Insurance Brokers Research Articles

In Memoriam: John R. Lamberson, Founding Member of the Construction Institute

John R. Lamberson of Atherton, California, was a driving spirit within the original group of construction professionals who came together in 2000 to organize the Construction Institute (CI). He served as the first services director of CI. Our friend, a construction industry icon, passed away on September 12, 2012, after a brief but gallant battle with cancer. We have all lost a very special type of man, a man whowas dedicated to the success of the Construction Institute and to the individual success of every person he came in contact with. John was a member of The Beavers, The Moles, Building Futures Council, the Associated General Contractors of America, the Associated General Contractors of California, the Construction Financial Management Association, and Construction Institute of our society. At the time of his death, he was president of Lamberson Consulting LLC, a management consulting company he formed in 1998 that specialized in the construction industry. His family was from Missouri but moved to California, and he graduated from Alameda High School at 16. He graduated from the University of California–Berkeley in 1954 and served in the Army at Ft. Lewis. In 1958 he took a job as a surety bond underwriter with Safeco Insurance Company in Sacramento. But his real entrance into construction came in 1961 when he accepted an offer to join Miller & Ames, a San Francisco insurance and surety brokerage firm specializing in the construction industry. John remained with Miller & Ames and its successor companies, Corroon & Black and Willis Corroon, for 32 years. He was president and director of Corroon & Black, a major New York Stock Exchange insurance brokerage firm. While there, he founded the firm’s Construction Industry Division. With the merger of Corroon & Black and Willis Faber into the Willis Corroon Group, John was a director of Willis Corroon Group and CEO of Willis Corroon, the retail brokering business unit worldwide. He was a trustee of the Beavers Charitable Trust and served as director of several major construction companies. Additionally, he found time to lecture and share his knowledge in such forums as Stanford University’s Masters in Construction Management, Young Presidents’ Organization, the American Graduate School of International Business, and the Construction Financial Management Association. John Lamberson was honored in 1990 with the Golden Beaver Award for Service and Supply, and in 2006 he was elected to the National Academy of Construction. A great believer in giving back to the communities that gave him so much, John led the fundraising efforts of the Beavers Charitable Trust. His vision of bringing practical construction industry experience to the university leads the Beavers to provide financial support for the establishment of chairs of heavy construction practice at Arizona State University, California State University–Long Beach, Oregon State University, Purdue University, University of Washington, and Texas A&M University. The San Francisco/Bay Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America honored John in 2000 as the “Scout of the Year.” John Lamberson exemplified the spirit of the Boy Scout Oath—“to help other people at all times.” We have lost a wonderful and inspiring friend. Requiescat in pace.

The Role of Agents and Brokers in the Market for Health Insurance

Health insurance markets in the United States are characterized by imperfect information, complex products, and substantial search frictions. Insurance agents and brokers play a significant role in helping employers navigate these problems. However, little is known about the relation between the structure of the agent/broker market and access and affordability of insurance. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the influence of agents/brokers on health insurance decisions of small firms, which are particularly vulnerable to problems of financing health insurance. Using a unique membership database from the National Association of Health Underwriters together with a nationally representative survey of employers, we find that small firms in more competitive agent/broker markets are more likely to offer health insurance and at lower premiums. Moreover, premiums are less dispersed in more competitive agent/broker markets.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

What Cleopatra Sees

What Cleopatra Sees Meena Alexander (bio) Cleopatra in dark glasses turns a cornerAnd comes upon Morris Gittell Insurance Broker She hides behind a pillarSo he will not see her, the child loitering, close to the sign— We Help You in Obtaining Your Birth CertificateEspecially If You Were Born in the South. Why is the boy standing there?Dressed in his hooded sweatshirt He ducks his head, murmuring yes, yes, yesTo that other life, not yet come. Something floats between her skinAnd glass, a cluster of risky hieroglyphs Rare Almagest, the mysteries of birth and deathCut from a platinum bath. Haunted by light a man stood for hours,Hands soaked, getting it just right. She watched him with his camera,Scarf to his throat, lens glinting. Dear Damage—she writes in her own head—My soul knows rivers. She adjusts her glasses, watches the boyNaked, gleaming with Nile water,Then torn apart, Osiris, all his flesh thrownInto the pitch drunk Mississippi, [End Page 31] Then cheeks stung with rock rose and eglantine,Miraculously whole, racing through plots Of bullwhips and manacles.She sees him step out of the C train, Strolling up Sugar Hill in dun colored flannels,Houndstooth jacket slung over his shoulder, A grown man, hair white, smoldering in sunlight:The children of Gaza sing in his veins. I cannot get him out of my mind, she whispersTo no one in particular. He is that lad and he is Osiris,Come to live in me, part of the speckled glory of things. [End Page 32] Meena Alexander Meena Alexander was born in India and grew up there and in Sudan. She has published six volumes of poetry including Illiterate Heart (winner of the PEN Beyond Margins Award). Forthcoming this fall is her new volume Birthplace with Buried Stones (TriQuarterly Books/ Northwestern UP, 2013). Her book of essays Poetics of Dislocation appeared in the Michigan Poets on Poetry Series. She has received awards from the Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Rockefeller foundations and the Arts Council of England. She is Distinguished Professor of English at CUNY Graduate Center and Hunter College. Footnotes * Inspired by Roy DeCarava's Gittel, 1950 Copyright © 2013 The Johns Hopkins University Press

Void property: The hidden pitfalls of arranging insurance cover and adhering to terms and conditions

When a property becomes void, all interested parties and insurance brokers must work together to adhere to the additional conditions that are likely be imposed by insurers. There are many pitfalls to be avoided to ensure a full indemnity is obtained from the policy should disaster strike. Failure to identify and implement vacant property insurance conditions can result in uninsured losses adding further to the burden of costs a void property already had on a portfolio.

An exploratory study into the implementation of internal marketing in small insurance brokers in the United Kingdom

The purpose of this article is to explore internal marketing in the United Kingdom small insurance brokers. Most research on internal marketing has been conducted in large firms. Consequently, research in this field in small firms, particularly small insurance brokers, has been limited despite their significance to the UK economy. In this study, interviews were conducted with 12 UK small general insurance brokers to explore their understanding and implementation of internal marketing. The findings indicate that internal marketing is used informally and that there are some linkages between the elements of internal marketing. This study contributes to knowledge by identifying the impact of the size of broker and the Treating Customers Fairly regulations on the formality of internal marketing. In practice, managers should give more attention to internal marketing activities in order to achieve the company's aims of customer orientation and better performance.

Saving Small Employer Health Insurance

Health care reform devotes substantial attention to resuscitating the small group health insurance markets that serve employers with fewer than fifty full time employees. Unfortunately, a number of interweaving provisions embedded within the Affordable Care Act create strong incentives that, starting in 2014, will tend to undermine this market and, in the process, increase the fiscal cost of reform. First, small employers with predominantly low-income employees will tend to opt out of the small group market. Second, small employers with mixed-income employees will have strong incentives to offer coverage that is neither technically “affordable” or of “minimum value” in order to preserve the availability of premium and cost-sharing subsidies on the individual market for their low-income employees. Third, small employers with unusually low-risk employees will have strong incentives to self-insure any group plan they do offer in order to avoid cross-subsidizing higher-risk groups. Analyzing these risks collectively, this Article offers a number of recommendations for saving the small group market. For instance, it argues that the SHOP exchanges that are intended to organize the small group market in 2014 must strategically target the weaknesses of self-insurance by offering simple and risk-free coverage options that facilitate employee choice. They must also market this coverage aggressively in light of insurance brokers’ likely financial incentives to push self-insurance on small employers. Additionally, state and federal law makers should explore various possibilities for making small employers both more likely to offer group coverage and, if they do offer group coverage, to do so through SHOP exchanges rather than self-insured plans. Possibilities explored by this Article include amending the terms of the premium and small business tax credits, regulating stop-loss insurance, and imposing various restrictions or penalties that are aimed at preventing churning between the self-insured and small group markets.

Intermediation and (Mis‐)Matching in Insurance Markets—Who Should Pay the Insurance Broker?

AbstractThis article addresses the role of independent insurance intermediaries in markets where matching is important. We compare fee‐based and commission‐based compensation systems and show that they are payoff equivalent if the intermediary is completely honest. Allowing for strategic behavior, we discuss the impact of remuneration on the quality of advice. The possibility of mismatching gives the intermediary substantial market power, which will not translate into mismatching if consumers are rational. Furthermore, we offer a rationale for the use of contingent commissions and address whether or not the ban of any commission payments is an appropriate market intervention.

Tough decisions

David Buckton, Director of South Essex Insurance Brokers, demystifies the small print surrounding euthanasia on humane grounds

Health Insurance Exchanges Of Past And Present Offer Examples Of Features That Could Attract Small-Business Customers

The Affordable Care Act calls on states to create health insurance exchanges serving small businesses by 2014. These exchanges will allow small-business owners to pool their buying power, have more choices of health plans, and buy affordable health insurance. However, creating an exchange that appeals to small-business owners poses several challenges. Past and current exchanges provide valuable insights into the role exchanges can play, services they can offer, and design features that can make them successful. For example, states should allow insurance brokers to provide employers with advice and analysis regarding plans offered in the exchanges. Exchanges should also provide services to ease enrollment, such as a single application for all of the plans they offer, and make additional benefits, such as wellness programs, available on a stand-alone basis or within insurance plans.

The Role of the Insurance Broker as an Risk and Insurance Adviser in Privatization

The Role of the Insurance Broker as an Risk and Insurance Adviser in Privatization

Trends And Challenges Of Romanian Brokerage Insurance Market

The distribution of insurance products represents a key aspect regarding the attainment of positive results by insurers. Insurance brokers represent one of the major distribution channels in some national markets, including Romania. The present paper aims at highlighting the importance of insurance brokerage on the Romanian market, analyzing the evolution of brokers in quantitative terms and also grasping the main characteristics of the recent evolution of this market. Based on the official statistics, the paper emphasizes the main managerial aspects that have guided and will guide the Romanian brokerage market, as well as the challenges brokers will have to solve in order to have a positive development.

Brokers' incentives and conflicts of interest in the control of opportunism

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine brokers' financial incentives in the Nigerian insurance market and how they balance conflict of interest which their role engenders. The paper aims to assess how these affect the control of opportunism of customers in the Nigerian insurance market.Design/methodology/approachThe study involved the use of semi‐structured interviews of insurance broking executives and documentary analyses of how incentives aid the control of opportunism in the insurance market.FindingsFindings suggest that the Nigerian insurance market operates on highly tariff incentive system which might be hampering insurance brokers' role in bridging information asymmetries to control opportunism in the market. Conflicts of interest are also real in the insurance market.Practical implicationsFindings are relevant for practitioners and regulators in addressing the restrictive remuneration system which calls for liberalisation to encourage the control of opportunism in the insurance market.Originality/valueThe study underscores how financial incentives might be utilised to balance conflict of interest which insurance intermediation engenders.

Dirt Is a Pollutant! Water Is, Too … How to Create Clarity in Environmental Insurance Coverage and Lower the Cost of Environmental Risks

General confusion about what is or could be an excluded-pollutant in property and liability insurance policies has created a situation where insurance agents and brokers cannot accurately advise their customers on how to insure environmental risks. Pollution exclusions are intended to exclude pollution-related claims. Over one hundred different environmental insurances have been designed to fill the coverage gaps created by pollution exclusions. By ignoring the fundamental purpose of pollution exclusions and the broad range of environmental insurance policies that are available, many environmental damage claims are needlessly uninsured today.

Smoke 'n' Guns: A Preface to a Poem about Marginal Souths, and then the Poem

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] You are Irish. You live in America's marginal South, where being Irish remains sufficiently unusual as to be found exotic. You get used to the conversation. It seems to happen once a day, every day. Where are y'all from? Oh really! What part? It gets murky around about here. You want to be polite--everybody in the South always is--but you know as well that the only names of Ireland they recognize are Dublin and Killarney. momentary hesitation registers, and to help you out they ask more specifically, The north or the south? The south, suppose. It doesn't sound right in your head. The border actually. Almost exactly halfway between Dublin and Belfast. conversation tends to peter out about this point. When we moved to North Carolina in August zoos, the conversation happened so frequently that in late September my family gave me for my birthday a green T-shirt with Halfway between Dublin and Belfast printed on it in some hokey stagecoach font. wore it on St. Patrick's Day as a private joke. got asked so often what it meant that it stopped being funny. have been publishing poems and prose for almost twenty years. My biographical note has always informed the casual browser that born in Newry in 1968, and grew up in Dundalk. Anyone with even the most basic knowledge of Ireland's political geography will recognize that there is a large fraught chasm running between those otherwise innocent sub-clauses. Putting it more baldly, was born in the United Kingdom and grew up, thirteen miles away, in the Republic of Ireland. From the upstairs bathroom of the house in which spent almost all of my childhood, the house in which my mam still lives, the hills of Armagh are clearly visible. They belong to a different administrative state, a separate culture, a whole other country. Somewhere between the horizon and where you stand there is a largely imaginative line that anyone who lives on the border must instinctively bear in mind. came to North Carolina expecting all to be irredeemably foreign. gradually realized that this feeling--of being slightly out of place in the South, and only just in the South--is a sensation have lived with all my life. My paternal grandfather was a self-made insurance broker from Newry. He had built his business in Dundalk and, in the Sixties boom, opened a second branch in his hometown. My father got the brief. We lived in a development up off the dual carriageway to Warrenpoint. When my next eldest brother was born in 1966 and christened at the same time that Reverend Paisley was coming to prominence, my Aunt May, a nun in Newry's Carmelite convent, prayed my mother would see sense. Within six months of my birth, two years after Ian's, the branch had folded and we had migrated south again. In spite of the brevity of all that, whenever God Save the Queen blared out of the telly, our brothers jeered at us to stand and salute. Sometimes, out of sheer pigheadedness, we did. In my rebellious late teens, called to get forms for a British passport but never filled them out. Two years ago, in the U.S. embassy in Dublin to get the visa to come here, the man on the desk told me had to go away and get a whole new DS2019 form that would correctly declare my place of birth as the United Kingdom. I'm very sorry, he did say. I understand that you've probably never thought of yourself as British. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Usually, dual citizenship is a wooly legalistic aspiration that its holders enjoy only in the abstract, but seldom if ever get to experience actually in a single moment. Living right on the border, it becomes a day-to-day thing. There wasn't a week in my childhood where we didn't cross north. My father kept change separate in the front pockets of his trousers: the right was for Irish, the left for sterling. …

Identifying A Profile Of Key Competencies For Financial Planners

<p class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 38.2pt 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;" lang="EN-CA"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">In order to provide quality professional education programs to advance knowledge, skills and competencies of individuals in the financial services industry and in continuing education courses, there is a need to identify a professional’s key competencies profile. In recent years, many financial planning associations worldwide have become interested in establishing competency-based requirements for certifying professionals and have adopted competency-based approaches for continuing education. The purpose of this paper is to identify a profile of key competencies for financial planners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>The empirical study is carried out through a stratified survey of financial planners within insurance companies, commercial banks, consulting firms, credit unions, security dealers and brokers, trusts and independent professionals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>More than individual knowledge or skills, this research views professional competence as result-oriented, expressing an optimal mobilization and use of resources available in the multidisciplinary areas of financial planning, according to professional standards and in harmony with best practices to achieve customer satisfaction. The research design presents an innovative conceptual framework which facilitates the identification of a profile of key competencies for financial planners. Findings enable an advance in knowledge, both at an academic and a professional level, by identifying a profile of twelve specific dimensions of key competencies for financial planners within the financial services industry.</span></span></p>

Optimal Brokerage Commissions for Fair Insurance: A First Order Approach

This paper studies a principal-agent insurance brokerage problem with a risk-averse principal (an insured) and a risk-neutral agent (a broker). The concept of “mean-preserving, spread-reducing” (MPSR) effort is introduced to model the broker's activities. Using the first-order approach, it is shown that under some common conditions, the insured may “concavify” the reward function to induce the risk-neutral agent to exert MPSR brokering effort. These conditions, together with an additional condition, guarantee the validity of the first-order approach even when the monotone likelihood ratio condition (used exclusively to justify the first-order approach) is violated.

Civil liability for nuclear damage and corporate system of complex insurance coverage for companies and organisations of nuclear industry

Building up a unified insurance coverage system for nuclear industry companies requires the industry and enterprises to perform a number of extrinsic functions (insurance expertise, development of insurance programme of the company, drafting of insurance contracts, etc.). The functions of the organisation of insurance coverage are offered to be deputed to a specialised organisation (insurance broker), which in this case becomes a part of the insurance coverage system of industrial companies. Thus, the proposed insurance coverage structure includes the following: ‘Industry’ (responsibility centre) – ‘Insurant’ (company) – ‘Specialised organisation’ (insurance broker) – ‘Insurer’ (insurance company, pool of insurance companies). As an example, we have examined the organisation of civil liability for nuclear damage. Analysing this kind of insurance and its peculiarities, we have revealed how the insurance broker (JSC ‘Atomic Insurance Broker’) would naturally fit into the system of insurance protection offered for nuclear industry companies.

Insuring Non-Verifiable Losses

Insurance contracts are often complex and difficult to verify outside the insurance relation. We show that standard one-period insurance policies with an upper limit and a deductible are the optimal incentive-compatible contracts in a competitive market with repeated interaction. Optimal group insurance policies involve a joint upper limit but individual deductibles and insurance brokers can play a role implementing such contracts for the group of clients. Our model provides new insights and predictions about the determinants of insurance.

Financial risk management in renewable energy sector: Comparative analysis between the European Union and Turkey

Renewable energy is clean sources of energy that have a much lower environmental impact than conventional energy technologies. Renewable energy sector plays a very important role in the strategic energy planning process in any country. Most renewable energy investments are spent on materials and workmanship to build and maintain the facilities, rather than on costly energy imports. In this context, renewable energy provides innovative, cost effective renewable energy risk management and insurance programmes, helping this increasingly competitive industry meet the challenges it faces. At the same time, the speed of change in renewable energy technology requires specialists able to provide expert risk advice and insurance broking services. Meanwhile, focus on the renewable energy sector has never been higher, with governments around the world setting tough targets for the amount of energy provided by renewable sources. The main aim of this paper is to examine the financial risk management instruments that are evolving to meet the needs of the renewable energy sector in both the EU and Turkey. Finally, we provide the research findings according to our objective and discuss their managerial and theoretical implications related to renewable energy investments

Insurance Issues for Green Start-ups: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know

This article is a case study based upon a business entrepreneur's efforts to obtain specialized insurance coverage for a clean-energy start-up business. The article identifies and discusses some of the potential liabilities of insurance brokers in the event that the insurance coverages they obtain do not adequately protect the interests of the client's business. The article concludes that, at least in New York State, the rule is “Let the buyer beware!” and that a business person cannot safely rely upon advice given by an insurance broker in obtaining complex or specialized insurance coverage.