It's after five on a Friday, and the research director's brain is officially oatmeal. At this point, the toughest questions I want to answer are, "What do you want for dinner?" and "Heineken or Sam Adams?" However, before I sprint out of the Geek Cave for the weekend, here's some answers to a few of the questions that have come across my e-mail and phone in the last couple of days:
- When it comes to an insurance agency holding a raffle, the New York Insurance Department says there are two requirements to avoid violating the anti-rebating law: The raffle must be open to the public, and "the ability to win or enter the raffle must not be an inducement for, or interdependent with the purchase or solicitation of insurance." If a raffle entry results in the agency soliciting the contestant's business, the raffle violates the anti-rebating law. I'm not sure why else an agency would hold a raffle, so take this under advisement.
- A life insurance company may have to pay the death benefit to the survivors of an insured who lied about his smoking habit when he applied for the insurance 10 years prior. However, the ultimate answer depends on the facts of the case and whether certain court decisions apply.
- A not-for-profit organization's bulk mailing that contains an advertisement for an insurance policy is not eligible for a reduced postage rate unless the organization promoting the policy is authorized to mail at the nonprofit rates at the office of mailing; the policy is designed for and primarily promoted to the members, donors, supporters, or beneficiaries of that organization; and the coverage provided by the policy is not generally otherwise commercially available.
- New York law requires insurers to obtain anti-arson applications for all policies insuring properties in New York City, Rochester and Buffalo for fire explosion except for those covering owner-occupied residential properties with less than five units.
- Insurers, agents and brokers have no statutory responsibility under the New York State Construction Industry Fair Play Act to provide the required notices to contractors.
- The ISO Commercial General Liability Coverage Form probably will not cover the insured's legal liability for a misleading advertisement, an unsuccessful transaction on the Web, or theft of information from the insured's computer systems. A specialty cyber-risk policy, the ISO Electronic Data Liability Coverage Form and the ISO Crime Computer Fraud and Funds Transfer Fraud coverages are the appropriate policies for these types of losses.
- A New York insurance broker may accept commissions and service fees for the same transaction.
- The insurance license for an agency cluster must name at least one actual person as a sub-licensee, but it should not list the names of the agencies that are members of the cluster.
- When a commercial package policy insured a property destroyed by fire, and the insured wishes to cancel the property coverage but continue the liability coverage, the only practical way to do so is to cancel the package and issue a standalone liability policy.
And that will close the book on the week of September 13. A blessed and enriching Yom Kippur to all my readers of the Jewish faith, and a restful weekend to all!
What an insightful and informational blog post. Thank you! I always learn something new from you Tim. I say take both the Sam Adams and the Heineken - you deserve them!
Laurie
Posted by: Laurie Salkin | September 18, 2010 at 10:12 AM
Wow the questions you got very specific, but you seemed to have answered them all. I guess you really live up to your name Insurance Geek. Great Post!
Posted by: Insurance Person | September 21, 2010 at 10:44 AM