INSURANCE
WOMEN OF SOUTHWEST MISSISSIPPI
April 2004
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
FROM
VIRGINIA H. ZEIGLER, AAM, AIT,
ACSR, CPIW
We are excited about our new member, Brittany
Powers, of the Morrell Agency! I can tell she’s going to be a great
member, because she’s already volunteered for the Safety Committee and
has taken on the Prom Card project.
Keri did her usual great job of teaching us the
I Can course “Ethics-Shades of Black & White” at our March meeting.
I’ve been quoting the Golden Rule and the “60 Minutes Test” on every occasion
at the office!
We look forward to having a Regional Convention
report from Keri & Ruthie at the April meeting and wish Ruthie the
best of luck with CWC!
DATES TO REMEMBER
April
1st
April Fool’s Day
4th
Day Light Savings Time Begins
6th
IIAM ACSR Mod #8, Tupelo
9th
Good Friday
11th
Easter Sunday
13th
PIA Insuring Internet Exposures and E&O, Jackson
13-15th IIAM
– Agent’s License Review, Jackson
15-17th NAIW
Region III Conference, West Palm Beach, FL
19th
PIA E&O Prevention, Jackson
21st
CISR Personal Auto, Tupelo
Administrative Professionals Day
29th
IW of SW MS Monthly Business Meeting
ADDRESS CHANGE
National NAIW NEW Address: 1847 E. 15th St.
Tulsa, OK 74104-4610. Send all standard mail to this address.
Send check or payments to National NAIW: Dept.
1400 P.O. Box 21820 Tulsa, OK 74101-1820
COMPANIES
IN THE NEWS
Because of the new Medicare law,
the government run health care system will be in much worse financial shape,
with the part that pays hospital bills insolvent by 2019, according to
a newly released government report.
American Medical Security Group
Inc. said it has agreed to a $5.85 million settlement from former pharmacy
benefits manager ProVantage Inc. in a dispute over ProVantage’s pricing
and prescription drug fees from 1995 to 2002.
Two Oklahoma legislators want an
investigation into what it would take to impeach state Insurance Commissioner
Carroll Fisher, who is facing felony allegations on embezzlement and illegally
running a charity, as part of an ongoing grand jury probe that now involves
his wife.
A.M. Best Company has affirmed the
financial strength rating of A+ (Superior) of American Modern Insurance
Group and its property/casualty affiliates.
UMBRELLA POLICIES
We have all heard the saying April showers bring
May flowers. Well now is the time to break out those umbrellas and
brush up on some insurance basics!
Most umbrella liability policies provide coverage
that is broader than the insureds primary policies. An excess liability
policy may be a 'following form' policy, which means it is subject to the
same terms as the underlying policies.
Umbrella policies have three functions:
1. To provide additional limits above the each
occurrence limit of
the insureds primary policies.
2. To take the place of primary insurance when
primary aggregate
limits are reduced or exhausted.
3. To provide broader coverage for those claims
which are not
covered by the insureds primary insurance policies,
and are
subject to the policy retention.
Most umbrella liability policies contain one comprehensive
insuring agreement. The agreement usually states it will pay the ultimate
net loss, which is the total amount in excess of the primary limit for
which the Insured becomes legally obligated to pay for damages of bodily
injury, property damage, personal injury, and advertising injury.
LIMITS OF INSURANCE All umbrella liability
policies contain an each occurrence limit of insurance. Umbrella policies
can be written with several different variations of the aggregate limits.
There are no standard umbrella policy.
SELF-INSURED RETENTION The self-insured
retention is the amount of the loss the Insured must pay before the umbrella
policy is required to respond. The self-Insured retention only applies
when a loss is excluded from coverage under the primary policy, but not
excluded under the umbrella policy.
REQUIRED UNDERLYING LIMITS This is a requirement
of the Insurer. It requires the Insured to have certain types of coverages
and limits currently in force (for example, homeowner and auto) and must
be acceptable to the umbrella/excess liability carrier.
APRIL FOOL'S DAY
Spring is a wonderful season. It is a
time of joy and rebirth. The trees have green leaves and flowers
are blooming. There are butterflies and hummingbirds. And fools.
April 1st is April Fool’s Day. Below is a list of the top four April
Fool’s Pranks of all time. If you have fallen for any of these, do
not feel bad, so have thousands of others. To see the list of the
top 100 pranks of all time go to www. museumofhoaxes.com/aprilfool.
#1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest
In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama
announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination
of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti
crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling
strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken
in.
#2: Sidd Finch
In its April 1985 edition, Sports Illustrated
published a story about a new rookie pitcher who planned to play for the
Mets. His name was Sidd Finch and he could reportedly throw a baseball
with startling, pinpoint accuracy at 168 mph (65 mph faster than anyone
else has ever been able to throw a ball). Sidd Finch had never even played
the game before. Instead, he had mastered the "art of the pitch" in a Tibetan
monastery.
#3: Instant Color TV
In 1962 there was only one TV channel in Sweden,
and it broadcast in black and white. The station's technical expert appeared
on the news to announce that thanks to a newly developed technology, all
viewers could now quickly and easily convert their existing sets to display
color reception. All they had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their
TV screen.
#4: The Taco Liberty Bell
In 1996 the Taco Bell Corporation announced
that it had bought the Liberty Bell from the federal government and was
renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell.
NEWS FROM OUR MEMBERS
Mary Stogner had a new grandson born on February
25, 2004. We welcome Whitman Andrew Stogner! He weighed 9 pounds
and 4 ounces
Virginia Zeigler is going to the 29th Annual World
Catfish Festival in Belzoni, MS on April 3, 2004, and hopes to work in
the Baroque Dresden exhibit later in April.
Keri Morrell has not been in the office!
She attended the PIA sponsored Federal Legislative Day in Washington DC.
Then she went to New Orleans where she attended a CIC Ruble Seminar.
When she is in the office, she has been busy listening to Ruthie practice
her CWC speech.
Ruthie Phillips has been busy practicing her CWC
speech. With less than 20 days to Regional, the pressure is on!
Deborah Ledford attended the Region VI Conference
in New Orleans. She had a fun weekend and attended several classes
and listened to a variety of speakers.