Best of 2017 (so far)

It’s hard to believe, but 2017 is already more than half way through. There is much to write about these days from insuretech and blockchain to the political drivers of insurance, including the pending expiration (and renewal) of National Flood Insurance Program and the possibility of a replacement of the Affordable Care Act. However, we wanted to take this week’s post to do two things.

First, thank you for paying attention to and interacting with the Academy Journal. We are working to provide you with relevant commentary and instruction on a broad range of insurance topics.

Second, we wanted to aggregate the top five posts that you’re reading this year. These aren’t the top five posts from this year. These are the top five posts that you’re reading. You have testified by your searches and clicks that the content that you’ve received from the Academy Journal has great shelf life. So, here are your top five articles read in 2017.

#5 – 3 Reasons Vacant Buildings Make Underwriters Twitch

In this article from March 2017, we gave you a few reasons that a vacant building can be a pain point for an underwriter.

“A vacant building is an attractive nuisance. This 3,000-square foot, two-story building sits on a corner lot in an area that has both light commercial and residential occupancies. You could also say that it’s not located in the best of neighborhoods. What does a vacant building attract? It can be a place where people loiter, congregate, or otherwise gather and do whatever they’re going to do…”

CLICK HERE to read the full article.

#4 – Contractual Risk Transfer: The Basics

In this article from March 2015, Chris Boggs walks us through the basics of contractual risk transfer. As insurance professionals, we hold a key role in helping our customers to manage their risks.

“Upper tier contractors seek to avoid the financial costs that can arise out of bodily injury or property damage to a third party caused by a lower tier (subcontractor) for which they (the upper tier) could be held vicariously liable. Further, when allowed by statute, and sometimes even when not allowed, upper tier contractors attempt to avoid the financial consequences arising out of injury or damage for which they and the lower tier contractor are jointly liable. In extreme cases upper tier contractors may even contractually endeavor to relieve themselves of financial responsibility for liability arising from their sole negligence.”

CLICK HERE to read the full article.

#3 – 5 Reasons the ‘Primary and Noncontributory’ Requirement is Unethical, Ironic and Ridiculous

Continuing in the additional insured theme, we find ourselves looking back to May 2016. In this post, Chris Boggs makes a clear, detailed, and passionate response to the debate on the use of Primary and Noncontributory requirements in construction contracts. If you’ve had any questions about this debate, this is a must read.

“A contract is a formal, private agreement between two or more parties intent on accomplishing a specific task, purpose or goal. The Second Restatement of Contracts further defines a contract as “a promise or set of promises for the breach of which the law gives a remedy, or the performance of which the law in some way recognizes as a duty.””

CLICK HERE to read the full article.

#2 – 5 Words You Can’t Ignore in the Policy

In this article from April 2017, we dig into some words that we see in policies every day. If we’re not paying close attention, we could misread, misinterpret, and misapply policy language.

“Insurance people are very particular about the words that we use. Don’t think so? Really? Go open ANY insurance policy. See that word that’s typed in all capital letters? It’s an adjective telling you that it doesn’t matter what policy you choose, it’ll work. You’ll find a lot of words in even the simplest of insurance policies. We don’t reduce the length of insurance policies over time, either. They just get longer. If you doubt that, look up old property insurance policies. You’ll find that in the 1800’s, a fire policy on a house was a single page document, printed front and back, often with a large section of one side used for the company logo (which were quite ornate back then). That’s it. The whole policy including declarations, insuring agreement, exclusions and all.”

CLICK HERE to read the full article.

The #1 post so far this year is…

Employees Exempt from Workers’ Compensation

The topic of Workers’ Compensation insurance is always a big deal to you, so your response to this post is no surprise to us. In this post from March 2015, Chris Boggs takes us through the web of definitions around employees and different state laws and rules to help us to understand who may be exempt from a customer’s Workers’ Compensation policy.

“Employee-employer relationships regarding workers’ compensation are complicated by the IRS, industrial commissions, the courts and state statute. Each has its own definition or applies a different test to define “employee.”

Certain “employment” situations and arrangements are exempt from the requirements of workers’ compensation. Each state views exempted employment classes differently. Some allow total exclusion, while others may require coverage if certain thresholds are breached (generally very high thresholds in comparison to the standard requirements).”

CLICK HERE to read the full article.

Now that I’ve looked into what the numbers tell us are the most popular posts, I wonder what you think. Which posts have you liked most or have been most helpful to you?