IWOT Bulletin: October 2001

Reservations - October 2001

The October General Meeting will be held at:

Grape Leaf Diner
at McCord and Angola
5:30 PM, Wednesday, October 10th
Buffet for $12.00

Just a reminder, reservations must be by October 8 and will be called into
the restaurant 1st thing Tuesday morning. If a cancellation is made after
Tuesday morning, you will be responsible for paying the $12.00

Also we are looking for suggestions of other places to meet.

Please respond to Kelly Ryan at kryan@pictoncavanaugh.com

PRESIDENT REPORT - October 2001

Can you believe it's October! Are we ready for fall! Love when the leaves change color, big pumpkins, and Halloween!

Networking weekend at JJ Ranch was a lot of fun . . . . golfing, horseback riding, playing cards . . . . . great place for family and adult activities!

Don't forget to mark your calendar . . . Industry Night is November 14th! Donna and her committee have a very nice evening planned . . . . lets get the word out and make this the best Industry Night ever!

Has everyone turned in your completed applications for "Rookie of the Year", "Claims Professional of the Year", and "Insurance Woman of the Year" . . . if not do so . . . be proud of who & what you are and do! Need an application . . . . . call Deb Gaffir.

Who's Who?????? We have a challenge to all our members . . . . at the next meeting you need to WEAR YOUR NAME BADGE or you'll have to pay a fine of $1.00 to Community Service!

Don't forget if you bring a guest/potential new member to a regular meeting your name goes into the prize jar!

Event Calendar: General Meeting - October 10th
Board Meeting - October 24th @ Roemer
Ohio State Council Meeting - November 9th & 10th
Industry Night - November 14th
National Conference - Anchorage, Alaska
May 11-15, 2002

***** "If making money is your only goal, you'll never get enough of it!"*****

Respectfully Submitted

Nancy Homan, CISR
President

Program - October 2001

I hope all of you will be able to attend our next meeting. It will be held at the Grape Leaf Diner on McCord Rd. and our Safety Chairman, Stacey Dunbar, has an interesting program planned for you. She has arranged for a speaker from the Toledo Fire Dept. and the subject will be the tragedy in New York City.

I look forward to seeing all of you there.

Please don't forget that November 14th is the date for Industry Night. Our theme this year will be "The Insurance Industry's Tribute to America". The Registration form is attached to the Bulletin, or I will have forms with me at the next meeting. We will have 50/50 Raffle Sales starting at the meeting on October 10th and ending at Industry Night. Last year we had over $1000 in ticket sales so don't miss your chance to win!

Respectfully submitted,
Donna L. Wymer, CPCU, AIC, CPIW
Chairman/ President Elect

Education - 2001

I'm going to leave the various organizations and their websites on my report each month so it's easy for everyone to access this information.

Thank you to Lynn Boden, Becky Stewart and Dorothy Schober for volunteering to be on the education committee. I will be contacting each of you to set up a time for our first meeting so we can discuss plans for Education Day. It seems far away now but we all know how this works, it's here before we know it.

We definitely want to form a Communicate with Confidence class again this year. I will be sending around a sign up sheet at our next meeting to see how many people are interested. We also need to know which day would be best for everyone as well as the time - lunchtime or evenings. I believe Tuesday or Thursday would be the best evenings to pick from. If you won't be at October's meeting but are interested in more information about the class, please give me a call.

The year 2001 ends the current 2 year compliance period which requires all licensed agents to obtain 20 hours of Continuing Education. If you are not in compliance yet, please visit the Hondros College, PIA or A.D. Banker websites to see what classes are still offered this year. I am listing some of those below.

Anyone who is interested in obtaining their CISR designation and needs CE credits has one more chance to do so. The PIA is offering CISR classes in Columbus, OH on November 27th, 28th, 29th, December 4th and 5th. If interested, please call 1-800-555-1742 or register on line through PIA's website (see below).

Some classes that are being offered locally are listed below:

Clarion Westgate, Toledo, OH Provided by CAPE
October 13th (Sat.) Agent Conduct and Liability; Insurance Fraud: Awareness & Detection
October 14th (Sun) Variable Annuity-Income for Life; Long Term Care & Estate Planning
November 27th Key Employee Insurance; A Guide to Managed Care; IRA
November 28th Professional Liability/Errors & Omissions; Personal Auto Insurance
December 17th Variable Annuity; Long Term Care & Estate Planning
December 18th Ethics & Agency Relationships; Insurance Law-Do the Right Thing

Hondros College, Toledo, OH CE classes
October 30th, 31st Financial Institutions
November 17th, 18th Property & Casualty Studies
November 20th, 21st Financial Planning
November 29th, 30th Financial Institutions
December 12th, 13th Health/Disability
December 18th, 19th Financial Institutions
December 29th, 30th Financial Planning

Hondros College, Toledo, OH Pre-Licensing Certification
Life & Health Insurance - October 8 - 12, November 5 - 9 December 3 - 7
Property & Casualty - November 12 - 16

Professional Insurance Agents, Association of Ohio www.ohiopia.com

Hondros College www.hondroscollege.com

Mindleaders www.mindleaders.com

Ohio Department of Insurance www.ohioinsurance.gov

American Institute for CPCU-Insurance Institute of America www.aicpcu.org

A.D. Banker www.adbanker.com

Please feel free to contact me at Roemer Insurance, 475-5151, ext. 241 or email me @ Hochradell@roemer-insurance.com

Respectfully,

Lisa D. Hochradel, CPIW, CISR
Vice President

By Laws - October 2001

No Report.

Legislation - October 2001

OHIO DEPARTMENT OF INSURANCE NEWS:

VIATICAL SETTLEMENT BORKERS AND PROVIDERS MUST BE LICENSED
(9/24/01):
In January, Governor Taft signed legislation (HB 551) providing for the specific licensing and increased regulation of viatical settlement providers and brokers. Those wishing to sell or participate in the sale of viatical settlements on or after October 5, 2001, must be licensed.

Director Lee Covington says the law enables the department to aggressively combat viatical fraud.

Requirements of the new law include:
*Providers and brokers must proved an anti-fraud plan that describes how they will prevent, identify, and report fraud.
*Expands the definition of viator to include life or senior settlements.
*Requires each viatical settlement contract entered into to provide the viator with an unconditional right to rescind the contract for at least 15 days after the receipt of the viatical settlement proceeds.
*Protects the viator's identity.
*Includes a definition of fraudulent viatical settlement acts and provides administrative and criminal penalties for violations.
*Prohibits brokers and providers from entering a viatical settlement contract within two years of the issuing of a life insurance policy, unless they meet one of the exceptions.
*Expands disclosures clearly stating that a broker or provider works on behalf of the viator, must disclose how they will be compensated and must provide information about the escrow agent.

Those applying for a viatical settlement provider or broker license must submit to a criminal records check and pay a filing fee of $200 for a viatical settlement broker license or $1,000 for a viatical settlement provider license. They must also submit a set of operational plans detailed in the bill.

Applications are available on the department website www.ohioinsurance.gov.

ODI TO REVOKE AGENT'S LICENSE (9/18/01):
Tired of delays, Director Lee Covington has rescheduled a hearing for Harry D. Houser Sr. of Beverly, Ohio for Sept. 26, 2001. The department has notified Houser of its intent to take disciplinary action against him, including the potential revocation of his license as an insurance agent. Houser has been accused of 40 violations of the insurance laws and regulations of the State of Ohio. He allegedly collected approximately $350,000 in premiums for annuities purportedly issued by American Life and Casualty Insurance Company, but never obtained the annuities or returned the premiums. In several cases, he is accused of issuing fictitious annuity statements and making monthly interest payments himself in order to cover his crime.

ODI TO REVOKE AGENT'S LICENSE FOR MISAPPROPRIATING $52,000 IN PREMIUMS (9/21/01):
Director Covington signed a consent order revoking the license of insurance agent Deborah L. Frazier, Sandusky County, for improperly withholding, misappropriating, and converting to her own use monies belonging to policyholders, insurers, or beneficiaries received in the course of insurance business. Frazier solicited and sold two insurance policies purportedly issued by Cincinnati Insurance Companies to Parker Steel. These policies were renewals of a commercial general liability policy and a commercial umbrella liability policy previously issued to Parker. She failed to renew the policies with Cincinnati Insurance Companies. In addition, Frazier issued a bogus claim check, altered two insurance policies to reflect coverage, and issued several Certificates of Insurance on behalf of Parker Steel International, showing coverage when, in fact, the did not have coverage.

SURETY BAIL BOND AGENTS MUST OBTAIN NEW LICENSE (9/20/01):
Director Covington issued a reminder to current property and casualty license holders that beginning October 9th, they will no longer be authorized to solicit or sell surety bail bonds issued by an insurance company unless they obtain a new bail bond license. For details go to www.ohioinsurance.gov.

INSURANCE DIRECTOR ACTS AGAINST TOLEDO'S AGENTS' LICENSES FOR MISAPPROPRIATION OF PREMIUM PAYMENTS (9/06/01):
Director Covington issued a Notice of Opportunity for Hearing to Matthew J. Bower and Abigail Bower, both of Toledo, informing the agents of his intent to take disciplinary action against them including the potential revocation of their licenses as insurance agents. Both have been accused of six counts of misappropriating or converting to their own use money belonging to policyholders. The duo collected $9,100 in premiums from three couples, one individual, and one business, but failed to remit the payments to an insurance company. It is alleged that the Bowers and Baron Insurance Agency have engaged in illegal activities throughout the state of Ohio.

OHIO PIA NEWS:

It was brought to my attention that our own Suzy Jurgens (Picton-Cavanaugh) was on the committee for PIA, working with other agents across the state to review the changes to licensing laws. She worked by conference calls for over five and a half hours total. Most of the changes were basically cleaning up the wording to clarify certain rules. Part of the purpose of these meetings was to work toward making state laws compatible with other states. The ODI is encouraging uniformity in state insurance laws across the U.S.

Thank you Suzy for all your efforts. For more information on her committee's efforts, go to www.ohiopia.com.


STATE LEGISLATIVE NEWS:

I found three bills currently being considered in Columbus:

** Senate Bill 4: Revises the statues that require third-party payers of health services to make prompt payments to health care providers. It also provides for automatic interest on late payments. It revises the penalties imposed for violations of the prompt-pay law. It prohibits a third-party payer from retaliating against a provider that files a complaint against the third-party payers. And finally, it provides that payments properly made by a third-party payer are final after two years.

**Senate Bill 129: Revises the Insurance Agents Law, based on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' "Producer Licensing Model Act," and makes other organizational changes in Insurance Agents Law.

** Senate Bill 138: Sets forth circumstances under which Department of Insurance and the Divisions of Financial Institutions and Securities of the Department of Commerce may share confidential documents and information with, and receive confidential documents and information from, other specified regulators and officials, or otherwise disclose such documents and information.

For details on the above bills go to: www.legislature.state.oh.us/bill.

Respectfully submitted,

Anna Gartner

Long Range Planning - October 2001

No report.

Finance and Budget - October 2001

FINANCE & BUDGET

Following is the proposed budget for the 2001-02 term. This will be
discussed and approved at the October meeting.

We need to raise about $2515 this year. Euchre will bring in $816 and we
will raise approximately $800 from advertisers and/or supporters. We are
looking to raise about $1,000 from other sources.

As I mentioned at the last meeting, we will not be selling Entertainment
Books this year and will need to come up with new ideas for fundraising. If
you would like to be on my committee, please let me know.

KATHLEEN M. BARTLETT, CIC, CPIW
FINANCE & BUDGET

80 Members
(possible)

Projected
Income 2001-02

Dues 6,640.00
Interest 100.00
Fund Raising 2,515.00

Total Income 9,255.00


Expenses

National Dues 5,040.00
Membership 80.00
Public Relations/Fellowship 100.00
Sports 10.00
Safety 25.00
Bond -
Community Services 50.00
Awards (Insurance Professional, Rookie, Claimsperson) 75.00
Bulletin 1,175.00
Program 100.00
State, Regional, National 2,300.00
President's Pin, Past President's Pin, President's Gift at Regional Conference 300.00


Total Expenses 9,255.00

MEMBERSHIP REPORT - OCTOBER, 2001

To help us know.....and remember each other's names (some of us are OLD!),
please wear your IWOT membership badge to the next meeting! We'll try
something new to help us - all badges will be turned in at the end of the
meeting, and will be put out at the beginning of the next meeting to wear.
Even if you forget or can't find your badge, there will be "sticky" badges
to wear.

Also, if anyone needs a new badge, please let me know and I will order it
for you. Reminder - only new members get their first badge at no charge.
Thereafter you will be charged; I believe the cost is around $3.50 but I'm
checking on that.

Respectfully submitted,

Linda S. Heilmann, CISR
lheilmann@pictoncavanaugh.com
Ph: 419-241-8211, Ext. 122

Public Relations - October 2001

No report.

Safety - October 2001

HALLOWEEN SAFETY TIPS

Before Halloween:

· Plan costumes that are bright and reflective. Make sure that shoes fit well and that costumes are short enough to prevent tripping, entanglement or contact with flame.
· Consider adding reflective tape or striping to costumes and Trick-or-Treat bags for greater visibility.
· Secure emergency identification (name, address, phone number) discreetly within Halloween attire or on a bracelet.
· Because masks can limit or block eyesight, consider non-toxic makeup and decorative hats as safer alternatives.
· Think twice before using simulated knives, guns or swords. If such props must be used, be certain they do not appear authentic and are soft and flexible to prevent injury.
· Teach children how to call 9-1-1 if they have an emergency or become lost. Remind them that 9-1-1 can be dialed free at any payphone.
· Openly discuss appropriate and inappropriate behavior at Halloween time.
· Take an extra effort to eliminate tripping hazards on your porch and walkway. Check around your property for low tree limbs, support wires or garden hoses that may prove hazardous to young children rushing from house to house.

Fun Alternatives:

· Ask around your community and check your local newspaper for information on special events.
· Community Centers, Shopping Malls and Houses of Worship often have organized festivities.
· Share the fun by arranging a visit to a Retirement Home or Senior Center.

After Trick-or-Treating:

· Wait until children are home to sort and check treats. Though tampering is rare, a responsible adult should closely examine all treats and throw away any spoiled, unwrapped or suspicious items.
· Try to apportion treats for the days following Halloween.
· Although sharing is encouraged, make sure items that can cause choking (such as hard candies); are given only to those of an appropriate age.

I hope these Halloween tips are helpful. Wishing you a safe and happy Halloween!

Respectfully submitted,

Stacey Dunbar, HIA, CPIW
Safety Chairman

Community Service - October 2001

Hello,

I would like to thank those who signed up to help with my committee.
For the October meeting, I would like to ask for contributions of candy, trinkets or cash donations in order to prepare Halloween bags for needy area children. The exact organization has not been established yet, however; will be announced at our meeting. I am contacting the United Way to obtain their thoughts and suggestions of the best group of kids for us to focus for this Halloween. Please bring your contributions to the next general meeting. I appreciate any contribution possible, thank you.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 419 259-6045.

Respectfully submitted,

Sandy Dobbins

Bulletin - October 2001

Thank you for your time and allowing me to be your speaker at last month's general meeting. I hope my presentation helped clear up questions and will make the ease and use of our website a better tool for all.

As you know, I am currently working on our new site! I'm very excite about it's progress. This month's bulletin remains at our usual site. I am preparing to run both sites for October and will then commence with the new site as of the November Bulletin.

In the meantime, anyone with questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at shookt@roemer-insurance.com. I welcome your questions and comments. Our site is a tool for all to use!

Employment - October 2001

The following agencies currently have positions available:

Brooks Insurance
Employee Benefits-Account Manager
Commercial Lines-Account Manager
Contact Lucina DeWalt at 419-254-7360 email ldewalt@brooksinsurance.com

Picton Cavanaugh
Group Benefits-Assistant Account Manager
Prefer experience with large groups and self-funded accounts
Contact Carol Reid at 419- 241-8211

Brown & Brown
Commercial Account Manager
Actively seeking experienced Commercial Account Manager for medium to large accounts. Must hold valid P&C license. Prefer experience with Applied system. Must be outgoing, positive individual looking to join quality agency. Should have 2 years experience in commercial lines.
Contact Laurie Caputo, Comm. Lines Mgr at 419-874-4155 between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. or email lcaputo@bbtoledo.com. Resumes may be sent to 360 Three Meadows Dr., Perrysburg Oh 43551.

Roemer Insurance
Administrative Assistant-Wholesale Employee Benefits Dept.
Seeking part-time assistant to provide ongoing marketing support to staff of Account Executives and service professionals. Requires multi-tasking and skills such as data entry, rate calculations and keyboarding skills. Duties to include implementation of dept. marketing plan and mass mailings. Prefer ambitious, self-directed, team player with knowledge of general office equipment and proficient in Microsoft office including Publisher and PowerPoint. College education preferred but not required.
Direct resumes to RobinsonN@ Roemer Insurance

Hylant
Claims processor
Prefer some agency experience and knowledge of Applied
Claims Adjuster
Ideally candidate would have insurance company experience in adjusting commercial property/casualty claims.

Commercial Lines CSR
Contact Susan Diehr at Hylant: 419-259-2750 or email susan.diehr@hylant.com
All positions are available as of 9/25/01. If your agency is looking for new people please have someone contact me.

Sandi Mominee, CPIW, AIS, CIC
Employment Chairperson
Knight Crockett Miller Insurance Group
419-241-5133 or email: mominee@knightinsurance.com

Jewelry - October 2001

No report.

Sports - October 2001

No report.