Editorial
Front Page - Friday, August 7, 2009
IPSCO rolls out new plans, rates for CBA members
Samara Litvack
The relationship with the Chattanooga Bar Association and IPSCO dates back to 1956, when founder Jake Bishop’s brother was an attorney at Bishop, Leitner, Warner, Owens and Mann. At that time, the company offered a life insurance plan, which the association eventually endorsed. Thanks to the strong relationship that grew between IPSCO and the Chattanooga Bar Association, that same plan is still endorsed today.
For many years, the Tennessee Bar Association endorsed the agency, and it now has insurance plans offered and endorsed by the Chattanooga, Nashville, Jackson/Madison County and Memphis Bar Associations.
“We have several thousand attorneys insured for different products all across the state of Tennessee,” says George “Con” Knox, Jr., IPSCO president.
Of particular interest are two new plans the company is currently rolling out, and special rates are available to members of the Chattanooga Bar, the first of which is a workers’ compensation plan.
“All firms in Tennessee that have five or more employees must have workers’ compensation coverage,” says Knox. “We’ve worked out an arrangement now with The Hartford so that we’re going to be able to offer a very competitive going in price, but then we’re also going to offer dividends. And nobody’s doing that. There’s not another carrier out there that’s offering a law firm, large or small, the potential of getting any money back on their workers’ compensation plan.”
IPSCO is proposing a plan through which, if a client’s experience remains favorable, the firm will receive money back each year. The company has a dedicated claims examiner in Nashville who works the claims specifically for this block of IPSCO’s business.
Additionally, Knox and Gordon Lowe, vice president of the property and casualty department, will be reviewing the claims every quarter. This, he says, will keep the company’s cost down.
If any client is interested in having a person from Hartford come into their firm and do a free loss control service, Knox says that is available, too.
“We think this is going to be a very attractive plan,” says Knox. “It’s a coverage that every law firm has to have, and so why not buy it at a good, competitive rate going in, with potential of getting a dividend back?”
In the last five years of business, IPSCO has had a 27 percent incurred loss ratio, which Knox says is good and low. On that basis, he projects his company would be able to give back 15 percent of the premium to its clients.
“They have the option of taking the money and putting it in their pocket or they can donate it to a charity,” he says. “We’ll just write the check to the charity in their name.”
The second of IPSCO’s new offerings is an identity theft program. When researching such plans, Knox says he searched for one thing in particular.
“If you read the small print, the big difference in a good ID theft assistance program and one that’s not so good is the wording,” he says. Most say “we will assist you,” and that is the type he avoided.
“That means you do all the work,” he says. “The big loss in ID theft is time. It takes you hundreds of hours to get that mess straightened out. And so what I looked for was an ID theft assist program where the program did the work. Instead of them assisting you, they actually perform the services that need to be done.”
He selected ID Theft Assist for that very reason, and at a special rate of only $91 a year, members of the Chattanooga Bar Association and their families can be covered from this heinous crime, which, according to literature distributed by ID Theft Assist, occurs every 79 seconds.
ID Theft Assist works operationally with three partners – Europ Assist, Trans Union and Affinity Care.
Europ Assist USA, known formally as Worldwide Assistance, is a 24/7 initial contact point for the victim of identity theft. Europ Assist takes care of tasks like gaining needed authorization and affidavits from victims, reviewing credit history, identifying potential fraud and notifying creditors.
Before selecting this plan, Knox contacted a reference via Europ Assist who had been a victim of identity theft while on vacation in Costa Rica.
His wife’s purse had been stolen out of their rental car while it was being serviced, filled, of course, with their passports, traveler’s checks, money and credit cards.
The customer service rep with Europ Assist helped the man to the US Embassy so they could attain temporary passports and got the couple $1,000 in cash to hold them over until their travelers checks and credit cards were recovered.
Trans Union is one of the three major credit reporting agencies, and ID Theft Assist refers to it as the “biggest and most fraud-responsive.” With the victim’s authorization, this company provides the needed credit background required to
restore his or her good credit.
“What they do then is they monitor your credit report for three years,” says Knox. “Somebody could steal your ID today and in six months, they come in and they try to get a loan or they try to write a check.
“It’s not just for a day or two; it’s a three-year monitoring.”
Last but certainly not least is Affinity Care, what ID Theft Assist refers to as the heart of its program. This component offers 24/7, unlimited counselor support and emotional assistance for victims of identity theft.
“If you want to see a (counselor) face to face, you get three personal visits,” says Knox. “And that’s all covered for $91 a month. You can’t beat it.”
Members of the Chattanooga Bar Associa-
tion can visit
www.IPSCOlawyers.com
for more information on the identity theft program.
Click “ID Theft” on the home page to see a summary of benefits, as well as a comparison to nationally advertised competitors. To sign up for the program, simply enter your name, address and credit card information on the site, and receive the entire package in about a week. v
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