Declarations

No Choice

“The Supreme Court has spoken on the issue, so we had no choice.”

—Louisiana State Sen. Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte. LaFleur, a board member of Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., acknowledged that the board of Louisiana’s property insurer of last resort has offered a settlement of $103 million to resolve disputes over its handling of claims after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Citizens previously offered an $80 million settlement but that was rejected by plaintiffs’ lawyers.

Client Prep Needed

“It’s hard to ask for rate hikes if you’ve never had to do it.”

—Michael Sapnar, president and CEO of Transatlantic Holdings. Speaking at a Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS) Directors & Officers Symposium in New York, referred to the fact that due to a prolonged soft market, many brokers have never experienced a time when insurance prices were trending up rather than down. Sapnar said brokers have to prepare their clients and get risk managers to budget for increases.

Under the Umbrella

“There is no doubt that a state-based exchange still falls under the umbrella of federal law.”

—Oklahoma State Rep. Glen Mulready, R-Tulsa. Mulready is a member of a legislative committee recommending that Oklahoma create its own health insurance exchange so the federal government doesn’t establish one for it instead. Mulready says he hopes the federal healthcare law requiring exchanges will be overturned. If not, he thinks a state-based plan would give Oklahoma more control to decide the role of agents and brokers, as well as inviting more carriers and competition.