Confidence is growing that this storm is going to significantly impact the Tri-State area and beyond this weekend. With a spring-like December, many of us forgot to prepare our property for colder temperatures.  Now is the time to get ready for unpredictable winter issues.

Follow these helpful tips to prepare your property to withstand the cold:

• Caulk around pipes where they enter the building.

• Insulate exposed irrigation system lines, make sure they are drained.

• Clean gutters and downspouts to insure proper drainage and less ice build up.

• Shut-off water to outside bibs and faucets at the shut-off valves.

• In very low temperatures, slow-drip or trickle interior faucets both hot and cold.

• Check for any outdoor lighting issues, including broken fixtures and underground wiring breaks.

• Perform boiler startups, and consider having your heating system inspected and cleaned.

• Winterize overhead and service doors and check every door to make sure they close properly.

ACE Ltd. and Chubb said they have received all necessary regulatory approvals and will close their $29.7 billion merger agreement today, Jan. 14 – six months after the companies first announced their surprise deal.

The newly-combined company will use the Chubb name and be the world’s largest publicly traded property/casualty insurer.

Plans call for its stock to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CB on the first trading day after the closing.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) gave the green light to the deal in late September.

After the deal closes, the balance sheet’s size and strength will elevate the combined company into the elite group of global P/C insurers. As of December 31, 2014, on an aggregate basis, the combined company had total shareholders’ equity of nearly $46 billion and cash, investments and other assets of $150 billion.

The new Chubb will rank second among U.S.

To all of our Fireman’s Fund Clients in the State of New York

As you are aware, Allianz Group, the parent company of Fireman’s Fund, has agreed to sell their Personal Insurance renewal rights to the ACE Group.  ACE Group is a well establish Property and Casualty Insurer, and is rated A++ XV by AM Best and Company.

Beginning February 1^st, 2016 all Fireman’s Fund Policies issued in the state of New York will be offered renewal terms by ACE.  Please note that as per statutory requirements, all policy terms and conditions will match the expiring Fireman’s Fund policy.

As always, please feel free to contact our office with any questions.,

Homeowners need to prepare now to prevent winter damage. (Photo: Thinkstock)

For residents of the East Coast, the winter of 2014–15 served up some of the snowiest and coldest conditions on record.

For insurance companies, this was also one of the costliest seasons on record — more costly in fact than Superstorm Sandy.

The majority of homeowners’ losses were the result of ice dams and frozen pipes, many of which could have been prevented.

True to our purpose at policyholder-owned insurer PURE, our claims and risk management teams study losses to understand how they could have been prevented.

Based on these insights, we have compiled advice that you can share with your clients to help them mitigate winter weather-related risks, this year and beyond:

Getting a student ready to send off to college for the first time can be a lot of work.

From student orientations, to the buying of necessary supplies, to preparing financial aid forms, parents and students face many tasks before the start of the school year.

Add insurance coverage to the pre-college to-do list.

Instead of showing up for school with a suitcase and a beat-up sofa, the modern student also bears the responsibility of bringing a laptop or tablet, or perhaps a refrigerator, television or other expensive gadgets along to school. That means as parents send off their sons and daughters off to school, it is important to make sure that they (and all of their stuff) are properly covered by insurance.

Click through the following slides for tips to help parents of college-bound students prepare to send their child to school.

A three-hour shutdown of the New York Stock Exchange on the same day that a network failure halted all United Airlines flights in the U.S. had people across the country thinking one thing: cyber-attack.

It wasn’t, but the July 8 incidents were alarmingly close to the Armageddon scenario that Austin Berglas, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, described in an interview last month, in which the Nasdaq exchange, the New York subway system and power provider Con Edison go offline at the same time.

Berglas, who started the FBI’s New York cybercrime unit in 2009 and worked on probes into a breach at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the Silk Road drug market, joined corporate investigations company K2 Intelligence in April. The firm is partly owned by American International Group Inc., which is seeking to sell insurance policies for property and infrastructure damage caused by hackers and cyberterrorists.

“There’s going to be mass panic, people are going to think it’s a terrorist attack, people are going to think it’s another 9/11 event,” Berglas said.

To our Valued Clients and Partners,

As you may or may not know, Chubb Group has agreed to be acquired by ACE Limited.  ACE and Chubb are two complimentary companies with regards to insurance capabilities, assets and territorial reach. 

Most important is the combined company will adopt the Chubb name, which is an indication of ACE’s respect for the Chubb brand.

For those of you who are not familiar, ACE is one of the world’s largest property and casualty insurers, with over $30 billion in capital and operations in 54 countries.  ACE employs approximately 21,000 people worldwide including 10,000 employees in 170 offices in North America.

At this time, it is business as usual, and both Chubb and ACE will to continue to operate as two competing and separate companies.  You’ll be pleased to know that our firm represents both ACE and Chubb.

We are excited about the pending transaction, but most importantly we remain committed to our highest level of care, service and responsiveness to our clients.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that President Obama’s health care law may provide nationwide tax subsidies to help poor and middle-class people buy health insurance.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion in the 6-to-3 decision. The court’s three most conservative members — Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. — dissented.

The case concerned a central part of the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Obama’s signature legislative achievement. The law created marketplaces, known as exchanges, to allow people who lack insurance to shop for individual health plans.

Some states set up their own exchanges, but about three dozen allowed the federal government to step in to run them. Across the nation, about 85 percent of customers using the exchanges qualify for subsidies to help pay for coverage, based on their income.

The question in the case, King v. Burwell, No. 14-114, was what to make of a phrase in the law that seems to say the subsidies are available only to people buying insurance on “an exchange established by the state.