CONNECTICUT CHARITIES GET BOOST:
Travelers Property Casualty Corp. and The St. Paul Cos., which are planning to merge, have promised to increase charitable giving in Connecticut by more than $800,000 this year. Hartford-based Travelers and Minnesota's St. Paul Cos. gave $2.7 million to Connecticut causes last year and plan to donate $3.5 million in the state this year, executives of the companies told regulators at a Feb. 17 public hearing on the merger, which is expected to be completed by the end of June. The new company, to be known as The St. Paul Travelers Cos. Inc., would give $3.5 million in Connecticut each year at least through 2006, Travelers Chief Executive Officer Robert I. Lipp said at the Connecticut Insurance Department hearing. "With the increased size and economic power of the company, we felt it would be appropriate," he said. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who spoke at the hearing, said Travelers "has been particularly attuned to the needs" of Hartford and the surrounding area and he hopes the companies sustain their commitment. Travelers, in the first year since Citigroup spun it off, says it donated about $2.6 million in Connecticut through The Travelers Foundation to education, health and human services, community development and arts and culture last year. The St. Paul contributed about $146,000 in 2003 to Connecticut-based organizations.
NEW HAMPSHIRE LAW IRKS PLOWERS:
The people who drive city and town snowplows in New Hampshire say they are being treated unfairly by a state law which states that if someone hits them as they clear snow, the incident goes on their personal driving record, and can raise their private insurance rates. Police officers, firefighters and ambulance drivers do not face the same situation. "I think it stinks," said Bob Bennett, Belmont's public works director whose 20-year safety record was recently jeopardized when a car crashed into the town-owned plow truck. Chum Cleverly, Bow's public works director, has been trying to get the law changed, but so far, his idea isn't getting any traction. He's gone to the Safety Department and Insurance Department to no avail. "Our job is as much public safety as the fire or police departments," Cleverly said. "And if we're not out there making sure the roads are passable, the ambulance and police aren't going to get around." State Safety Commissioner Richard Flynn says the drivers should ask the Legislature to change the law. Earl Sweeney, the assistant Department of Safety commissioner, said the department is not considering changing the rules, the Concord Monitor reported. "For one thing, once this was started—where would it go from there?" Sweeney asked. "Would it begin with state and local plow truck drivers, then expand to include those contract plows who contract to the state and to the cities and towns and who could also argue that they have no choice but to go out in the storms; then to those who plow private driveways, under the same rationale. At the present time it does not appear feasible to make the change." Roger Sevigny, state insurance commissioner, said even if the law stays the same, shopping for an insurance company could help. "Every insurance company that develops rates develops them differently,'' he said. "As long as it's not a violation of the rating laws, companies can charge you for being in an accident. ... We don't set rates."
VERMONT'S PRIVACY RULE UPHELD
A Superior Court judge has upheld Vermont regulations governing the use of private information by insurance companies chartered to do business in the state. The regulations prohibit insurance companies from selling or sharing personal customer information unless a customer approves. Vermont has applied similar rules to banks and other financial service businesses for more than 10 years, Attorney General William Sorrell said. Sorrell called Vermont's regulations a "more protective standard" than federal rules, which allow insurance companies to sell or share private information only unless a customer objects. This so-called "opt out" standard also applies to banks and other businesses in the financial services sector. The regulations governing insurance companies were issued by the state Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration (BISHCA) in late 2001. In early 2002, five insurance trade groups sued BISHCA and then-Commissioner Elizabeth Costle, arguing that the state's privacy regulations violated their constitutional right to free speech and that Costle did not have the authority to impose the rules under Vermont law. But in his ruling last month, Washington Superior Court Judge Alan Cook rejected these arguments. Cook said that BISHCA did have the authority to impose Vermont's privacy regulations, and that the federal "opt-out" standard made it difficult for consumers to decide how their private information should be used.
