What’s New: In Brief (May 13, 2008)

Brokers who work with Jevco Insurance Company, which recently introduced a new Web portal, can now input policy information online.Those who do so can receive client documents from Jevco immediately, and a policy document within a day or two. Prior to the implementation of Harcase’s Point of Sale Portal, Jevcom brokers were paperbound; it would take a number of weeks to deliver a policy document, Serge Lavoie, president and CEO of Jevco, notes in a release. With the portal, Jevco has been able to dramatically reduce the turnaround time of policy delivery and is able to keep brokers connected and informed on policy decisions, the release notes.

A higher percentage of tropical storms are expected to make landfall along the northeast coast of the United States, according to Joe Bastardi, chief long-range and hurricane forecaster with AccuWeather.com. “We believe at least 40% of named storms will cause tropical storm or hurricane conditions on the U.S. coastline, which is about 1.6 times the norm,” Bastardi said in his expanded 2008 hurricane forecast. A weakening La Nia and near-normal or below-normal water temperature in most of the tropical breeding grounds of the Caribbean and south Atlantic will reduce the overall number of storms, he predicts. However, warm water near the north Atlantic coastline could lead to storms forming closer to the coast. This could lead to a higher-than-average storm threat on the East Coast, from the Carolinas to New England, Bastardi says. “Our forecast is that two or three storms will bring at least tropical storm force winds to the coastline between Florida and New England, including one or two that bring hurricane force winds, and one major hurricane.”