National Underwriter - The forces of two 767-planes flown deliberately into the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center destroyed buildings that were said to be able to withstand the force of a 707 crash. The property-casualty insurance industry is supposed to be solid enough to withstand the combination of several multi-billion events with capital to spare. But as the industry prepares to pay for the loss of life and property that tragically resulted from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, an obvious question is whether the industry will stay financially strong. Is an amount of capital that looked excessive just two weeks ago still enough to adequately protect policyholders of companies that will have to pay out claims related to the terrorist attacks?

Claims Magazine - A Michigan trial court has dismissed an action by a school district seeking coverage of year 2000 remediation expenses from a statewide insurance pool. In School District of City of Royal Oak v. MASB-SEG Property and Casualty Pool Inc., Oakland Co. Circuit Court Judge Gene Schnelz agreed with arguments presented by the insurer that the district‘s costs to upgrade its computers did no constitute unexpected loss, as there had been warnings about potential Y2K problems long before January 1, 2000. Over a number of years, MASB-SEG had issued policies to the Royal Oak school district, as well as hundreds of others throughout Michigan. Coverage included damage or injury to property from faulty construction or design errors in computer programs and electronic data processing systems and equipment.

Insurance Journal - Chicago-based Aon Corp., the world‘s No. 2 insurance broker with about 1,100 staff in the World Trade Center, said on Friday that 200 employees remained unaccounted for after the Sept. 11 attack that destroyed the twin towers. "It grieves me to report at this time, despite all of our efforts, we have been unable to obtain information from any sources concerning the safety of approximately 200 Aon employees,' Chief Executive Patrick Ryan said in a statement. Besides the 1,100 workers in the World Trade Center, about 250 other employees were either traveling to New York or working in downtown Manhattan when the attack took place last week. The company said it is working with authorities to determine the status of all of its workers in the area.

Insurance Journal - The insurance industry will do everything it can to comply with the New York Insurance Department‘s advice to insurance adjusters and underwriters to exercise care and "responsible judgment" in judging claims arising from last week‘s World Trade Center tragedy. "While we certainly recognize the Department‘s concerns in these troubled times, our industry‘s approach is to always make our best efforts to settle claims in a proper and timely fashion," said Joseph Termini Jr., counsel for the National Association of Independent Insurers (NAII), whose member companies write more than 27 percent of the New York insurance market. "The Department can rest assured that insurers will do everything within their power to help those affected by this horrible act."

Insurance Journal - Standard & Poor‘s announced that the direct financial losses relating to the disasters will in all likelihood exceed the largest insured losses ever yet seen. "Any attempt to quantify the financial impact of the recent terrorist actions in the U.S. must be purely speculative until more information becomes available, which may take weeks," said Steve Dreyer, managing director for U.S. Insurance Industry Ratings at S&P. "But the insurance industry is strongly capitalized and can withstand an enormous financial hit without threat to the stability of the system overall." "While we cannot yet endorse a specific estimate, companies so far have acknowledged about $4 billion in losses, a figure which will likely go much higher.

Insurance Journal - The Independent Insurance Agents of America (IIAA) and the Independent Insurance Agents Association of New York (IIAANY) have established a relief fund to benefit victims and surviving family members of individuals who lost their lives in Tuesday‘s terrorist attacks in New York City and around the country. One hundred percent of the money received by America‘s Survivor Relief Fund will go directly to aiding victims and survivors of individuals killed in this week‘s tragedies. The fund was created to direct contributions from IIAA members, their clients, industry professionals and concerned individuals to aid victims and survivors. Contributions to America‘s Survivor Relief Fund qualify as tax-deductible to the extent such deductions are available to the taxpayer.

National Underwriter - Paragon Reinsurance Risk Management Services of Minneapolis announced today that its catastrophe insurance price index had risen for the first time in six years. The Catastrophe Price Index for January 1 renewals rose to 1.730, which is 7.2 percent above the relative price of renewals at Jan. 1, 2000, the company said. According to Paragon, this marks the first annual index increase since the level was 2.37 in 1994 when catastrophe prices peaked after Hurricane Andrew and the Northridge earthquake. The index figure was 1 in 1984. Catastrophe Price Index is a relative measure of composite domestic U.S. property catastrophe insurance prices. The index compares the average market price at each renewal date with the average market price of one year prior.

Insurance Journal - The global insurance system has the financial strength to handle the losses from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.). Insurance losses from the attacks will be shared throughout the worldwide insurance and reinsurance system and not be borne by any single company. Insurance coverage on large risks such as the World Trade Center and airlines traditionally are insured by a number of insurance companies, which, in turn, share their portion of the risk with reinsurance companies, explained Dr. Robert Hartwig, I.I.I. vice president and chief economist. "The global insurance and reinsurance industry has the financial structure and strength to absorb a catastrophic loss such as occurred yesterday," Hartwig said. "There is layer upon layer of coverage so that no single company bears the brunt of the loss alone."

Insurance Journal - While a myriad of businesses called the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center home, insurance companies were particularly hard hit with Tuesday‘s terrorist attack on the 110-story landmarks. The following is a list of some of the companies and which floors they were situated on: North Tower - Kemper Insurance Companies (Floors 35-36); Hal Roth Agency Inc. (77); Daynard & Van Thunen Co. (79); RLI Insurance Company (80); Metropolitan Life Insurance Co, (89); Marsh USA Inc. (93-100). South Tower - SCOR U.S. Corp. (23-24); Allstate Insurance Co. (24); Hartford Steam Boiler (30); Frenkel & Company Inc. (35, 36); Guy Carpenter (47-54); Fireman‘s Funds Insurance Co. (47-48); Seabury & Smith (49); AON Corporation (92, 99, 100); Continental Insurance Co.

National Underwriter - Marsh, the world's largest insurance brokerage, is struggling to ascertain the number of surviving employees based at the World Trade Center following yesterday's devastating attack by terrorists. A spokesperson for Marsh & McClennan Co. could confirm only that approximately 1,700 employees were housed in both One and Two World Trade Center, the twin towers leveled by the apparent suicide plane crashes. She indicated that the actual number of employees accounted for is not yet available. Alfred J. Modugno, vice president of Marsh, confirmed that corporate president Jeff Greenberg is "alive and well" in his uptown headquarters on the Avenue of the Americas. Yesterday Marsh set up a hot line for its employees to call "on an emergency basis." The spokesperson said that there are "numerous phones" and that calls had been coming in on a 24-hour basis.