U.S. Presidents and New York, Sports & Music

​Monday February 20 is Presidents Day, when the country celebrates the 46 men (they've all been men so far) who have held the land's highest office. You may not have known this, but your resident Insurance Geek is also a History Geek. In honor of the holiday, I've assembled some information about our former chief executives that many of you may not know.Five presidents were born in the Empire State:Martin Van Buren (Kinderhook, Columbia County 1782)Millard Fillmore (Moravia, Cayuga County 1800Theodore Roosevelt (New York, New York County, 1858)Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Hyde Park, Dutchess County 1882)Donald Trump, (Queens, Queens County 1946)Ten others lived in New York before or…

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The Simple Certificate of Insurance Rules That Are Hard To Follow

​Nearly eight years after New York’s certificates of insurance law​ took effect, there appears to still be some misunderstanding of what the law allows and prohibits. Big I New York members regularly call or email us about whether it’s permissible to use certain forms, certain wording, show certificate holders in a certain way, what limits to display, and so on. Other members will receive a certificate form from a client’s subcontractor or vendor and wonder if the form is legal.The fact of the matter is that most of these questions way over-complicate what the law says. When it comes to an insurance agency or brokerage…

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NY Insurance Disciplinary Actions: What’s Getting Producers in Trouble These Days

​ Penalty by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free ​ The New York State Department of Financial Services issued its monthly insurance disciplinary action report on February 13, and it was an unusually long one – 18 pages. Big I New York members regularly contact our office with questions about whether a course of action they're considering (or that a competitor has taken) will violate the state's insurance law and regulations. Because of that, I always find it interesting to see what areas of the law DFS has focused on when taking action. This is a summary of the disciplinary actions taken recently against resident and…

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