The 2016 Annual E&O Loss Control Seminars
In May and June, the law firm of Keidel, Weldon & Cunningham, LLP will once again present IIABNY’s Annual Errors & Omissions Loss Control Seminars. If you are interested in attending, you should contact IIABNY and register as soon as possible. This year’s seminars will be similar in many ways but somewhat different than prior years. In this issue of The E&O Report, we explain those similarities and differences while reviewing some of the key topics we’ll address during the seminars.
Please also feel free to let us know about any issues or topics that you may want us to address in future issues of The E&O Report. Many of the topics we write about in The E&O Report originate from issues agents and brokers bring to our attention through telephone calls and emails. If you have any ideas in this regard, please reach out to Jim Keidel and let him know what you have in mind. From our experience, an issue that one New York insurance agent or broker is facing may actually be much larger and affect many other producers across the state. |
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As usual, the seminars will be presented in two separate formats by my partner, Chris Weldon, and I. First, a four-credit hour live seminar will be presented at five locations across New York state during the month of May. Here are the dates and locations for the live seminars:
| May 3 - Buffalo |
May 18 - New York City |
| May 4 - Syracuse |
May 19 - Westchester County |
| May 17 - Islandia, Long Island |
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In addition to the five live seminars, a four-hour telecast seminar will be presented live on June 8 from Hudson Valley Community College in Troy and simulcast to 15 locations across New York State. Agents and brokers can attend the seminar at HVCC or watch the telecast live at the remote locations. The telecast seminar is the same four-hour seminar presented live at the five locations in May. Note: attendees at any one of the seminars can qualify for four continuing education credits for all licenses. And depending on their size and the number of attendees at the live or telecast seminars, agencies and brokerages can qualify for a 10 percent premium credit if insured with Westport Insurance Corp. or a 7.5 percent premium credit if insured with Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. on an errors and omissions insurance policy issued through IAAC, IIABNY membership division.
Besides receiving CE and premium credits, seminar attendees as usual will learn essential and practical E&O loss control techniques that can help reduce the likelihood of an E&O claim or lawsuit. We’ll discuss “real life” E&O issues based upon actual claims and lawsuits handled by our firm so that attendees can better understand the impact of following the E&O loss control practices we’ll explain. When used consistently by agencies and brokerages, those loss control practices can not only reduce the likelihood of an E&O claim or lawsuit, but help an agency or brokerage provide better customer service and enable it to sell more insurance.
During the past year in The E&O Report, we asked IIABNY members to provide us with issues and topics they would like us to address at the 2016 annual seminars. Based upon the feedback we received from the association’s members and staff, we prepared an outline. Here are some of the topics we’ll cover this year:
- Laws affecting property and casualty and life and health insurance agents and brokers
- Facts and statistics relating to E&O claims and lawsuits in New York
- The most common types of matters New York insurance agents and brokers get involved with the state Department of Financial Services
- Best practices for documentation in the traditional and other forms
- Technology tools used in an agency or brokerage
- Forms regularly used by agencies and brokerages and the best practices to follow when using those forms
- The importance of reviewing and negotiating the agreements that agencies and brokerages are asked by insurers to execute
In the past, we used videos to help illustrate key E&O issues, problems and procedures discussed during the seminars. Last year, in response to feedback from IIABNY members, we took a break from showing videos during the seminars. While we will once again skip the videos, we will instead present three, short live skits using agents/brokers and IIABNY staff to help illustrate the topics under discussion. The skits will involve issues that arise when customers have uncovered claims and then commence an E&O lawsuit against the agency/brokerage in connection with the uncovered claim. The skits certainly promise to be both informative and entertaining!
Approximately 1,300 insurance agents and brokers attended the live and telecast E&O seminars presented last year for IIABNY. We encourage all New York insurance agents and brokers to register as soon as possible for one of the five live seminars or the telecast seminar. You can register by visiting the Education Section of the IIABNY website or calling IIABNY at (800) 851-8853, ext. 3.
We look forward to presenting the 2016 annual E&O seminars and hope all of you will be able to attend.
Submitted by
James C. Keidel, Esq.
Keidel, Weldon & Cunningham, LLP