As an insurance consultant to over five hundred banks around the US, I have fielded a fair number of questions and requests regarding the release of SR 19-12 in July. In this article, I will attempt to provide some clarity on my position and how your bank can understand the protections offered by your directors' and officers' insurance … [Read more...]
Bank Insurance Mistake – Shared Directors and Officers Limits
January 25, 2019
Do lender liability or employment practices liability claims reduce your coverage for future Directors’ and Officers’ claims? Many management liability policies have an aggregate limit that is equal to the limit of coverage for directors’ and officers’ claims – this has the effect of reducing coverage for future claims. For example, if you have … [Read more...]
How Much Insurance Should Your Bank Buy
January 15, 2019
The eleventh edition of my recommended minimum limits of insurance for banks is available now for download. Several changes in approach this time. New limits for bankers to consider as well as a different approach to publicly traded banks. Go to www.HowMuchBankInsurance.com for your copy. Directors and Officers Insurance Lender Liability … [Read more...]
Charitable Foundations and Your Insurance Policies
December 5, 2018
Your organization may have set up a charitable foundation. That entity should be listed on all your insurance policies. By design, a foundation is not a subsidiary by the standard definition used by most insurance policies. While you may have common board members, your board is not the board of the foundation. Your bank does not "control" the … [Read more...]
Foundation Requires Separate Insured Listing
July 25, 2018
My title refers to a charitable foundation set up by your bank to manage charitable gifts. If you have a separate entity (perhaps a non-profit) you will need to list the entity separately on your insurance policies, including your D&O. Even if your policy includes language that automatically picks up coverage for subsidiaries, you should … [Read more...]
Corporate Indemnification Protects Officers and Directors
April 13, 2018
Your directors and officers are absolutely, positively, undeniably, indubitably, unequivocally, irrefutably dependent upon the quality and breadth of the provision of your bylaws that deals with indemnification. When was the last time your corporate attorney reviewed that provision? If more than three years talk to your attorney soon. … [Read more...]
What You Need To Know About Your Bank’s D&O Policy
September 12, 2017
Here is the link to the video of yesterday's session. I covered the banker's D&O policy, indemnification, the bank insurance marketplace, and took a few questions. My next Webinar is on 9/21, Bank Insurance 101. To join that session register here. … [Read more...]
Remember the Pollution Exclusion
July 21, 2017
Remember the Pollution Exclusion Over the past twenty years, the insurance industry has been hammered by the courts on pollution claims. Now, most standard insurance policies have pollution exclusions so broad that the industry calls them “absolute pollution exclusions.” Liability arising out of pollution is excluded by most general liability … [Read more...]
CEOs Signing Insurance Applications
March 10, 2016
A bank client is in the final stages of changing insurance companies. The insurer wants a signed application. The CEO looks over the app. He is busy and trusts his CFO. He signs the document and moves on. Six months later a claim comes up. The insurer turns the claim down because there is a pertinent question on the application that was answered … [Read more...]
Your Bank Is Buying Another Bank…
February 18, 2016
I got a call today from the CFO of a client bank. They are 80% of the way to buying a small bank. Relatively speaking, the bank they are buying is very, very small. It's so small that, in all likelihood, the acquisition will have no impact on my client's fraud-bond or management liability insurance policies. I told the CFO to give their … [Read more...]
