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Hot Topics In Personal Lines


Total Credits: 2 including 2 CE Credit

Average Rating:
   79
Categories:
Personal Lines
Faculty:
Richard Pitts
Duration:
2 Hours
License:
Access for 90 day(s) after purchase.


Description

This seminar begins with a practically oriented inquiry into how losses are adjusted on a day-to-day basis.  The seminar introduces not only the two key adjustment valuation measures – “actual cash value” and “replacement cost” – but also stresses to the students that the concepts are not as uniform and concrete as industry practice may suggest.  It then explains why this matters and includes practical illustrations of loss adjustment scenarios in which it is either impractical, impossible, or at least implausible to recreate precisely what the insured had prior to the loss.  These situations include older homes with ornate or impossible to replace materials; farm structures which cannot be rebuilt; and similar instances in which loss adjustment or settlement is complicated.

The seminar then turns to the increasingly frequent and vexing problem of who is a “resident” of a household for insurance purposes.  For nearly two decades, states such as Indiana has used formulations such as, “[O]n the whole, the person will be a resident if all the facts demonstrate that he or she has maintained a ‘fixed abode’ in the household for some continuous time.”  (Allstate Insurance Co v. Shockley (S.D. In. 1991)).

Practically speaking, this is not of much assistance to producers.  The section (and the problem) is illuminated by examining some of the other rules for “residency,” such as:

  • The person need not be a permanent member of the household.
  • The person must possess the subjective intent to stay for more than a “transitory” period;
  • That subjective intent may be found in objective words and actions.

The seminar then turns to issues connected with having a personal lines insured operate a business out of the insured home.  This section discusses the prevalence of such arrangements, and also how those arrangements are treated under industry standard forms.  This section concludes with a discussion of case law. 

Presenter  Richard S. Pitts

Course Materials

Faculty

Richard Pitts's Profile

Richard Pitts Related Seminars and Products

Vice President and General Counsel

Arlington Roe


Richard S. Pitts is a private practice attorney in the insurance industry.  Rick serves as Vice-President and General Counsel to Arlington/Roe & Co., Inc., an insurance brokerage and managing general agent headquartered in Indianapolis.  Rick also serves as general counsel to the Independent Insurance Agents of Indiana, Inc., as well as its sister organization in Kentucky.  Rick speaks annually at the “Roadshows” in Kentucky and Indiana’s Agency Compliance Seminars and presents various seminars on insurance and employment related matters.  Pitts has also presented continuing education seminars to insurance professionals nationally through industry groups including the National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research.

 

Rick is a 1983 graduate of Wabash College and a 1986 graduate of Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis.  Pitts clerked for the Honorable Patrick D. Sullivan, a judge of the Indiana Court of Appeals in 1986-87.  Rick is admitted to practice before Indiana state and federal courts, the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and is a member of local, state and national bar associations.  Pitts has tried multiple cases and participated in over seventy appeals.

 

Pitts is the recipient of the “Excellence in Continuing Legal Education Award” from the Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum (ICLEF), having served as a panelist and lecturer on a variety of continuing education subjects.  Pitts has co-authored two articles appearing in the Indiana Law Review.       

 

rpitts@arlingtonroe.com


State Specific Details

State Approval Information Details KS - This course is approved for 2 hours of credit - #989085

Promo Video

Reviews

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Overall:      4.6

Total Reviews: 79