What’s New: In Brief (June 08, 2007)

Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) vice president Peter Blodgett was in Peterborough on June 7 to kick off the launch of the Drive Safe Campaign, led by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP).
Blodgett participated in the launch with Monte Kwinter, Ontarios minister of community safety, Donna Cansfield, the provinces minister of transportation, and a Peterborough representative of the IBAO.
In a speech, Blodgett said IBAO was very pleased to be associated with this campaign. The safety of our children and families is, without a doubt, a cause that is very important to our member brokers, Blodgett said. That is why we feel very strongly about partnering to promote the Drive Safe message.
In its eighth year of participation, IBAO has donated Cdn$10,000 this year to the Drive Safe Campaign.
The proceeds will go towards producing Traffic Safety booklets to be handed out during R.I.D.E spot-checks, at Collision Reporting Centers and at high schools. In addition to its monetary donation, IBAO will help distribute Drive Safe booklets and post Drive Safe signs throughout many of its member brokerages in Ontario.

U.S. auto insurers Geico and Safeco can celebrate major victories with the Supreme Court’s unanimous finding that both made good-faith efforts to see consumers were properly notified when credit information influenced their rate-setting and underwriting decisions, A.M. Best said in a special report published in BestWeek.
But the time for celebration could be a short one, A.M. Best added. Across the industry, insurers now will have to parse the high court’s language to see how existing notification programs measure up, knowing that ignorance and ambiguity won’t be valid defenses the next time around.
The U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires insurance companies to notify consumers who are subjected to an adverse action regarding their insurance based in whole or in part on any information contained in a consumer [credit] report.
GEICOs practice is to send a notification only if a neutral credit score i.e. the auto insurance rate an applicant would have received had the insureds credit score not been taken into account would have put the applicant in a lower-priced tier or company.
The plaintiff in the class action against Geico argued he should have received notice that he might have received better terms with a better credit score. The Supreme Court disagreed.
But the Supreme Court did find that Safeco should have provided notice to a first-time applicant for insurance, although it found the company was not reckless for failing to have done so. Safeco argued no notification was required because the baseline for an increase was a previous rate or charge and there would be no previous rate for a new applicant.