The April 20th sinking of British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig 41 miles off the Louisiana coast could have an impact of up to $2B on various global insurance markets, according to Liberty International Underwriters. But according to some projections, the total financial hit is approaching $14B.  And growing. The magnitude of the threat continues  more...

From my earliest days, my father drilled into my head that I was responsible for the consequences of my own decisions. Hulk Hogan has never met my dad. The incident:  professional wrestler Hulk Hogan (real name is Terry Bollea) is suing Wells Fargo Southeast Insurance in the aftermath of a horrendous car accident in Clearwater  more...

No one saw this coming – a volcanic eruption in Iceland forcing the closure of airspace over Europe, effecting air travel and cargo delivery for one-third of the globe. The volcanic eruption is no surprise – seismic activity started at the glacier site in southern Iceland near the end of 2009.  But nobody expected the  more...

In most Canadian crime rankings by city, you’d expect Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver to be at the top of the list.  But when it comes to online crime, a recent study* shows otherwise. Big cities tend to have diverse economic communities, and lower income areas spend less on computer hardware and internet connectivity.  Canada is  more...

A reprieve from global catastrophes? - So far, the 21st century has been characterized by massive catastrophic events: 9/11 in 2001 Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004 (+230,000 dead) Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans – August 2005 Sichuan, China earthquake with 88,000 dead – May 2008 Haiti earthquake killing 223,000 – January 2010 Against that backdrop,  more...

I had read about it, and even trained my staff on it – but it didn’t really hit home until debit-card fraud victimized my daughter.  She was careful with the use of her card and confidential pin number.  But somehow, somebody obtained sufficient information to fraudulently access and empty her bank account. March is Fraud  more...

A recent study by the Allstate Foundation reported surprising findings among teen drivers in the U.S. Among the survey’s results: Almost 1 in 4 teens (both genders) admit to driving while drinking. Nearly half of the girls surveyed admitted they are likely to speed by more than 16kph over the speed limit; for boys the  more...

How much liability insurance is enough?? – Picture yourself in this situation: somebody has threatened to sue you over a frivolous incident for which you believe you are not responsible.  Just to be safe, your insurer assigns a high-powered Toronto law firm to defend you. Here’s the shocking part: after pointing out that the plaintiff  more...

2010 Vancouver Olympics: managing the risk – a cloud of emotion hung heavily over the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics, the result of the fatality on the luge run mere hours before. Issues of insurance and risk management had been carefully designed and reviewed for years.  But that was now thrust to the  more...

TRUST DAMAGED IS TRUST LOST – you don’t hear this every day: a New York court recently dismissed criminal charges against insurance executives. What’s unusual here is that the executives had already pled guilty. Context: many of the charges date back to 2004-05.  At that time, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer led a high-profile  more...