OHIO RULING GIVES PRIORITY TO SICK ASBESTOS CLAIMANTS:

Ohio's Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, where the majority of asbestos cases have been filed in the state, issued an administrative order recently that gives priority to cases filed by individuals exhibiting symptoms of illness from exposure to asbestos. According to the court's order, claimants who meet the asbestos medical criteria can continue with their claims in the regular tort system. Individuals who were exposed to asbestos, but not showing signs of illness, will have their cases temporarily dismissed. If the healthy claimants later develop asbestos-related illnesses, those claimants may ask the court to reinstate the claims. Also, if the dockets clear and all impaired plaintiffs' cases are resolved, the cases that have been dismissed will be restored to the regular trial docket, according to the ruling. No time limit exists for the reinstatement of the cases. This year, Ohio became the first state to require that medical criteria be met before an asbestos lawsuit can be filed. The law, which took effect Sept. 2, requires that a plaintiff provide medical evidence to prove that exposure to asbestos was a substantial factor in causing his or her illness.

PIA SURVEY SHOWS STRONG SUPPORT FOR STATE REGULATION:

Members of the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents who were recently surveyed strongly support state regulation of insurance and strongly oppose any effort to move to a federal regulatory system. The results were released by Len Brevik, executive vice president and CEO of PIA National, during an industry panel held in Hershey, Pa. "Participants were vehement in their rejection of a federal insurance regulator. At the same time, a majority agreed that changes are needed to modernize state insurance regulation," Brevik said. Of those PIA members responding to the survey, 96.4 percent said they were satisfied with their own state's regulation and oversight practices; however, only 41.4 percent expressed the same satisfaction with regulation and oversight in nonresident states where they transact business. A majority of respondents, 55.1 percent, said changes are needed to modernize state insurance regulation, while 43.7 percent said they thought everything is fine the way it is. An overwhelming majority, 83.6 percent, said that having a federal insurance regulator is a bad idea, and 88.3 percent expressed support for continuing the current system of functional state-based insurance regulation "with only the most minimal federal oversight."

LOSSES FROM 4 FLA. HURRICANES WILL EXCEED ANDREW'S RECORD:

Insurance claim payments to victims of the four Florida hurricanes to date will exceed $22 billion, surpassing the insurance payout from Hurricane Andrew, the costliest natural disaster in history, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Only the $32 billion in insured losses from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks exceed the estimated claim payments from this year's Florida hurricanes. Claims from Hurricane Andrew in 1992 totaled $15.5 billion, or $20 billion in today's dollars, the III said. Claim payments from the four storms are estimated at between $22 billion to $23 billion. Insurance Services Office Inc.'s Property Claim Services has estimated insured losses from Hurricane Charley at $6.8 billion and Hurricane Frances at $4.4 billion. Preliminary estimates from modeling firms project insured losses from Hurricanes Ivan and Jeanne in the $4 billion to $7 billion range each. This means that four of the top 10 most costly hurricanes in U.S. history have occurred in Florida this year within a span of just six weeks. The III stressed that the unprecedented quartet of hurricanes will make the claims handling process in Florida more difficult.

MARKETSCOUT: PROPERTY MARKETS HALTS RATE REDUCTION:

In its market barometer update for the month of September, MarketScout CEO Richard Kerr said the hurricane season losses will put a halt to property rate reductions. "In fact," he said, "we anticipate rate increases for coastal properties and offshore oil and gas operations."

Kerr pointed that the "total loss to insurers could grow if losses applicable to Florida policyholders from Charley and Frances are deemed to be counted as a single loss and only one deductible is applied. The application of the deductible clause is unclear at this point." Casualty rates continue to decrease, while composite rates held at 4 percent.

KPMG: EXECS LESS BULLISH ON PREMIUM GROWTH:

KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm, conducted a real-time survey at its 16th annual insurance industry conference held Sept. 27-28. Even before the full impact of the recent hurricane activity was known, the majority of the 150 senior insurance executives surveyed were less optimistic about premium growth and the industry's ability to increase margins, according to KPMG. While most of the competition was still seen from domestic insurers (51 percent), survey results demonstrated that there was an expectation that competition from international financial-service companies will increase (24 percent). Only 57 percent of the executives surveyed indicated they expect their firms to perform above expectations in the next 12 months, as compared to 70 percent a year ago. The survey also found that the number of executives who indicated that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has had the greatest impact on the way they do business increased to 83 percent, up from 58 percent last year. Reflecting the sharpening of underwriting over the past two years, the number of executives indicating that underwriting was the most important factor in future growth declined to 26 percent from 32 percent a year ago.