Risk Management; New York

Letters

The Complexities of Complexion

Marvin Kelly has worn many hats in the risk and insurance industries. In addition to becoming the first black president of the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters Society in September, he has been a commercial underwriter for two large insurers, the risk manager for the cities of Beaumont and Austin, TX, and he is currently the executive director of the Texas Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association, an Austin-based nonprofit association of Texas property/casualty insurers th...

Respect Your Elders

When the first baby boomer turned 62 at the beginning of 2008 and filed for Social Security, the much-written-about graying of America suddenly became a tangible reality. At corporations across the country, however, managers have long recognized that the average age of their employees is trending upward. This trend is already evident. Nearly one out of every four people (23.2%) between the ages of 65 and 74 were in the labor force in 2006, according to the US Census Bureau, up from 19.6% of t...

Unhappy Home, Unhappy Workplace

One in five full-time workers -- both male and female -- has experienced domestic violence. In one major study, 20% of those victims surveyed had been abused by a domestic partner while at work. That means, for every 2,000 employees, as many as 80 have faced some sort of abuse in their workplace. Domestic violence has a significant affect on employee productivity. Both male and female victims report higher levels of distraction at work when they are faced with home troubles. A victim's averag...

In the Crosshairs

In June of this year, Wesley Neal Higdon was sent home from his job at the Atlantis Plastics plant in Henderson, KY following a dispute with a co-worker. Higdon got a gun from his house, returned to work and fatally shot five co-workers, including his supervisor and the co-worker he had originally argued with. He injured another co-worker before finally turning the gun on himself. In terms of security, there are a few simple methods that can thwart a potential workplace violence incident. Whe...

Datebook

Visiting...Phoenix, Arizona

Fore Front

The Aig Meltdown

The AIG meltdown was driven in large part by losses in a nontraditional insurance product, a type of financial instrument called a credit default swap (CDS) issued by AIG Financial Services, a unit separate from the insurance businesses. A CDS operates like an unregulated insurance contract and provides protection against a default on assets tied to corporate debt and mortgage securities. AIG's need for cash reached crisis proportions just as a tidal wave of defaults under subprime mortgages ...

Nat Cat '08

As the nation reeled from the combined damage of the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, the idea of a national natural catastrophe fund became a hot topic, especially in the storm-prone state of Florida. Thus was born HR 3355, better known as the Homeowners' Defense Act of 2007. In essence, the bill would create a federally funded risk consortium that would inventory catastrophe risk across the country. Now that the bill is before the Senate, it has become a presidential campaign issue, as both...

Q & A: Be Well

In an interview, Joe Marlowe, SVP of Aon Consulting, talked about the improvement in the recent Aon Consulting survey of more than 70 health care insurers. Marlowe said that some of the improvement is due to the types of medical plans offered, including the introduction of some consumer-driven plans, but they also think that the wider adoption of wellness programs is having an impact. Surveys have shown that employers that take a broad approach to wellness and disease management are keeping t...

Shelf Life

What You Should Know About Politics...But Don't, by Jessamyn Conrad, and The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth-Century Letter that Made the World Modern, by Keith Devlin, are reviewed.

First Word

Easy Money

The $700 billion bailout package, which was voted by Congress in October 1, will not instantly fix the underlying economic problems. It might provide enough certainty for things to right themselves over time, but it will not make the problem go away without a lot of people doing a lot of heavy lifting. Ironically, people will have to rely on the same financial sector that got them into this mess to also help you get out of it. If it was really all that keen to learn from its mistakes, it woul...

Details: Fine Print

Insuring and Securing Your Data

The risk of data theft has never been greater. Businesses, organizations and government agencies (as well as their employees) have access to huge quantities of information -- some of which is not for public consumption. Protecting computer data with both existing and new stand-alone insurance products is no mean feat. The insurance market for such coverage is in a continuous state of flux, and very few of the product offerings can be characterized as "customer-friendly." Developing a smart da...

Details: Audit

Internal Audit at the Crossroads

Internal audit (IA) departments at large businesses around the globe face a defining moment. After several years of seeing more money pumped into internal audit in response to the requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley, management is now looking to trim the budget. Internal audit's oversight went far beyond SOX, but because SOX dominated corporate priorities in recent years, audit teams were staffed accordingly with many junior, "box-checking" resources. Having the capability to deal with today's bus...

Details: Video Risks

The Hidden Dangers of Corporate Videos

Videos have been a part of American business for decades. Often viewed by executives as harmless vehicles to educate, communicate and document important corporate history, few realize the hidden risks and potential dangers. In the wrong hands, mishandled corporate videos can be radioactive. Companies that produce their own videos are just as vulnerable to being victimized when their private material is made public. A leading consumer products company found some confidential videos on YouTube ...

Details: Small Business Risks

The Public Agency Dilemma

Public agencies have the dual task of protecting public assets (tax dollars) while encouraging the growth of local and small businesses. In order to provide equal work opportunities for small businesses, many public organizations have developed enterprise programs to assist small businesses in the bidding and contracting procedures of public agencies. Perhaps the duty of the public agency is not to retain a larger portion of risk than would be retained with a larger firm, but rather to assist...