New Jersey Risk Management Strategies

Posted on August 29, 2011 by WH Connolly & Co.

New Jersey risk management is a dynamic process that doesn’t end when a client buys a product or settles a claim. Continued responsiveness and knowledge are crucial to a successful, long-term risk management relationship. A confluence of many services and approaches is necessary to optimize risk mitigation and premiums. A number of these approaches are detailed below.

Risk Analysis and Contract Review – Service begins with a thorough review of a client’s risks, working with management to determine which exposures are best assumed and which are best insured.

Insurance Marketing and Placement – New Jersey insurance programs must be designed and structured with price and coverage optimization. Similarly, underwriting submissions and negotiations with insurance carriers must be intelligently navigated to finalize specifically tailored proposals.

Claims Analysis & Service – Administrative burden can and should be substantially reduced by paying close attention to the claims process. The ultimate test of the insurance product and the broker’s accountability comes when a claim is filed. Claims management specialists must monitor the reserve amounts, work with outside legal representation, and direct settlement negotiations. This will ensure the most advantageous settlement for clients.

Loss Prevention – This means working with New Jersey insurance carriers to design loss prevention programs to minimize risk, paying particular attention to those risks associated with harassment, workplace discrimination, wrongful termination, and workplace violence.

Client Education – Loss prevention and risk management seminars are highly useful and effective. Any New Jersey risk management firm should offer local seminar or online webinars, as well as newsletters and client advisories to keep our clients informed about trends and changes in the insurance marketplace that can affect them.

There are other facets of New Jersey risk management, and greater detail about the important aspects addressed above. To consult with an expert on these issues, click here.

Lines of New Jersey Business Insurance

Posted on August 23, 2011 by WH Connolly & Co.

New Jersey business insurance can cover a plethora of professions, terms, coverages, and liabilities. Understanding the differences between them separates the professionals from the amateurs in the insurance field. William H. Connolly & Co., LLC, believes in providing a broad range of tailored solutions to optimize premiums. This means enhancing coverage of risks inherent to your profession, while minimizing or removing types of coverage that rarely apply. Achieving the right balance of coverage to exposure for a series of risks is a skill that requires years of hard work and experience to achieve. Lines of New Jersey business insurance provided by W.H. Connolly include:

New Jersey Manufacturing Insurance
Insurance for Financial Institutions
New Jersey Wholesale Insurance
New Jersey Retail Insurance
Insurance for Importers/Exporters
New Jersey Foodservice Insurance
New Jersey Transportation Insurance
New Jersey Biotech Insurance
Insurance for Municipalities
New Jersey Nonprofit Insurance
New Jersey Contractor
New Jersey Tech Insurance

There are many intricacies to specific lines of New Jersey business insurance coverage, and many business may require a melding of multiple types of coverage. For more information on these important issues, visit W. H. Connolly.

New Jersey Directors & Officers Liability Insurance

Posted on August 19, 2011 by WH Connolly & Co.

Corporations and not-for-profit organizations in the New Jersey area must provide financial protection for the costs of legal actions that may be brought against their Boards of Directors and management teams. In many cases, corporate indemnification may not provide complete protection for these directors and officers.

Additionally, the corporation may wish to protect its own assets in the event of a lawsuit. Therefore, many firms purchase a New Jersey Directors and Officers Liability Policy (or D&O policy) to cover the cost of the indemnification provided by the corporation or to pay claims on behalf of the directors and officers when the corporation is not providing indemnification.

There is no standard form for New Jersey Directors and Officers Liability policies. While all policies have certain typical conditions and exclusions, each insurer uses its own policy wording and there can be differences in coverage conditions, deductibles and exclusions. Some of the issues that may need to be addressed when structuring a D&O Policy include:

Entity Coverage
Employees as Insureds
Insured v. Insured Exclusions
Right/Duty to Defend
Prior Acts Coverage
Advancement of Defense Costs

Crisis Management Expense Insurance

Posted on August 15, 2011 by WH Connolly & Co.

Crisis Management Expense Insurance is designed to reimburse colleges, universities and other educational institutions for many voluntary expenses incurred because of covered occurrence that creates a crisis situation. The principal characteristic of these expenses is that they are not covered by other types of insurance included in their portfolio of insurance policies. As a business officer of a university, college or school, you must be aware of all the expenses an institution tragedy or crisis can engender.

Can your educational institution afford a crisis?

A fire rages through a fraternity house on college campus injuring several students.
A portion of an arena collapses during a college basketball game and dozens of attendees are trapped beneath the rubble
A bus transporting a school’s field hockey team is involved in a serious accident, killing several team members
A series of assaults occurs on campus; police are unable to apprehend the perpetrator

How will your educational institution pay the costs created by these or any other crisis? For some expenses, your customers will be compensated under your current portfolio of insurance policies. Unfortunately, other expenses will not be covered.

For example, most property insurance polices are designed to help the insured pay the cost to repair or replace property damaged by a covered cause of loss. However, these policies do not consider personal property owned by students to be covered property. Similarly, most general liability policies are designed to protect the insured against its legal liability for bodily injury or property damage sustained by third parties at an institution-sponsored or managed event. However, these policies do not respond to voluntary payments made by the institution to help injured parties or their families.

Crisis Management Expense Insurance can reimburse your institution for voluntary expenses like those listed here.

Funerals or related services
Psychiatric counseling, grief counseling or similar professional services
Travel expenses for injured persons and their families
Compensation for loss of damage to personal property of others
Private security or investigation services
Public relations

In the event of a crisis, these voluntary expenses may be difficult or impossible for an institution to afford without insurance. This policy provides limits of $1 million or more for your clients’ protection and enables them to respond more confidently to the needs of others in a crisis situation

New Jersey College Insurance & University Insurance

Posted on August 10, 2011 by WH Connolly & Co.

Colleges, universities and independent schools have unique insurance needs derived from the great variety of risks and exposure they face. Finding the right balance of premiums, risk management, and insurance products is crucial to optimizing the financial stability of an educational institution. Our expertise in property and liability coverages for educational institutions and school districts, Employment Practices Liability coverage, Directors and Officers coverages and Workers Compensation programs has been demonstrated in our work with many of the region’s colleges and schools.

We also have designed unique products like our Crisis Management Expense Insurance, which addresses the voluntary costs schools and institutions incur after a tragedy – costs not covered even by comprehensive property and liability policies. Thinking about the nature of risk for educational institutions is the only way to accurately gauge the needs of each individual school. Through EPLI, D&O, Workers Comp, and a variety of other services, coverage can be achieved for any incident an institution might encounter.

New Jersey Personal Insurance

Posted on August 5, 2011 by WH Connolly & Co.

For over 50 years, W. H. Connolly has been safeguarding individuals and families from loss while earning the reputation as a superior customer service and highly experienced New Jersey insurance agency. We offer:

A comprehensive range of New Jersey life insurance and New Jersey health insurance coverage options and price points to serve all clients
Financial stability – You can count on W. H. Connolly insurance carriers to fulfill its financial commitment when a loss occurs
Flexible New Jersey insurance policies that are designed to best meet your needs today and tomorrow

If you have dependents or other people who you share your life with, then life insurance can play a vital and valuable role at virtually every stage of your life. W. H. Connolly can help you make smart choices when buying life insurance by helping you determine how much to buy, which type of product best meets you needs and which one of the hundreds of life insurance products is the right one for you.

The rising cost of health care makes obtaining health insurance a top priority for individuals and families who want health related expenses covered at a reasonable cost. Even though the current health insurance system is quite complex and constantly changing, W. H. Connolly can assist in navigating through the health insurance maze by helping to determine which health care insurance products are the right for you and ensure that your getting the most coverage for every premium dollar you spend.

New Jersey Insurance Blog

Monthly Archives: August 2011