Marsh & McLennan Companies announced several changes to its senior management team, including the appointment of Daniel S. Glaser, 50, towards the newly created position of group president and chief operating officer, Marsh & McLennan Companies. Glaser had previously been chairman and chief executive officer of Marsh, a position he assumed in December 2007.

Peter Zaffino, 44, continues to be named president and ceo of Marsh Inc., succeeding Glaser.
In his role as group president and COO, Glaser may have operational and strategic oversight of Marsh & McLennan Companies’ Risk & Insurance and Consulting segments. Additionally, he will have responsibility for that company’s technology, business services, and international and client development functions. Glaser will continue to report to Brian Duperreault, president and ceo of Marsh & McLennan Companies.
Prior to joining Marsh, Glaser had been managing director of AIG Europe (U.K.) Limited, along with a senior vice president of AIG Inc. Glaser joined Marsh in 1982 and spent the very first 10 years of his career in the insurance industry like a Marsh broker.

Zaffino, who's succeeding Glaser as the new president and chief executive officer of Marsh Inc., had been president and chief executive officer of Guy Carpenter, a situation he assumed in early 2008. Prior to being named Guy Carpenter CEO, Zaffino held a number of executive management positions within the firm, including executive v . p ., head of U.S. Treaty Operations and head of Global Specialty Practices. He has more than Two decades of experience within the insurance and reinsurance industry.

Also, Alexander Moczarski, 55, has been named president and chief executive officer of Guy Carpenter, succeeding Zaffino. Moczarski had been president of the international division of Marsh Inc., accountable for operations in all regions of the world outside the U.S. and Canada. Moczarski, who has more than 30 years of experience in the insurance industry, joined Marsh in 1993 from AIG.

Marsh & McLennan Companies may be the parent company of Marsh, the insurance coverage broker and risk advisor; Guy Carpenter, a risk and reinsurance specialist; Mercer, a provider of HR and related financial advice and services; and Oliver Wyman, a management consultancy.

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Germany’s Allianz has reconfirmed its resolve for catastrophe bonds, as a useful and generally accepted approach to transferring some risk to the capital markets. It underlined that commitment using the announcement of the closure of a new cat bond covering US hurricane and earthquake risks, your fourth “takedown under the Blue Fin program by having an issuance size of $40 million.”

In an interview on the Allianz site, Olaf Novak, Chief Risk Officer of Allianz Reinsurance, defined cat bonds generally as “insurance-linked securities which transfer a specified group of natural catastrophe risks in to the capital market. Insurers like Allianz have regional peak catastrophe exposures and these companies spread portions of these risks like European windstorm or US hurricane towards the reinsurance market.”

He also explained that in addition Allianz can “act like a sponsor and spread catastrophe risks for an investor and this means the capital market. Catastrophe bonds are usually multi-year deals. Their trigger mechanism is normally not related to indemnity but more to model losses or perhaps a specific group of event parameters which allows an easy pay-out in case of a qualifying event.”

Like its predecessors, Allianz’ new Series 4 catastrophe bond securities, from Blue Fin Ltd., are “denominated in US dollars and offer investors a coupon of 8.50 % above the yield of US Treasury money market funds.” They cover the “risk of losses from hurricane and earthquake events in the US based on a modeled loss trigger mechanism, and are scheduled to become redeemed in May 2013. As with previous cat bonds under the Blue Fin program, Allianz Re, the reinsurance division of Allianz SE, is responsible for structuring the new transaction.”

Clemens von Weichs, CEO of Allianz Re, explained the capital markets allow us to represent a considerable source of complementary protection for all of us perils. “The occurrence from the March 11 Japanese earthquake and tsunami would be a test for the ILS market, which proved to be who is fit and it is fully functioning. As a repeat sponsor, consistency is a crucial market feature for all of us.”

Novak noticed that the new Blue Fin Series 4 cat bond provides multi-year protection at similar rates as traditional reinsurance from the diversifying source on the fully collateralized basis. The brand new tranche is structured to provide protection against mixtures of medium-sized and enormous events.

“The Blue Fin shelf program enables Allianz to efficiently complement our reinsurance program with non-traditional protection elements on a regular basis,” he stated. “The existing infrastructure means to optimize both lead-time and cost and facilitated the decision to buy more term-aggregate protection.”

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Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is expected to sign into law a bill requiring that certificate of insurance forms be filed with and authorized by the state insurance commissioner.

Agent groups and insurance businesses have experienced longstanding issues with certificates which are frequently utilized to falsely show proof of coverage or amend the policy to consist of provisions outside the terms of the certificate holders’ policy.

In January, Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens issued a directive restating that certificates are for info purposes only and confer no rights on the certificate holders away from terms of their policies. The directive also reminded agents and policyholders that the intentional misuse of certificate is against the law.

Following Hudgens’ action, the Independent Insurance Agents of Georgia and Expert Agents of Georgia produced some pot job force to assist turn the directive into legislation. “This legislation is extremely essential to our members,” stated Gould Hagle, lobbyist for the Independent Insurance Agents of Georgia. “Its passage will be the culmination of the full year’s function.”

The balance (HB66) was sponsored by Rep. Maxwell Howard and approved by both the Georgia Home of Representatives and Senate, prior to becoming sent to Gov. Deal for his signature.

The bill clarifies that the certificate is really a synopsis of coverage as it exists on the date the certificate is disseminated and it is only intended for informational purposes. The balance also spells out that a certificate isn't an insurance coverage contract or perhaps a document that alters coverage.

If signed as expected by Deal, the bill will make two substantive modifications to present law. Additionally to requiring that certificate forms to be filed with and approved by the insurance commissioner, the brand new law locations certificate holders underneath the regulatory authority of the commissioner to ensure that any violations could be covered under the state’s insurance code.

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