Face to face interactions and trust built upon prior experience are important factors to those working at Lloyd’s. This was my impression about the professionals working at Lloyd’s after visiting Lloyd’s earlier today.
Continue Reading Lloyd’s Marketplace of Interaction and Lloyd’s Pubs
I was in Cobh (fka Queenstown), Ireland, yesterday. Cobh was the last destination for the Titanic before its fateful collision with an iceberg sent it to Davey Jones Locker. The picture above is next to where the third-class passengers would have had to board on the tender America, which took them to the Titanic that was moored further out in the harbor.
Continue Reading Lloyd’s Pays Titanic Loss In 30 Days—Can Modern American Carriers Pay As Promptly?
Last week’s post, The Lloyd’s Insurance Marketplace, pointed out that Lloyd’s is not an insurance company. The post noted that Lloyd’s traces its roots to a London coffee house owned by Edward Lloyd.
Continue Reading Lloyd’s Traces Its Roots to a London Coffee House—What Were These London Coffee Houses?
Steve Badger and I will have a friendly debate and presentation at the Lloyd’s Property Insurance Claims Group Conference on May 11. Our topic will be The 3 Sides to Every CAT Claim – Insurer Attorney, Policyholder Attorney and The TRUTH. Lloyd’s is very important to the international property insurance marketplace. I feel honored to speak before this professional audience at a long sold-out event.
Continue Reading The Lloyd’s Insurance Marketplace
I was at the Windstorm Insurance Conference last week during a reception when the very able insurance defense attorney Melissa Sims said to me something about me speaking to a bunch of “pigs.” I have spoken to a lot of different groups, but this seemed a little derogatory about my audience. After a quizzable look, she said, “I got a notice saying you are speaking to the market at PICGS.” Maybe a cocktail or two and aging ears can make “PICGS” sound like “pigs,” but I broadly smiled and said that ‘Steve Badger and I will have a memorable speech at this Lloyds event.’
Continue Reading Chip Merlin To Speak at Lloyds PICG Conference
Hurricane Michael policyholders, public adjusters, contractors and agents must check their policies to make certain that there is not a one-year deadline to start arbitration. The above photo is Lloyds at London. Lloyds is a place where surplus lines insurers do business and it is not an insurance company. Many of the Lloyds Underwriters have placed obscure arbitration provisions into their policies which mandate that New York law with a one-year limitation to start the arbitration.
Continue Reading Hurricane Michael Policyholders, Public Adjusters, Contractors, and Agents Warning About Some Policies With One Year Limitations To File Arbitration
Lately I have had several public insurance adjusters call me about a specific problem with Lloyds.1 The public adjuster and the Lloyds (third-party) adjuster agree on the scope and amount of damages on a claim. Then Lloyds never pays. It’s not that Lloyds refuses to pay. They just don’t pay, like for a real long time. Usually there are lots of comments about Lloyds being across the pond and time differences and things like that, but this is not 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. We are in the age of air travel, FEDEX, the Internet, bank wiring funds, etc. Hell, I went to the much-maligned US Post Office the other day to send something to the UK and even the US Post Office got it there in five days.
In the late 1600’s, at the height of a lucrative slave trade, a group of ship owners and merchants got together at Lloyd’s Coffee House in London to negotiate the first forms of insurance agreement. The merchants promised to use their private funds to pay the ship owners if the ships were attacked by pirates or damaged and sunk by weather. If the ships completed their voyage without any fires or pirate attacks, the merchants kept the fee paid by the ship owners to insure the voyage. The coffee house meetings seemed to make good business sense and a global insurance market was born. The world has changed a lot since the slave trading days, but the coffee house concepts of insurance had not changed much until recently.
Continue Reading Global Insurance Industry Transfers the Risk – Understanding Business Interruption
Contingent Business Income products are necessary, if not vital, in today’s global market. In Understanding Supply Chain Exposures – Business Interruption Claims, Part 76, I wrote:
Businesses develop and thrive on symbiotic relationships, in which the entities rely on the continued operational viability of each other,(or even exclusively beneficial relationships. Few businesses, however, consider the risk and exposure of losing that relationship due to an unexpected calamity.
[t]oday’s risk management professional cannot merely rely on his or her knowledge and understanding of the organization’s varied and unique suppliers and customers. They must understand the bottlenecks and supply chain problems that will likely occur in the midst of catastrophe and have a plan that will keep the chain moving.
Matt Litsky represents certain underwriters and syndicates from Lloyd’s. I have talked with Matt and written others explaining that many policyholder counsel incorrectly file suit against Lloyd’s. Failing to properly name and serve Lloyd’s can lead to dismissed legal actions and possible malpractice claims against counsel who make these mistakes.
Continue Reading Lawsuits Against “Lloyd’s of London” are Often Wrongly “Named”