ForeWord

So sad to learn of Gene Wollan’s passing. He was a force for good in the field of reinsurance law and a great friend. I knew Gene from the Metropolitan Opera and other incarnations in addition to his being a great writer and contributor for the Insurance Advocate. R.I.P… The Life Insurance Council of New York (LICONY) met recently and hosted Senator Seward, Assemblyman Sullivan and DFS Superintendent Ben Lawsky. All in all, LICONY has challenged legislators to pass some interesting legislation and from the looks of things there is great interest in it. We hope that Tom Workman, LICONY President and CEO, and Mike Zarcone, the new Chairman and Chief of Staff, realize gains for this enormously important sector of the industry… Speaking of important sectors, we have been debating in these pages the value of CARCO. Along comes an article in the New York Times concerning a luxury car theft ring with sixteen arrests and credit for its undoing goes to CARCO. We quote the New York Times report, in part, as follows:

“As crime rates have dropped, so too it seems has the caution of car owners. Some of the thefts by the gang arrested this week occurred when drivers left vehicles idling in a driveway or parking lot, the police said.

“In other cases, the thieves plucked cars from the lots of dealerships after stealing the keys, the police said. They would also go after valets and sometimes shipments of cars, jumping behind the wheel while the vehicles were sitting, keys in the ignition. At their most innovative, the thieves would steal one of a pair of identical keys from a car rental company and place a GPS device in the matching car, the police said. Then they would wait for the car to be rented and track it down.

“These days, many luxury cars have sophisticated security systems that make it almost impossible to drive a vehicle without its specific set of keys, the police said. That has forced car thieves with expensive tastes to become more creative.

“The ring of thieves arrested in this case treated driveways, dealerships, parking lots and other locations like their personal showrooms,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said in a statement. New York police detectives, he said, “brought these car thieves’ operation to a screeching halt.”

The thefts occurred in New York City and wealthy neighborhoods in New Jersey, in Westchester County and on Long Island, the authorities said. The investigation into the thefts began in early 2012 after a tip about suspicious cars from a vehicle inspection company called the CARCO Group, the police said. (our emphasis -Ed.) Investigators then identified a shop in Queens that was providing fraudulent inspection records. From there, the police, working with the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, the Queens district attorney and the New York State Department of Financial services, uncovered a plot.”

It seems our point about a voluntary use of CARCO would be spurred by such an eventuality as this, once insurance companies realize the value of the service. We do not think the photo inspections need to be mandatory except in certain cases that could be defined by the DFS or by a group of companies. The service is quite valuable and we do endorse CARCO as an effective – obviously – anti-fraud device… In this issue we present PIA’s RAP session and urge agents to keep up with their associations since all of them have swung into gear in 2014 with excellent programs. PIA’s regional meetings are very valuable in my view and offer agents a rare occasion to meet with carriers and providers and to network in a reasonable time frame and in a good environment.