What’s New: In Brief (July 16, 2007)

As the soft market approaches its fourth year, director and officers, and general liability premiums are dropping in 2007 Q2, while commercial property premiums remain stable, according to The Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) Benchmark Survey and analysis conducted by David Bradford of Advisen.
The Benchmark Surveys Q2 reports show that D&O continued to drop, falling an average of 7.9% since last year.
General liability premiums also continued a downward trend with a decrease of 1.16%, a RIMS statement says.
The good news for risk managers is that property insurance has turned a corner, Joseph Restoule, RIMS secretary and member of the board of directors, said in a statement.
Although there was no change on average, more than two-thirds of RIMS Benchmark Survey respondents had premium decreases on their property programs this past quarter, including companies with coastal exposures.

Kevin Frawley has been appointed executive vice president for Global Business Development at Crawford & Company.
The primary focus of this position, a Crawford release explains, will be to increase revenue across all of Crawfords business units.
A new business development council is being formed, made up of key sales and marketing leaders worldwide to assist in crafting future strategy and driving revenue growth and stronger communication across the company.
Following an in-depth strategic review of our global structure, the appointment of a high-level executive t coordinate joint sales initiatives across business units, markets and product lines was identified, Jeffrey Bowman, COO of Crawford Global Property & Casualty, said in a statement.