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... x No Thanks Loading.. E&O Claims: Training/Remediation After The Error Or Omission!4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Ken Buehler This content has not been rated yet. If an error or omission occurs, you can't undo it. You can take action to prevent similar incidents in the future, though. An examination of the incident can reveal areas that need your attention. After an incident takes place, you need to ask these questions: Were agency procedures and policies followed? Was everything about the incident properly documented? Were insurance company underwriting guidelines and binding authority guidelines followed? Did the employee (producer or support person) exceed their authority? Did the insurance company perform its responsibilities properly? If it didn't and the agency was aware of this, did the agency bring it to the company's attention? If it turns out that the agency does have some responsibility for the error or omission, even if to a very small extent, training and remedial action are in order. With that in mind, let's look at each question. Were agency procedures and policies followed? It's part of every employee's job to follow agency procedures and policies; whether they do is part of their performance evaluation. If employee adherence to stated policy isn't being enforced, you need to find out why. And the reason might not be clear-cut. For example, most successful agencies today are automated, and most agency systems are activity driven. This means processing is recorded not only by entering file information in the system, but also by entering an activity that creates ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Sample Overtime Authorization Policy For Non-Exempt Employees 7/1 /2015 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Don Phin This content has not been rated yet. If you are a non-exempt employee, you may be qualified for overtime. All overtime must be approved of in writing by your supervisor. Please request an overtime authorization form. At certain times the company may require you to work overtime. The company will attempt to give as much notice as possible in this instance. However, advance notice may not always be possible. Failure to work overtime when requested may result in discipline, up to and including discharge. Overtime is defined as [any hours worked over eight hours in one day], more than forty hours in one week, or any hours worked on the seventh day worked in one week. When the previous parameters are met, overtime is paid at one and one-half times the regular hourly rate. If you work more than twelve hours in one day or more than eight hours on the seventh working day then you will be paid two times your regular hourly rate for those additional hours. Holidays, vacations days, and sick leave days do not count as time worked for computing overtime. ©1998 Phin Enterprises. Donald A. Phin, Esq., CPCM. No portion of these materials may be reproduced by any means without the express written permission of the author. Login or Register (for FREE) to gain access to thousands of other great articles. Need more reasons to join? Need insurance for you, your business or your family? ...

... O ) exposure – not to mention detracting significantly from the agency's professionalism. Binders I often ask agency personnel, "What's the basic difference between a binder and a certificate of insurance?" Far less than half of them seem to know the key difference is that a binder is a contract of insurance and a certificate of insurance is a form of proof of insurance. They don't understand that when they "bind" coverage, they're creating an insurance contract, while when they issue a certificate of insurance, they're simply warranting certain coverages exist at a given moment. This is why many agency personnel use binders, certificates, and evidences of insurance almost interchangeably, which is a huge mistake. Because binders are contracts, the people writing the contracts absolutely must know whether they have the authority to do so. This is why carriers provide binding guidelines to every agency that has binding authority with them. Although some carriers have made it more difficult to find these guidelines in recent years, the guidelines still exist. I often find that less than 25% of an agency's staff has a copy of the agency's binding authority. In some cases, agency management doesn't want the staff to know and simply allows them to write binders anyway. This is stupid. If staff and producers have authority from agency management to write binders, and assuming management wants the job done correctly, they must know the agency's binding authority! (" Guidelines" is a misnomer, because it's really a list of the agency's contractual binding authority by line.) . Some agency managers don't want staff to ...

... Policy Purpose To maximize the benefits of electronic communications to ABC Insurance Agency (The Company) and its employees, while protecting the Company and its employees from liability and/or performance challenges due to improper or unauthorized use of the systems made available to facilitate the business of the Company. Company Property As a productivity enhancement tool, the Company (including all subsidiaries) provides and encourages the business use of electronic communications (notably the Internet, voice mail, electronic mail, and fax) . Electronic communications systems owned by the Company and all messages generated on or handled by these electronic communications systems, including back-up copies, are considered the property of the Company. Any attempt to violate, circumvent, and/or ignore these policies could result in corrective action, up to and including termination. Authorized Usage The Company's electronic communications systems must be used solely to facilitate the business of the Company. Users are forbidden from using the Company's electronic communications systems for private business activities, personal, or amusement/entertainment purposes. Employees are reminded that the use of corporate resources, including electronic communications, should never create either the appearance or the reality of inappropriate use. Inappropriate use might result in loss of access privileges and disciplinary action, up to and including termination. Proper Usage Employees are strictly prohibited from using Company computers, e-mail systems, and Internet access accounts for personal reasons or for any improper purpose. Some specific examples of prohibited uses include, but are not limited to: Transmitting, retrieving, downloading, or storing messages or images that are offensive, derogatory, off-color, sexual in ...

... for effective processing of all lines of business. 3. Establish procedures for proper and expeditious handling of all claims and losses. 4. Establish and maintain systems and procedures to provide accounting controls over assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses. 5. Establish and maintain an effective personnel administration program. 6. Establish policies and procedures to provide administrative support services in an economical, uniform, and timely manner. 7. Develop and maintain a high-caliber management staff to ensure continuity of effective agency operations and a natural progression for all key positions. 8. Develop an operating plan with a market analysis, forecast/budget, and objectives for improvement and continuing analysis of the agency. 9. Participate in seminars and classes for knowledge and skill development. 10. Perform other duties as assigned. AUTHORITY 1. Train producers and staff. 2. Hire, promote, and fire agency employees. 3. Approve agency increases within standards and guidelines. 4. Approve expense accounts (except own) . 5. Enforce agency credit terms. 6. Coordinate interdepartmental contacts. 7. Coordinate and control all bulletins to producers and staff. 8. Control placement of business. 9. Approve job charter and organizational changes. 10. Approve expenditures. &# 160 Position Title: CONTROLLER AND/OR ACCOUNTING MANAGER Objective: Under the direction of the Agency Manager, to plan, establish, lead, control, and maintain systems and procedures so as to provide accounting controls over assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses. Salary Grade: 12 ACTION STEPS: 1. Design and establish new ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor This content has not been rated yet. SAMPLE JOB DESCRIPTION: COMMERCIAL CSR Every position in the agency should have a written job description. An ideal job description contains the following elements: 1. Position title 2. Department to which the position is assigned 3. Job classification assignment (tied to salary ranges) 4. Job objective, which outlines whom the person reports to and the goal of the job 5. Duties 6. Authority that goes with the job 7. Performance-measurement criteria that will be used to evaluate performance With this information, employees know what is expected of them and what training they need to advance. The job description becomes part of the performance-evaluation process. A good automation system can measure work and follow-up processing, and compare positions and units that enable agency management to develop standards for work processing. This comparison can be used very effectively in performance evaluation and in correcting unacceptable performance. Writing job descriptions can be difficult. However, deciding on the jobs to be included and then having all the employees doing each job list the tasks they perform will give you a good start. For example, if you decide to do Commercial CSR job descriptions, all of the Commercial CSRs working on the project together should arrive at a fairly accurate job description. You may find that many employees duplicate work or perform functions that might better be performed by a lower-paid employee. Here's a sample job description for a Commercial CSR: POSITION DESCRIPTION/CHARTER POSITION: Commercial CSR III DEPARTMENT: Commercial Lines CLASSIFICATION: ...

... means liability for damages because of injury to any person, damage to property, or other loss damage to property, or other loss or damage resulting from any personal, familiar, or household responsibilities or activities, rather than from responsibilities or activities referred to in paragraphs (2 )( A ) and (2 )( B ); (4 ) Risk retention group' mean any corporation or other limited liability association (A ) whose primary activity consists of assuming and spreading all, or any portion, of the liability exposure of its group members; (B ) which is organized for the primary purpose of conducting the activity described under subparagraph (A ); (C ) which - (i ) is chartered and licensed as a liability insurance company under the laws of a State and authorized to engage in the business of insurance under the laws of such State; or (ii) before January 1, 1985, was chartered or licensed and authorized to engage in the business of insurance under the laws of Bermuda or the Cayman Islands and, before such date, had certified to the insurance commissioner of at least one State that it satisfied the capitalization requirements of such State, except that any such group shall be considered to be a risk retention group only if it has been engaged in business continuously since such date and only for the purpose of continuing to provide insurance to cover product liability or completed operations liability (as such terms were defined in this section before the date of the enactment of the Risk Retention Amendments of 1986) . (D ) which does not exclude any ...

... with the threat of losing business to non-residents based on mass television advertising, agent groups banned together in the early 1950s and expanded the concept of countersignature. Agent groups wrote their own model laws, proposing to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and state legislatures that a resident agent must countersign any policy written by a non-resident agent. This was based on the theory that because non-resident agents weren't familiar with state laws, a licensed resident agent should review the policy before delivery to the consumer. The resident agent could assure the public that the policy language complied with state law. The model law also included a requirement that the resident agent be paid 25% of the commission or 5% of the premium, whichever was less. According to the Agent's Guide: [Countersignature laws] authorize the agent under his agency agreement to receive and accept proposals for insurance, covering risks of such classes as he is authorized by the company to insure; to countersign, deliver, and continue policies of insurance signed by the authorized officials of the company. Nearly all states passed countersignature laws. However, the degree of responsibility on the part of the agent varied significantly. Some states required the resident countersigning agent to be physically present with the non-resident agent at the time of the sale. Other states expanded the requirement of "countersign" to include the wet signature of an "authorized" agent on any policy issued in the state, whether written by the contracted agent or a broker representing that agent. Still other states defined "authorized" to mean a hard copy authorization (appointment) ...

... x No Thanks Loading.. Management And Leadership 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor This content has not been rated yet. &# 160 MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP Management implies the existence of formal authority, while leadership may not have any connection with formal authority. Marketing managers are in their positions because they have been given the formal authority to perform a job, including directing the actions of others. The responsibility for seeing that the job gets done accompanies this authority. Leadership does not require a delegation of formal authority from above' in an organization. The distinction between leadership and management is not always clear. Agency employees follow the directions of marketing managers partially because they must; however, people may follow the directions of a leader for entirely different reasons: because the individual is physically attractive, knowledgeable, or for any number of other reasons. Marketing managers do not always have to be leaders to be effective, but some key ideas about leadership can be useful. The successful marketing manager's concern with leadership focuses on obtaining premium performance from employees. There are several types of leadership approaches. The approaches applicable to the role of a marketing manager include: trait, style (this is probably the most applicable), and situational. Though there are others, I feel these are specifically appropriate. TRAIT Early studies about leadership focused on the personality traits of past leaders. Leaders were thought to be dominant extroverts who possessed self-confidence, empathy, and intelligence. This approach assumes that a better understanding of leadership can be gained by studying the personalities and behavior of famous leaders. Keep in ...

... their large accounts. This attitude, if not changed, will doom any centralized marketing plan to failure. A centralized marketing department will work only in agencies that are interested in growth and have new sales as their primary goal. The owners must be proactive and willing to spend money to make money. Producers must be able to expand their current book of business rather than being maxed out. Continual coordination with the sales manager or department is key to its success. A central marketing department may be needed when more than one of the following is true: The agency has a number of producers submitting new business regularly. CSRs have little or no time to assist the producers with new business submissions. Producer/company relations are strained and need attention. Company volume commitments have been promised. In-house underwriting authority exists. The agency can afford to separate this function. The primary goal of a centralized marketing department is to free up producers to sell and CSRs to service existing accounts. It's a way of refining responsibilities- differentiating the selling of new business from the maintenance of existing clients. Typically, a centralized marketing department handles all the marketing of new business for medium-size to large accounts and only the renewal of large accounts. Sometimes on renewal, the marketer will need only to provide advice to the CSR and producer, since they know the account so well. It's important to avoid duplicating efforts. HOW IT WORKS The process starts when a producer generates a new prospect and creates an application to be marketed. The application is then forwarded to the marketing department, where it's reviewed for accuracy. ...