caused premiums to drop in recent years.

Federal or state?

“Insurance is totally unique from banking, securities and analogies to those financial sectors are strategically misleading. In securities, the consumer assumes the risk. … In insurance you are transferring the risk.”

— Illinois Director of Insurance Michael McRaith discussing why analogies between the insurance and banking industries should not be made. McRaith was a panelist at the Professional Liability Underwriting Society Annual International Conference. The panel discussion focused on federal versus state-based regulation, and the likelihood that regulation laws would be passed now that Democrats control the House and Senate.

No privacy for priest

“Priests with known sexual proclivities have been handed off from location to another without regard to the potential harm to the children of the Church.”

— Superior Court Judge Peter D. Lichtman, explaining why he ordered the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to make public 3,000 pages of insurance records and hundreds of pages from the secret disciplinary files of Siegfried Widera, a priest who had been convicted of molestation before being transferred to California.