The Fine Print – Presented by Insure.com

If you’ve ever had to wait years to get a court date, or sat on a hard bench in a drafty courthouse waiting for the judge to resolve some longstanding matter, here’s one reason: Maurice “Hank” Greenberg.

Greenberg, the former chairman and CEO of what once was the worlds’ largest insurer, American International Group (AIG), is arguably the most litigious person in America – maybe with the exception of a former convict who filed 2,600 lawsuits while behind bars.

Greenberg’s name pops up in the Lexis-Nexis database more times than you can count: Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) actions; securities suits by the New York attorney general; AIG shareholders’ suits against him; suits against AIG and him; suits by AIG against him after he left the insurer, and, finally, a federal lawsuit which refers to him as an “unindicted co-conspirator.” (continue reading…)

The recent mass killings by mentally unstable individuals with high-powered weapons have forced everyone, including the National Rifle Association (NRA), to open up a dialogue about how to put an end to it.

Some, such as NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, propose that we have armed guards and teachers in every school. Not that long ago this would have been laughable. Now Utah is already training its teachers to arm themselves for self-defense.

Others advocate limiting semi-automatic weapons and large capacity magazines. Liberals favor this, but face staunch opposition from conservatives who believe that any ground given up moves them to the total gun ban approach found in Great Britain, which wouldn’t even let some of its own Olympic team practice. (continue reading…)

I know an insurance executive who likes to inspect the schools that his company insures. He has children of his own, and says that one day he would like to teach.

While inspecting an elementary school he stopped at the emergency exit when he noticed that the panic bar was too high for small children to reach. Then he pushed on the bar. It took all of his strength to open the door.

“Fix it, or we won’t insure you!” he told the school superintendent.

In the aftermath of the terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 26 children and school personnel died at the hands of a deranged young man, the time has come to stop feeling powerless and do something.

Insurance companies aren’t new to this

And insurance companies are equipped to do just that. Many are in the business of insuring schools, because every school has to have insurance coverage for the inevitable lawsuits from an accident or tragedy related to school activities. (continue reading…)

Almost anyone who has insurance complains about its high cost. But when insurance companies complain about costs, their favorite target is the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, or NAIC.

What is the NAIC? An organization of the insurance regulators in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. But the NAIC itself doesn’t regulate anything. It simply puts together “model laws” or standards that state regulators are supposed to use in their respective states.

And, it seems, not successfully. In a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department last year, the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS), which represents the businesses that actually buy insurance, criticized the “state-by-state patchwork of laws” governing insurance in this country. (continue reading…)