N.J. high court rules first responders can sue negligent property owners

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that when police and firefighters get hurt handling an emergency, they may sue and win compensation if negligence contributed to the injury.

The unanimous decision found that a 1993 state law effectively abolished the so-called "firefighters' rule," which barred emergency personnel from winning damages from an irresponsible property owner. Most states still have versions of the rule, according to the property owner's lawyer, who found the decision frustrating.

The person who attacked the officer, he maintained, was the person most responsible. "Is it fair for property owners or other victims of crime to have to answer in civil court for injuries our first responders may suffer and sustain in doing their duties?" asked the lawyer, Brian W. McAlindin.

This case deals only with New Jersey laws. In the case, a police officer in Morris County, Harry Ruiz, was hurt while attempting to break up a fight that spilled outside a Dover tavern in 2001. Ruiz sued the bar, claiming it failed to provide sufficient security, as required by town ordinance. He also sued the property owner.

At issue is what effect the 1993 law had on the so-called firefighters' rule, which was adopted in a 1960 court case. The high court decided that the 1993 law gave emergency responders the right to collect if their injury was the direct or indirect result of neglect or a deliberate omission.

Ruiz lawyer David H. Ironson said the officer was attacked by an unknown person outside Silvana's Bar and Restaurant. "They were televising a soccer match that was being shown to approximately 200 people and they were serving alcohol," when a fight erupted, Ironson said. "There was nobody there to break up that fight, or certainly an insufficient number of people to break up that fight."

Ruiz, now 37, required neck surgery that left some bones fused, and can no longer work as an officer.

The ruling would not create an unfair right for emergency personnel because they must show that negligence contributed to the injury, Ironson said. "You still have to prove your case."

The property owner's lawyer, McAlindin, was not so certain of the effect. Under the ruling, McAlindin suggested, a firefighter could sue a homeowner whose overloaded outlet led to a fire that injured the firefighter. He said that although New Jersey law does not allow civil juries to assess a portion of the responsibility to the assailant, he hoped they find the property owner was not responsible even if the bar had insufficient security.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Sarbanes-Oxley use in Conn. case worries corporate defense bar

The arrest of a prominent attorney on charges of destroying evidence in a Connecticut child pornography investigation is raising alarm bells that a law targeting corporate accounting schemes could be used to prosecute lawyers over work done on their clients' behalf.

"Every criminal defense lawyer in the country has to be alarmed at the indictment," said New York University law professor Stephen Gillers. "It's going to upset a lot of assumptions about how lawyers can represent clients. I think this is a boundary-pushing case."

Philip Russell was charged with destroying a computer that contained child pornography at Christ Church in Greenwich, Conn. Russell, the former attorney for the church, is accused of obstructing an FBI investigation that led to the conviction of the church's music director, Robert Tate, for possessing child pornography.

Russell was charged under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which Congress passed in 2002 after a wave of corporate accounting scandals to make it easier to prosecute such cases. He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted.

"The case will test the meaning of those new provisions," Gillers said.

The law made it easier to prosecute obstruction of justice by requiring only that an investigation was foreseeable rather than already pending. Prosecutors also no longer have to show the defendant acted with corrupt intent to keep evidence from investigators, experts say.

While legal experts agree that lawyers can't destroy evidence, they are concerned that prosecutors' use of Sarbanes-Oxley will pressure defense attorneys to betray their clients' confidences and report potential evidence to authorities or risk prosecution themselves. "The most troubling aspect is it tries to make lawyers shills or hand maidens for police and government investigators," said Jon Schoenhorn, president of the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.

Future cases could involve bank records or other documents that might incriminate a client in a future investigation, experts say.

"Lawyers will have to be soothsayers," said Martin Pinales, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "They will have to figure out what some prosecutor in the future may or may not be charging."

Russell does not dispute that he destroyed the computer, said his attorney, Robert Casale. But says he didn't do it to interfere with any inevstigation and didn't break the law.

The case began when an employee at Christ Church discovered images of naked boys while using Tate's computer. A day later, church officials sealed and wrapped Tate's laptop, treating it as evidence, authorities said. Russell destroyed Tate's computer after learning it contained images of naked boys, according to the indictment.

"Those who possess child pornography or hinder the prosecution of those who do by destroying evidence and impeding investigations will be prosecuted, particularly when the obstructionists are attorneys and officers of the court," U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said.

Schoenhorn said defense attorneys should advise their clients that it's illegal to possess child pornography, but should leave it up to their client on how to treat the evidence.

Russell plans to challenge the use of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in his case. Others besides attorneys could be liable if authorities are allowed to apply the law broadly, Casale said.

Federal law has a provision designed to protect attorneys. That shield could be a defense for Russell, but it's rarely been tested.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Firm has learned the art of tracking stolen masterpieces

The request was simple enough: Lloyd's underwriters had been approached to insure the movement of seven paintings, including one by Cezanne, from Russia to London for valuation and sale.

So Lloyd's contacted the Art Loss Register, a small private company in London whose computer archive lists 180,000 items ranging from sculpture and silver to textiles, books, stamps and vehicles -- and many of the great art works stolen or missing around the world.

What the insurance company discovered in 1999 was that the works, including Cezanne's "Fruit and Jug," had been stolen in 1978 from the home of American collector Michael Bakwin in Massachusetts.

Thus began a long investigation, including Art Loss Register researchers and negotiators, that resulted in the FBI announcing last month the arrest of a lawyer. He allegedly had obtained the art from the thief, who had been murdered by another criminal after the robbery. In the end, Bakwin got his paintings back and sold the Cezanne for $35 million (euro26 million).

Now the Art Loss Register is on the trail of two Picassos stolen in Paris a few weeks ago.

The register serves museums, art dealers and auction houses such as Sotheby's and Christie's that want to avoid handling stolen art; and theft victims, insurance companies and police hunting for the thieves.

When thieves stole Pablo Picasso's "Maya With Doll" (1938) and "Portrait of Jacqueline" (1961) from his granddaughter's home in Paris, their description and photo were added to the company's database within hours. The paintings are valued together at around $65 million (euro49 million), but the information in the register severely curtails their resale prospects and could help lead police to the thieves.

Manet, Delacroix recovered

In the last 10 years, information supplied by the Art Loss Register has helped recover paintings by Manet, Delacroix, Giacometti, Constable; a Queen Anne cabinet; and a Roman marble head of Dionysius.

Two years ago, the Art Loss Register was vetting works to be sold at the renowned Maastricht art and antiques fair in the Netherlands, when it discovered that one of them, a painting by 17th-century Dutch artist Jan Linsen, had been missing from a German museum since 1946.

In 2002, an art dealer's routine search of the archive for a 1922 Picasso, "Woman in White," owned by an American philanthropist, led to the discovery that it had been looted by the Nazi occupiers of Paris. Research by Art Loss Register staff in four countries provided information to the complex litigation that followed over its ownership. The register is also a source for Jews seeking to recover art confiscated from them by the Nazis.

"We're the only comprehensive searching service in the world for stolen art," said Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the Art Loss Register. "But even with our database, the recovery rate for really good paintings is only around 20 percent, and the owners may have to wait 30 years. The success rate for stolen jewelry, furniture and silver artifacts is much lower."

Radcliffe said well-known art works are sometimes stolen by small-time thieves or drug dealers who quickly sell them cheap to criminal gangs that whisk them to another country and sell them through front men.

It also is much easier to sell less valuable stolen art works online or at flea markets and small-time galleries that don't subscribe to Art Loss Register, he said.

The register's 10 employees in London mostly manage the computer archive, which the company says is immune to hackers, and preserve the many paper files for future court cases. Some staffers are trained as auxiliary constables who can support British police going after art thieves.

The company has another 25 employees at satellite offices in New York; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Cologne, Germany; New Delhi, and Bath, England.

The Art Loss Register was created 1991, taking over a database from the International Foundation for Art Research in New York. The register is mainly funded by theft victims and their insurers, museums, galleries and auction houses. It charges $50 (euro38) per search. It can be found at www.artloss.com.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Judges fault Spitzer on case against Greenberg over charity funds

One of Eliot Spitzer's more contentious cases from his years as attorney general in New York was criticized by a panel of retired judges who discounted his claims that insurance executive Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg cost his mentor's charity $6 billion.

In 2005, Spitzer accused Greenberg of participating in financial transactions 35 years earlier. Spitzer said Greenberg's conflicts of interests hurt the foundation that provides money to colleges while benefiting Greenberg and his company, American International Group Inc.

Spitzer criticized Greenberg's role as executor of the estate of his mentor, Cornelius Vander Starr, who created a worldwide network of insurance companies including AIG in the early 1900s. Spitzer's claimed the foundation could take civil action to recover $6 billion owed it from decisions made by Greenberg.

"Executors (of the Estate of C.V. Starr) acted in good faith and prudently performed their duties, and ... there is no basis for the A.G. report's contention to the contrary," according to the panel's report. "The independent committee has concluded that it would not be appropriate, nor would it be in the best interests of The Starr Foundation, to pursue any litigation or other course of action against the executors, whether in their capacity as executors or as directors of The Starr Foundation."

The foundation's board of directors created the panel of retired judges and Florence Davis, president of the foundation.

Carpoolers in Conn. spared licensing

The Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles says despite what an insurance company claims, parents who drive students to school events or field trips don't need a special license.

The issue came up when the Greenwich and Norwalk School district were told that under state regulations, parents, teachers and other school officials who drive children in their own cars to extracurricular activities would need to obtain a commercial driver's license. That statement had come from the Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency, the insurer for Greenwich and Norwalk.

"We turned to our attorney, who agreed (with the insurer)," Salvatore Corda, Norwalk's school superintendent said.

"We called the DMV and they said 'that's the law.'"

Next they approached State Sen. Robert Duff, D-Norwalk, for help. He in turn contacted DMV.

Duff released a letter he received from Sharon Geanuracos, the DMV's motor vehicle regulations adviser. Geanuracos wrote that as long as parents are not under contract to provide the transportation, they are not required to obtain a special license.

Fatal Bronx fire reminder of lax safety in many multi-family dwellings

Fire fatalities have steadily declined in the U.S. since the late 1970s, thanks partly to improved building codes requiring safety measures such as sprinkler systems, multiple fire exits and fire-resistant construction materials.

But a deadly blaze in the Bronx served as a ghastly reminder that many of the country's big cities are packed with homes that have none of these safety features.

The March 7 inferno claimed 10 lives when flames ignited by a space heater ripped through a century-old town house inhabited by two immigrant families from West Africa.

Investigators sifting through the ashes found a bunch of things they wish had been different about the building. The three-story house lacked a fire escape and had only one stairwell, giving residents no way out once those steps were blocked by flames. There were no sprinklers. The house had only two smoke detectors, neither of which had working batteries or was hard-wired to the electrical system.

The modest home also was crowded with 22 residents, most of them children.

And yet, none of those deficiencies appeared to violate the city's building code.

As is the case in most cities, one- and two-family homes in New York are more lightly regulated than larger dwellings. At the doomed Bronx house, neither a sprinkler system nor a fire escape was required, city officials said.

Thousands of homes just like it pepper the city, building experts said.

"In most cities, there will be a stock of buildings that don't meet the current standards, and they are accidents waiting to happen," said Richard Custer, a fire safety expert at Arup, a global design firm. "The problem is, a lot of owners don't want to spend the money to bring these things up to speed."

That wasn't the case in the Bronx.

Homeowner Moussa Magassa had recently filed an application with the city to divide his house into three apartments and install sprinklers and a metal fire stairwell. The project had yet to be approved at the time of the fire.

Architect John Ellis, who drew the plans for the work, said Magassa was intent on improving the building -- something many owners of the crowded dwellings that house immigrant families never bother to do.

An untold number of one- and two-family homes have been illegally chopped up into a warren of one-room apartments and rented to poor families struggling to deal with New York's astronomical housing costs.

"You go into these homes, you see the attic occupied. You see the basement occupied," Ellis said. "People are packed into these homes, the place is classified as a one-family."

City building inspectors served 4,256 violation orders for such illegal apartment conversions in 2006, up from 3,142 three years earlier, according to the Department of Buildings.

Glenn P. Corbett, an associate professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said similar violations occur in the suburbs surrounding the city. "There's this much larger group out there that is not following the law," he said. "Believe me, there is no incentive for a building owner to say, 'Yes, Mr. Building Inspector, come in and enforce the code and make me install these stairwells and sprinklers."'

Corbett called the illegal use of single-family homes as apartment houses a "gigantic problem" for fire safety, and he cited recent fatal blazes elsewhere, including one that killed two people last summer in Englewood, N.J.

The National Fire Protection Association, a public safety advocate, said 2,570 of the 3,675 civilian deaths in fires in 2005 occurred in one- or two-family homes. Those deaths are down considerably from 1978, when 7,710 civilians died in fires, including 4,945 in one- and two-family homes.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Swiss Re sigma study details 2006 natural, man-made disasters

in its just released sigma study, "Natural catastrophes and man-made disasters in 2006", Swiss Re notes that "losses due to natural catastrophes and man-made disasters were below the long-term trend in 2006." Cat losses totaled around $48 billion, of which approximately $5.9 billion was covered by insurance.

Swiss Re also noted that "insurers have modified their catastrophe simulation models, where appropriate, to bring them into line with higher expected damage -- especially in the light of the record loss years 2004/05 and an increasingly volatile climate."

Although 2006 was a relatively benign year in economic terms, "natural catastrophes and man-made disasters claimed more than 31,000 human lives worldwide," according to the report. There were 349 catastrophes. However, "unlike in the two previous years, natural catastrophes affected mainly developing countries where property values are low," said Swiss Re, "resulting in comparatively light economic losses of $48 billion. Low insurance penetration in developing countries also meant that only one third of these economic losses in 2006 was actually covered by insurance."

The $15.9 billion insured loss figure produced the "third-lowest losses of the past 20 years -- only 1997 and 1988 were less expensive (after allowance for inflation)." The total for natural catastrophes was $11.8 billion and man-made disasters around $4 billion, mainly attributable to "the calm hurricane season in the U.S. and the absence of any highly damaging events in Europe."

Swiss Re doesn't see the 2006 results as a reversal of the trend towards higher losses over the past decades, which have been due "mainly to weather-related catastrophes." The "increasing concentration of property values and urban encroachment into highly-exposed regions" has also raised loss figures.

The trend is also linked to climate change. "Going forward, the effects of global warming are also likely to aggravate the loss situation," the report explained.

This is the first time the Swiss Re sigma report has included statistics from flood losses in the U.S. "The historical series as of 1970 have been revised accordingly," said the report. As a result of this change, the insured loss of Hurricane Katrina was revised upward to $66 billion from $49 billion without National Flood Insurance Program.

Washington warming to national disaster plan idea

Sen. Dodd says hurricane and flood disasters are not just a local issue, but a national one

A proposal for a national disaster plan to backup private hurricane and flood insurance markets appears to be gaining momentum in Washington.

This month, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, expressed his support for a national disaster program.

"It is clear that the government has got to step in," said Frank during a press conference where he was flanked by Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., and Rep. Carol Maloney, D-N.Y., who are advocating a federal role.

Citing the federal government's role in providing a backstop for terrorism insurance, Frank said, "We believe that we have reached a similar point with regard to what happens with floods and hurricanes. ... I believe that some federal backstop is necessary."

U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and a Democratic presidential candidate, is also interested. Dodd has said he will hold hearings on insurance issues on April 11 either in Washington or the New Orleans area.

"This is not a local issue. It's a national one," Dodd told The Associated Press. He noted that more than 60 percent of the country's population lives within 100 miles of the coast. "What happened here could happen in my state. It could happen to an awful lot of people in this country."

Industry watching closely

The insurance industry tends to agree that policymakers must address this issue but is watching closely how Congress responds.

The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) is hoping lawmakers will respect the role of private insurers and come up with state-specific remedies that provide releif where it is most needed.

"Insurers, regulators, and consumers all want the same thing: a healthy and competitive insurance market in which consumers can choose a variety of coverage options from a variety of financially secure insurers," said June Holmes, PCI's interim CEO. "PCI is a strong believer in the power of market systems and signals to solve most problems. At the same time, we believe there are some risks in some areas that market solutions alone may not have the tools to address. Mega-catastrophe hurricane and earthquake risks fall into this category. Mega-catastrophe risks, if not addressed, can undermine the economies in these critical areas of the country and insurers need to work with state and federal policymakers to develop innovative solutions that promote increased insurance availability and responsible economic development."

Holmes said solutions should meet the unique needs in each state. She maintained that a one-size fits all approach is not likely to work.

"Conditions in Florida are unique from any other state," said Holmes. "Over 80 percent of the insured property in Florida is located along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts and the total value of insured property there is nearly $2 trillion and growing. Florida is the most hurricane-prone state in the U.S., accounting for roughly half of the total U.S. annual aggregate storm losses. The solution to market disruptions in Louisiana, South Carolina, or Massachusetts will look much different from one crafted by Florida legislators. That's why we favor a state-by-state approach backed up at a very high level by federal liquidity protection."

R.I., Mass. safest while Wyo., Ark. deadliest states for truck crashes

Wyoming and Arkansas are the deadliest states for truck crashes, according to a safety group that has called for tougher federal regulation to reduce fatalities hovering above 100 a week nationwide for years.

The safest states for truck crashes are Rhode Island and Massachusetts, based on the number of fatalities per 100,000 residents in 2005, the most recent year with complete figures.

Seven years since its creation by Congress to improve the safety of trucks, the federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration "is still putting cargo over people," said Joan Claybrook, chair of Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways. "This federal agency has failed miserably."

In 1999, when the agency was created, 5,380 people died in crashes with big trucks, Claybrook told a news conference by the Truck Safety Coalition. "That figure has barely budged." It was 5,212 in 2005. The agency's spokesman, Ian M. Grossman, was not available to respond.

Speakers at the event called on the agency to reduce the hours that truckers are allowed to drive without rest, increase safety inspections of big trucks, require on-board electronic monitors to ensure compliance with hours-of-service rules, and train drivers better.

The group said that in 2005 Wyoming had 6.09 deaths in big truck crashes per 100,000 residents, followed by Arkansas at 4.17, Oklahoma at 3.41, New Mexico at 3.27, Mississippi at 3.12, and West Virginia at 3.03.

The safest state, Rhode Island, had 0.09 fatalities per 100,000 residents, followed by Massachusetts at 0.38, Connecticut at 0.48, District of Columbia at 0.54, Hawaii at 0.71, Alaska at 0.75, New York at 0.76, New Hampshire at 0.84 and Delaware at 0.95.

Largest increases

The largest increases in truck fatality rates between 2004 and 2005 came in Oklahoma, South Carolina and Louisiana. The greatest drops were in Alabama, Indiana and South Dakota.

"We spend millions of dollars on food safety. Nearly 61 people die from E.coli (infections) each year, which is equivalent to the four-day death toll from truck crashes," said Jacqueline Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. "Anytime there is an E.coli outbreak, the federal government uses every resource available to stop this public health threat. Yet, unsafe big rigs kill and maim tens of thousands each year because truckers are pushed to drive long hours under unsafe conditions while the federal response has been silence and indifference."

Gillan and Claybrook criticized the motor carrier administration for increasing the number of hours a driver can operate a truck by 28 percent since 2003, up to as much as 88 hours over an eight-day tour of duty.

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A.M. Best says commercial P/C outlook stable

Pricing remains rational for now despite increasing competition

A.M. Best Co. has completed its assessment of the U.S. commercial market and revised the outlook to stable from negative for 2007. Although Best says there continues to be evidence of pricing deterioration, the level of deterioration thus far has been gradual as irrational pricing has yet to surface.

The outlook change also considers the level of rate adequacy in the sector, the record underwriting profits recorded in 2006 and an expectation of stabilized reserve development over the near term.

Best anticipates that there will be few rating upgrades or positive rating outlooks assigned in 2007 as most commercial lines companies will need to demonstrate their so-called underwriting discipline through the next soft market, which Best believes is inevitable.

Price discipline

Through 2006, Best believes that many U.S. commercial lines insurers were the recipients of much improved pricing, proving the old adage, "a rising tide lifts all boats." With the beginning of a new soft cycle now underway, however, many companies will be put to the test in proving their underwriting discipline, according to the rating organization.

Over the near term, Best says price discipline remains rational. It is over the longer term that Best is wary of price competition intensifying to a level where price discipline is compromised for the sake of growth.

In 2007, Best expects commercial lines premium to decline a modest 1 percent. While on the surface this level of deterioration is quite modest, it does not consider actual pricing changes such as terms and conditions, premium credits and exposure growth. Nevertheless, Best expects commercial lines to produce a net underwriting profit in 2007.

The outlook for the commercial lines market is intended to span over the next 12 to 36 months and is a prospective view that considers the effects of potential internal and external pressures, the sector's ability to optimize capital and its ability to preserve capital while maintaining balance sheet integrity over that period. While Best said it expects the inevitable lowering of the tide will happen again, thus far the commercial lines sector seems to be maintaining a rational level of price discipline while keeping the integrity of the balance sheet intact.

Navigating the cycle

Best believes a trend should not be measured by any single cycle -- hard or soft -- and believes rating upgrades will be few in number until companies can truly demonstrate their underwriting acumen through the soft as well as hard market cycles. Those companies that are able to navigate through these cycles will benefit from rating upgrades over time. On the other hand, those companies that have insufficient price monitoring tools, relaxed underwriting standards and are aggressive during soft markets are certain to face negative rating actions in the future.

Best said it will continue to take a "more rigorous approach in its due diligence when evaluating companies' capitalization, cycle management and risk management controls." Exposure to terrorism, its impact on capitalization and the uncertainty surrounding a long-term solution to this issue are key concerns.

The rating firm says that catastrophe models will continue to be "valuable tools for the quantification of risk but are not the only barometers."

As part of enterprise risk management and cycle management, companies will need to demonstrate their ability to monitor and measure risk and provide quality data and adequate underwriting and risk controls, the firm adds.

Three ways to bag more personal lines sales

The Post Office isn't the only way to deliver insurance marketing materials. Inserts, e-mails, Web site downloads, and hand delivery are some of the other options that are available. The first three methods are regularly employed; the last is often overlooked. Basically, it involves placing promotional materials in plastic bags and handing them to, or dropping them off for prospects. This style of delivery is common at trade shows, so why not employ it outside of the exhibit hall? It distinguishes the aggressive personal lines agency from other marketers who limit themselves to the more traditional avenues of distribution.

Here are a few possibilities.

Auto litter bags

These transitory trash receptacles serve as short-term insurance billboards. Once in use, they usually hang in full view of the driver for weeks before they are filled and discarded. The colorful plastic bags cost about 20 cents each, custom imprinted with your logo, agency information, and sales message. Print different bags with messages that promote auto, home, boat, and life insurance. Then add your prospect's first pieces of trash: a custom marketing memo that ties in with the bag's message, a free pen, and a business reply card. Prospects can then fill out the card with the pen and drop it off at the nearest mailbox, all without leaving the car.

• home
• boat
• life] insurance rates."

Distribution possibilities: Supply select business clients and commercial prospects with litter bags to give to their customers. Invite them to join in the promotion by inserting a coupon or marketing brochure of their own. Potential distribution sites: Gas station shops, car washes, repair/collision/muffler shops, and parking lots. Persuade restaurants with drive-up windows to hand out your bags by inviting them to add a copy of their take-out menu. To promote watercraft insurance, encourage marinas and dockside restaurants to distribute your boat litter bags as a free environmental service.

Plastic newspaper bags

Gone are the days when children on bicycles pedaled from door to door delivering carefully folded newspapers. Now they are rolled up and placed in weatherproof plastic bags and tossed from moving mini-vans. So check with your local daily or weekly's ad department to learn if you can provide these bags for subscribers who live on routes that match up with your desired demographic. If they agree (for a fee) supply them with imprinted bags from a vendor or purchase them directly through the paper, if they offer the service. Either way, the approach is most effective when you also advertise in the paper that's being delivered in your bag. Emblazon it with a message that guides the reader to your ad's location. Or, if you prefer to place an agency insert, use the bag to let readers know it's there. Either way, this bag-to-ad tie-in can favorably increase your response rate.

Door-hanger bags

These bags can contain any type of insurance solicitation that you want, such as an auto policy rate comparison graph or a coverage checklist for homeowners. You can even provide sample rates and facts on renters or condominium-unit owners policies. Apartments and condos are especially quick to deliver to by this method, due to the close proximity of their doors. Furthermore, many of these prospects don't carry any property insurance at all, mistakenly believing that the landlord or the master condo policy protects their personal belongings. Consider enclosing an agency certificate for a free gift along with your promo material as a reward for dropping by your office for a new or comparative quote.

Here's a different twist on this concept. Team up with other neighborhood businesses or your own commercial lines clients to put together specially imprinted "coupon bags" that are hung on the doorknobs of pre-selected prospects. You might even support your efforts with a postcard that tells people to look for a special discount coupon bag this week. Test out various themes such as automobile services containing discounts for auto parts, detailing, tires, etc. Home safety bags might include discount coupons for first aid kits, burglar alarms, etc. As for who physically hangs the bags on the doorknobs, hire your clerical staff, employee's kids, or a professional delivery firm.

Conclusion

Try thinking outside of the mailbox, inbox, and Web. Hand delivery may not be the most sophisticated marketing method there is, but it has a key advantage. You know that it won't be blocked by a spam filter or misdelivered by a letter carrier; as it is physically transported to its destination. However, it still comes with its own set of cautions. Always check first with your state insurance department and local government to see if the above types of promotional gifts and delivery activities are freely permitted in your marketing territory.

Alan Shulman, CPCU, is the publisher of Agency Ideas, a subscription-only sales and marketing newsletter. He is also the author of the 1001 Agency Ideas book series and other popular P/C sales resources. He may be reached at 800-724-1435 or by e-mail shulman@agencyideas.com. Visit: www.agencyideas.com.