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General news
Commercial lines
Personal lines Flood insurance
Life insurance
General news Proxies mailed to HMIC policyholders as Harleysville/Nationwide merger draws nearer Harleysville's pending merger with Nationwide is expected to close in the first half of this year, and we took another step toward that milestone with the recent mailing of proxy materials to the Harleysville Mutual Insurance Company (HMIC) policyholders who are members entitled to vote on matters related to HMIC as of March 1, 2012. The purpose of the mailing was to provide the members with the means and information they need to vote on the pending merger transaction between Harleysville Mutual and Nationwide Mutual, and to give them notice of a Special Meeting of the Members of Harleysville Mutual, to be held on April 24, 2012, at our corporate headquarters in Harleysville, Pa. Click here to view a copy of our March 9, 2012, letter to agency principals, which contains links to the various items included in the HMIC proxy mailing. If you or your policyholders have any questions regarding any aspect of the mailing, contact MacKenzie Partners at 800.322.2885.Look for additional information about the pending Harleysville/Nationwide combination in an updated FAQ document to be released in the near future. Also, we will continue to post merger-related information on our agent portal—accessHarleysville®. From the portal home page, click on the left-column link to the special merger information center, and direct any questions about the merger to our AskMichaelBrowne mailbox. Starting April 2, you'll use a Vertafore URL to access our licensing database In October 2011, Harleysville's provider of agency licensing services, Kaplan Compliance Solutions (KCS), was acquired by Vertafore, and this weekend all Kaplan CMS G2TM URLs will be changing to reflect the Vertafore brand. For Harleysville agents, the important news here is that, starting Monday, April 2, you'll need to replace the word "kaplancs" with the word "vertafore" in the URL link you use to browse to the CMS G2 login page. If you continue to use the old URL link, you'll get a reminder that you need to start using the new one. For more information about this change, as well as a link to a guide to updating your Internet Explorer favorites folder, see the March 22, 2012, Vertafore Weekly Update. If you have questions or need assistance with determining your new URL, contact Vertafore Support at 800.428.0682. The Trusted Choice Disaster Relief Fund is here to help YOU! In the wake of recent tornadoes in the South and Midwest—and as we look ahead to the potential for storms during spring and summer—keep in mind that the Trusted Choice Disaster Relief Fund was established by the IIAA Educational Foundation of the Big "I" to assist those who have suffered losses due to natural or man-made disasters. The fund makes cash grants to those in the insurance industry, including Big "I" members, their agency staffs and others to pay for immediate or ongoing financial needs when other funding sources (such as insurance and other grants) are not available. If you or someone in your agency suffers a loss that meets the fund's guidelines, be sure to submit a grant application! And contact Big "I" Vice President of Agent Development, Education and Research Madelyn Flannagan with any questions. Commercial lines Harleysville brings back human services sizzling summer incentive for agents Back by popular demand, Harleysville once again will pay an extra 5 points commission on new human services business with effective dates during the six weeks between June 15 and July 31. In 2011, we ran the same program for OthersFirst® Protection Package business and accompanying umbrellas written by agents in all states except Florida. This year, we'll do the same, plus we're extending the incentive to agents in the Sunshine State, as well—albeit for monoline business only—since Harleysville does not write property in Florida. See our March 20, 2012, agent e-bulletin for more details, and check out our first quarter 2012 human services Hit List for an idea of the types of accounts we're putting on the books. To access our host of human services marketing materials, click here. You may obtain a supply of any item listed via our SMARTworks® online ordering system. For help with SMARTworks, refer to the SMARTworks quick reference guide, or contact Charles Cooper in the home office at 800.523.6344, ext. 5615. For sales assistance, contact your Harleysville representative or any member of our home office human services underwriting staff listed on page 2 of our OthersFirst highlights sheet. Contractors with payrolls up to $2M now eligible for Harleysville CustomPak® As a clear sign that we're eager to cover your best contractors business with our Harleysville CustomPak® policy, we've expanded our eligibility criteria for that product to accept contractors with annual payrolls of up to $2 million. Also for contractor accounts written under CustomPak, the total cost for all subcontractor classes combined is now capped at 50% of the insured's total payroll for all liability construction classifications combined. (Previously, the upward limit was 30% of total operations). The upward limit for all non-subcontractor incidental classes combined remains at 25% of our insured's total operations. We've revised our CustomPak product/class guide to reflect the expanded criteria (see pp. 4, 5 and 19). Download this brochure from the links below, and obtain printed supplies via our SMARTworks online ordering system. Click here for instructions on how to use SMARTworks. For help with prospecting, visit our Marketing & Sales Support site on the agent portal to access our host of CustomPak consumer brochures.
Have questions about the eligibility criteria for contractors or any other aspect of our CustomPak policy? Contact your commercial lines territory manager, business development specialist or commercial lines underwriter. Personal lines 10 life-saving tips for your customers' teenage drivers Any parent of a teenage driver knows that sense of apprehension you feel the first time your son or daughter gets behind the wheel of a car. That said, driving is something nearly all Americans want and need to do, and Harleysville is pleased to provide you with a "top 10" list of safety-focused suggestions for parents to share with their family's novice drivers. "Teen Driving Safety" is the latest in our series of smart-consumer tips labeled as coming "from Harleysville Insurance and your Independent Agent." Based on information provided by Harleysville Risk Services, the new flyer can be personalized by adding your agency's contact information into the box at the bottom of the page for delivery in person, by email or through the mail. Click on the link below to view, download or print the "Teen Driving Safety" flyer. To see the other flyers in our "smart-consumer tips" series, go to our agent portal—accessHarleysville®. From the home page, click on Marketing & Sales Support > Personal Lines Products, and scroll down to the heading, "Use These Loss Prevention Tips to Educate Your Customers." Questions? Contact your personal lines territory manager or underwriter. Flood insurance How to access FEMA's library of flood-related print materials The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers an extensive library of print materials for your use in educating current and prospective insureds on the need for flood coverage and how the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) works. The quickest and easiest way to access FEMA print materials is by using the "NFIP Public Awareness Materials Order Form" as your starting point. Here's what you do:
Keep in mind that for quantities of more than 10, you must either fax, email or mail your order to FEMA. When requesting up to 10 of any printed item, you have the added option of phoning in your order to the number listed on form F-057. In addition to stuffers, brochures and other documents, FEMA also makes available items such as DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes and audio tapes. For that selection, go to the FEMA Library site, choose "Search for Resources" in the left column, and enter the "Search Criteria." Harleysville's flood administrator active in efforts to secure long-term NFIP extension Like many in the flood insurance industry, Harleysville and our flood program administrator, NFS-StoneRiver, are eager to see Congress put an end to the seemingly endless string of short-term extensions to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). In fact, the lead story in the March edition of Agent Flood News Flash—NFS-StoneRiver's e-newsletter—takes an in-depth look at this issue, providing links to a variety of writings that drill down into recent attempts to hammer out a long-term solution. The March News Flash
(first link below) also highlights a recent NFS-StoneRiver webinar titled,
"Are you familiar with the Lowest Floor Guide?" And while it's too late to
catch that particular session, we strongly suggest you review the Federal
Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) informative brochure on that topic.
Download a copy of that document (FEMA form Have questions on how to rate different types of foundations or other NFIP-related issues? Contact your Harleysville flood representative. Life insurance Elite Term product now available for insureds as young as 18 A new version of Harleysville Life's Elite Term policy goes into production for applications received after March 30, 2012—in all states except Connecticut—and with it comes some key changes. Most important is that we've extended Elite Term policy issue ages to include 18- and 19-year-olds, and here are the new issue ages by term period:
At the same time, we've updated our Elite Term contract language as it applies to reinstatements, rate class changes, and conversion from permanent universal life and whole life plans. For details, check out our March 20, 2012, life underwriting bulletin. If you have questions, contact your life regional director or our life marketing department at 800.222.1981. Enhanced sales tools on portal highlight key concepts and offer affordable solutions As part of our ongoing commitment to provide our agency partners with relevant and effective sales ideas and resources, we're pleased to announce that we've enhanced our Business & Personal Sales pages on our agent portal, accessHarleysville®. These pages will help you identify where your clients may be vulnerable to both business and personal financial loss by describing key concepts and offering affordable solutions. You'll also find direct links to:
To take advantage of these valuable tools, go to the portal home page, locate "Business Lines" in the gray bar near the top of the page and click on it. Choose "Life" from the drop-down menu, then scroll down until you see "Business needs analysis and sales" and "Personal needs analysis and sales." Questions? Contact your life regional director or the home office life marketing staff at 800.222.1981.
Know someone who unsubscribed from our Constant Contact emails and would like to start receiving them again? First, make sure they're registered on our agent portal under the correct email address. If that's the case, simply forward this issue of In the Know to your colleagues and direct them to click on the link below and follow the instructions. Re-subscribe to Harleysville's Constant Contact email address list
Questions or comments about this issue? Have a question or comment about something you've just read in In the Know? Click on the reply button now, and tell us what's on your mind.In the Know is sent to all registered users of Harleysville's agent portal—accessHarleysville®. If others in your agency currently do not receive In the Know and would like to do so, they should see your agency's portal administrator for assistance.
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Portal functionality
Flood agents' page
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