MARCH 5, 2012 | VOL. 90, NO. 5 WEST REGION WEST N8 On The Cover Special Report: Auto and Home Inside This Issue Sharing Economy Calls for Insurance Innovation March 5, 2012 • Vol. 90, No. 5 • West Region 10 16 N12 N18 NATIONAL COVERAGE WEST COVERAGE IDEA EXCHANGE N8 Special Report: Auto and Home 8 Smartphone Proof of 28 You Can’t Put a Price on Sharing Economy Calls for Insurance Insurance Bill for California Benefits of Involvement Innovation 8 Nevada Approves Regulations N1 Minding Your Business: Oak N12 Closer Look: The Risks of for Self-Driving Cars and Schoeffler Cloud Computing 10 There’s an App for That: N6 Social Media and Employee N14 Closer Look: What to Know Mobile Phone Quoting Recruiting About Cyber Liability Exposures 16 California Earthquake N36 Closing Quote: Ladner Authority Kicks Off Second N16 P/C Insurers Face Obstacles on Marketing Program for Road to Hard Market Agents N18 Spotlight: 5 Things to Know 20 Alaska’s Hall Saying Farewell About Classic Car Insurance to Director Post N19 Spotlight: Group Personal 26 Insurance Highlights from Excess Liability Gives Added Buffett’s 2011 Letter to Protection Berkshire Shareholders DEPARTMENTS N21 2012 Hospitality Risks Directory 6 Opening Note 9 Declarations 9 Figures 12 People 14 Business Moves N2 MyNewMarkets 4 | INSURANCE JOURNAL-WEST REGION March 5, 2012 www.insurancejournal.com Do we cover landlords? Heck, we cover overlords. Umbrellas for 30 residential and up to 30 commercial units. Rentals and owner-occupied exposures. LLCs, DBAs, estates or trusts are A-OK, but legions of doom are excluded. PersonalUmbrella.com. We do. Available nationally. Underwriting criteria varies by state. Visit us online for guidelines. California Insurance License 0D08438 WEST COVERAGE EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Andrea Ortega-Wells | awells@insurancejournal V.P. Content Andrew Simpson | [email protected] Opening Note East Editor Young Ha | [email protected] Southeast Editor Michael Adams | [email protected] South Central Editor/Midwest Editor Stephanie K. Jones | [email protected] West Editor Where’s My Hovercraft? Don Jergler | [email protected] International Editor Charles E. Boyle | [email protected] f it’s not one thing it’s another. The stock market seems to have stabi- ClaimsJournal.com Editor Denise Johnson | [email protected] lized for a while, jobs are being created, albeit slowly, and housing’s not MyNewMarkets.com Associate Editor Amy O’Connor | [email protected] as bad as it used to be. Columnists Catherine Oak, Bill Schoeffler In fact, pending home sales in California climbed in January from Contributing Writers IDecember, and were up from a year ago, according to a recent California John Allen, Christopher Bomar, Dave Coons, McKeel Hagerty, Gerald Ladner, Judi Lamble Association of Realtors’ report. SALES Now there’s climbing gas prices. V.P. Sales & Marketing Julie Tinney (800) 897-9965 x148 [email protected] U.S. gas prices were up nearly 9 percent toward the end of February since West Dena Kaplan (800) 897-9965 x115 [email protected] the beginning of the year, according to the Energy Information Agency. Gas South Central Mindy Trammell (800) 897-9965 x149 hit an average of $3.65 a gallon in late February, a record for this time of the [email protected] Midwest Lauren Knapp (800) 897-9965 x161 year. [email protected] Southeast Howard Simkin (800) 897-9965 x162 According to a survey late last month from Rasmussen Reports, most [email protected] East Dave Molchan (800) 897-9965 x145 Americans think gas will top $4 a gallon in the next few months and most [email protected] New Markets Sales Manager surveyed think we could even see $5 per gallon. The report shows 55 percent Kristine Honey | [email protected] of Americans think it is at Classified Advertising (800) 897-9965 x125 [email protected] least somewhat likely gas ‘I wonder if they’ll (tax) MARKETING/NEW MEDIA will reach $5 per gallon hover crafts when we get Marketing Administrator Gayle Wells | [email protected] or more in the next few them?’ Advertising Coordinator months. Erin Burns | [email protected] (619) 584-1100 x120 But instead of wonder- New Media Producer Bobbie Dodge | [email protected] ing what this’ll do to our still-fragile economy, it got me to asking myself: Videographer/Editor Where’s my hovercraft? Matt Tolk | [email protected] DESIGN/WEB I attribute that oddball, borderline-zany, thought in part to a comment Vice President/Design from a reader on InsuranceJournal.com. The comment was on a story about Guy Boccia | [email protected] Vice President/Technology the Washington Senate passing a $100 annual electric car fee to make up for Joshua Carlson | [email protected] Design and Marketing Executive the lack of gas taxes electric car owners pay. Derence Walk | [email protected] Art Director The reader, going by “Baxtor,” stated: “I wonder if they’ll (tax) hover crafts Jamie Bethell | [email protected] Web Developer when we get them? They don’t use the roads. They’ve been talking about Jeff Cardrant | [email protected] those since I was a kid.” Web Developer Chris Thompson | [email protected] They have been talking about hovercraft for a long time. IJ ACADEMY OF INSURANCE When I was in grade school in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I Director of Education Christopher J. Boggs | [email protected] remember my science teacher talking about such possibilities Online Training Coordinator when we hit year 2000. I had recently seen “Star Wars,” and I Barbara Dooley | [email protected] even had plans on how I’d have my hovercar decked out. ADMINISTRATION Chairman I also recall the oil crisis around that time that had the Mark Wells Chief Executive Officer entire nation questioning its dependence on foreign oil. Mitch Dunford Accounting Manager As it turns out, 30 years later we’re still calling into ques- Megan Sinclair | [email protected] tion our use of fossil fuels and only now are we starting to turn FOR QUESTIONS REGARDING SUBSCRIPTIONS: to electric vehicles, hybrids and other alternatives discussed so Call: 856-380-4176 or long ago. You may subscribe or change your address online at And like Baxtor, I’ll just continue to daydream about my hovercraft. insurancejournal.com/subscribe Insurance Journal, The National Property/Casualty Magazine (ISSN: 00204714) is published semi- monthly by Wells Publishing, Inc., 3570 Camino del Rio North, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92108-1747. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Diego, CA and at additional mailing offices. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $7.95 per copy, $12.95 per special issue copy, $195 per year in the U.S., $295 per year all other countries. DISCLAIMER: While the information in this publication is derived from sources believed reliable and is subject to reasonable care in preparation and editing, it is not intended to be legal, accounting, tax, technical or other professional advice. Readers are advised to consult competent professionals for application to their particular situation. Copyright 2012 Wells Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Content Don Jergler may not be photocopied, reproduced or redistributed without written permission. West Editor Insurance Journal is a publication of Wells Publishing, Inc. POSTMASTER: Send change of address form to Insurance Journal, Circulation Department, PO Box 9049, Maple Shade, NJ 08052 ARTICLE REPRINTS: For reprints of articles in this issue, contact Rhonda Brown 6 | INSURANCE JOURNAL-WEST REGION March 5, 2012 at 1-866-879-9144 ext. 194 or [email protected]. Visit insurancejournal. com/reprints for more information. Who insures you doesn’t matter. Until it does. Financial Strength and Exceptional Claim Service Property | Liability | Executive Protection | Workers Compensation | Marine | Surety Homeowners | Auto | Yacht | Jewelry | Antiques | Accident & Health Chubb Group of Insurance Companies ("Chubb") is the marketing name used to refer to the insurance subsidiaries of The Chubb Corporation. For a list of these subsidiaries, please visit our website at www.chubb.com. Actual coverage is subject to the language of the policies as issued. Chubb, Box 1615, Warren, NJ 07061-1615. ©2012 Chubb & Son, a division of Federal Insurance Company. WEST COVERAGE News & Markets Smartphone Proof of Insurance Bill for California California legislator has introduced a bill to require A auto insurers to issue proof of coverage verifica- tion to the mobile electronic devices of insureds if they request it. Assembly Bill 1708, authored by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Silver Lake, would enable a person required to pro- vide evidence of financial responsibility to do so through the use of a mobile electronic device, according to the bill’s word- ing. The bill would amend sections of California’s insurance and its vehicle codes. The bill states: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any insurer coverage, to a mobile issuing policies of automobile liability insurance or motor electronic device.” vehicle liability insurance shall, upon request of either the The bill would also amend Section 16028 of the vehicle named insured or the Department of Motor Vehicles, prompt- code to read: “The evidence of financial responsibility may be Cellphone ly issue to that person or the department written verifica- provided using a mobile electronic device.” Driving tion as to the existence of that coverage, and issue, upon the The bill is currently in Assembly, and may be heard in Ban request of the insured, verification as to the existence of that committee on March 17. Nets 27 Violators in Helena Court Upholds Lawsuit Nevada Approves Regulations Police in Helena, Mont. say they have issued 27 Against NoCal Hooters for Self-Driving Cars citations in a little over a month fol- lowing a cellphone state appeals court has upheld a class-action lawsuit evada is becoming the first of the U.S. states to regulate ban that went into filed by servers at several San Francisco Bay area self-driving vehicles on its roadways.