What’s New: In Brief (February 25, 2008)

The Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) has announced it is renewing its sponsorship agreement with professional golfer Richard Scott from Kingsville, Ont. “Richard has represented us well and we’re proud to be associated with his success,” Randy Carroll, CEO of IBAO, said in a release. “In our first year in sponsoring him last year, Richard had the chance to come out and meet some of our brokers on the golf course. We look forward to holding an event with him again because he’s a really sharp young man.”Scott turned pro over a year ago after capping off his amateur career with a third Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship title and a second place finish at the World Amateur Golf Championships in 2006, according to the IBAO.

Insurance companies have been relying too heavily, and in some cases exclusively, on the catastrophe model output to make important financial decisions, according to Karen Clark, president and CEO of Karen Clark & Company.”This is despite the fact that Hurricane Katrina and other recent events clearly highlighted the inaccuracies and uncertainties inherent in the catastrophe models,” Clark said in a release. “In the Northeast region, the results of different hurricane models can differ by more than a factor of two giving the clear signal that companies need to look beyond the models to understand and manage their risk.”The company announced a new Executive Briefing on Northeast Hurricane Risk, which provides insurance company senior executives and boards of directors with information in five key areas: the likelihood of future major events, the nature of the hurricane damage, why the catastrophe models differ so significantly in this region, how the model results can be benchmarked for credibility, and current competitive threats and opportunities in the Northeast.