The history of insurance is remarkably interesting. While gambling on risk dates back to ancient civilizations, most insurance wonks consider the introduction of “modern” insurance to date to the late 17th Century at Lloyd’s coffee house. Of course, if you ask some Florida homeowners, not much has changed in the last 300 years: It can still take months or years for an insurance company to pay a claim.
John Jacob Astor, Isidor Straus, Benjamin Guggenheim: These men were just three of the millionaires lost on Titanic. Their estates were worth millions — Straus, $4.4 million; Guggenheim, $3.5 million; Astor, untold millions, considering he left trusts for his unborn son of $3 million and his widow of $5 million. Their wealth was enough that their families may not have worried about their life insurance policies paying out quickly, or at all.
When the Costa Concordia foundered in January, insurance industry insiders thought the cruise line’s Florida-based parent company would avoid insurance and legal liability. It seemed that, with their ticket purchase, passengers agreed to pursue legal actions through the Italian courts. The venue for insurance claim disputes has been a source of contention.
There are all sorts of laws that apply to parades, demonstrations and marches. Generally, if a group wants to use city streets, the city must first give them permission. Before they grant permission, though, city governments ask for certain reassurances from the organizers. Key among those is that the sponsoring organization has liability insurance to cover the event.
A major insurance company, Washington Mutual Inc., filed a lawsuit in March accusing a dozen other insurers of improperly denying it coverage for claims under directors’ and officers’ liability policies issued in 2008 and 2009. Washington Mutual is asserting that it is entitled to $250 million in coverage, and that the other insurers breached their covenants of good faith and fair dealing in denying coverage.
With the hurricane season in the rearview mirror, most — if not all — Florida homeowners are wiping sweat from their brow. It is one less threat to their home that they have to worry about. But other homeowners may still be without or past due on their insurance policy.
Commercial insurance providers cover a critical therapy program for children with autism. It’s called applied behavioral analysis and autistic children who go through the program usually experience dramatically positive effects on their condition, bolstering their language and cognitive abilities as well as improving their social interaction and behavioral skills. The program comes at a financial cost though, leaving impoverished families with little chance of sending a child with autism through ABA.
We are finishing up our foray into the magic of movies and their multiple perils. According to movie and insurance industry professionals, few insurance companies provide all the different policies a production would need. It apparently takes a cast of thousands of risk managers to determine what kinds of coverage and what limits are appropriate for any given movie.
Sometimes it feels as if movie credits are longer than the movie. The cast, the best boy, the star’s hairdresser, the director’s assistant, the songs and their performers, all the locations — it is a little overwhelming, and most people walk out well before the last credit rolls.
The awards season is over, and trailers for summer blockbusters are beginning to show up in theaters and on television. This is the time of year when moviegoers lay bets on how many explosions they will see during the previews. The closer we are to Memorial Day, the more destructive the movies seem to be.
