Embrace Pet Insurance Blog: RLI Corp

Embrace Pet Insurance NY Policies Move to RLI

Another step in the move to RLI - Embrace Pet Insurance policies in NY will move from the RLI Mt Hawley surplus lines terms and conditions to the RLI admitted paper effective today, January 31st.

I know - it's a bunch of insurance hooey, but what it means is no more upfront taxes and no more signing unintelligble insurance forms when you start your policy. In other words, no more bureaucracy.

Sing it out louch - freedom, freedom, freedom!

Posted by Laura on Monday, January 31, 2011 at 08:24 AM in Embrace Pet Insurance, pet insurance , pet insurance news, RLI Corp | Permalink | Comments (0)

Embrace pet insurance policies finally move over to RLI!

Big progress in the move to RLI...

If you recall, Embrace Pet Insurance is in the process of moving underwriters from Lloyd's of London to RLI Corp, an A+ AM Best rated company based in Peoria IL.

We have already moved 35 states over to RLI but, as of today, we have added 12 more states to the list:

AK, GA, HI, ID, LA, MD, NH, ND, SC, VT and WV

This move leaves just 4 states, MA, NY, FL, and WA, that are not on RLI admitted paper. While we wait for state approval, we have moved these four states over to RLI's surplus lines company, Mt. Hawley, using the terms and conditions we used with our Lloyd's of London policies. The good news is that we will not apply the Continuing Care sublimit to the claims on the Mt Hawley. You can find more details of the change to Continuing Care in my article Embrace Continuing Care Sublimits are gone!

Once the relevent departments of insurance for the remaining states give their nod of approval, we'll more these last four states to RLI admitted paper. In fact, Massachusetts will move for coverages starting Jan 10, 2011; I expect the others will move shortly thereafter.

Posted by Laura on Thursday, December 30, 2010 at 01:20 PM in Embrace Pet Insurance, pet insurance , pet insurance news, RLI Corp | Permalink | Comments (0)

Embrace moves 12 more states to RLI

Continued progress in the move to RLI!

If you recall, Embrace Pet Insurance is in the process of moving underwriters from Lloyd's of London to RLI Corp, an A+ AM Best rated company based in Peoria IL.

Previously, we moved 23 states over to RLI but, as of today, we have added 12 more states to the list:

CA, CT, DE, MO, NV, NM, NC, OK, RI, TN, VA and WY

We're still waiting on the relevent departments of insurance for the remaining states but we'll get there as quickly as we can when they are approved.

Posted by Laura on Tuesday, October 19, 2010 at 07:42 AM in Embrace Pet Insurance, Embrace products, pet insurance , pet insurance news, RLI Corp | Permalink | Comments (0)

Embrace Continuing Care Sublimits have gone!

Note that this post has been updated for Dec 31st 2010 conversion date.

No more sublimit on the Embrace continuing care benefit (see Embrace has a new insurance partner - A+ rated RLI Corp).

Yesterday, I talked about cleaning up some niggling things about the Embrace Pet Insurance product, specifically the Embrace dental illness coverage.

Today, we talk about the old Embrace continuing care sublimit of 25% of the annual limit in the second year of the condition.

I've never liked the sublimit but it was something that Lloyd's felt strongly about so that is what we offered. Now that we have some claims experience under our belts, RLI agreed with us that we could remove the sublimit if we added a lifetime limit of $50,000, so we agreed - woohoo! I'm thinking that a $50,000 lifetime payout limit is more than enough for any one dog or cat, don't you think?

Another thing to note is the lifetime limit only applies to RLI claims so if you had claims with Lloyd's before you moved to RLI, they don't count towards the limit. Another woohoo!

So, what does mean for those of you with Lloyd's policies? To set the stage, there was a period of about 4 months where we converted various states from Lloyd's of London terms and conditions to RLI terms (see Lloyd's, RLI admitted and RLI Mt. Hawley states here).

Now we are the end of the year, most of the states are with RLI (all states except MA, NY, FL, and WA), with those 4 exception states being issued on Mt. Hawley paper (a subsidiary of RLI) using the Lloyd's terms and conditions. The one change to the Lloyd's terms for Mt Hawley is that the continuing care sublimit has gone and the lifetime limit is in.

In summary in regards to the Continuing Care sublimit:

If you bought a Lloyd's policy recently, you will renew into an RLI policy. The good news for you is that the continuing care sublimit will have no impact on you since it only comes into effect in the second year (and you'll be cozy with RLI by then)
If your renewal is coming up, you will have no continuing care sublimit and you move to the lifetime limit that only counts claims with RLI

The interesting thing about the continuing care sublimit is that is had very little claims impact in the grand scheme of things but people felt it very restrictive (can't blame them - I agree!) so I'm glad we got rid of it.

Any questions?

Posted by Laura on Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 07:45 AM in Embrace Pet Insurance, Embrace products, pet insurance , pet insurance news, RLI Corp | Permalink | Comments (2)

PennHIP Pet Insurance Discount now available at Embrace Pet Insurance

Embrace has always been proud to be one of the very few companies that covers hip dysplasia, but now, as part of our move to RLI as our new insurance underwriter, we’re excited to offer a 5% discount as an additional incentive for pet parents that utilize the PennHIP (University of Pennsylvania Hip Improvement Program) test.

PennHIP testing is offered in hopes to help reduce the frequency of hip dysplasia. Once a pet parent has a series of hip x-rays completed, the films are screened and graded by a certified vet and entered into a veterinary database to help analyze dysplasia severity and frequency.

PennHIP testing is valuable for breeders that want to ensure that their puppies are not likely to develop hip dysplasia, and should be considered necessary for anyone looking for a healthy puppy, if that breed is likely to develop hip dysplasia.

In order to qualify for the Embrace PennHIP discount, your pet must have received a score of 0.3 or less. If your pet qualifies, fax (800-238-1042) or e-mail (claims@embracepetinsurance.com) his/her test scores to us and we’ll take care of the rest.

[Note that this discount applies to RLI policies only, so if you currently have a Lloyd's policy with Embrace, send in the information in advance for when your policy renews to an RLI policy.]

Posted by Laura on Monday, August 16, 2010 at 05:02 AM in Embrace Pet Insurance, pet insurance , pet insurance news, RLI Corp | Permalink | Comments (0)

What the new Embrace / RLI partnership means for you - new terms and conditions

As you may know, we have a new partnership with RLI Corp who is underwriting the Embrace Pet Insurance policies in certain states at present (for an up-to-date list, see the Embrace Pet Insurance website.)

As part of that transition, we have updated the Embrace Pet Insurance terms and conditions. I have summarized the RLI differences below - I think you will find these to your liking.

Improvement:
The RLI terms and conditions document is only 8 pages long so it is much more readable than our previous that was 20+ pages long!
Clarification of our current practice:
We removed the term UCR (usual, customary and reasonably payments) regarding our claim payments and clarified that we pay based on the actual vet bill the pet parent paid - since this is what we actually do. No point confusing things unnecessarily.
Clarification of our current practice:
The claims appeals process has been added – pretty much what we do now with the addition of a second appeal determined by an impartial veterinarian.
Relaxation of terms:
We removed the arbitration clause - RLI's legal group prefer it that way
Relaxation of terms:
The claims submission period has been increased to 90 days, up from 60 days it used to be
Moving some coverage pieces around:
We used to cover dental illness in the Drugs & Dental optional coverage but many people found it expensive and hard to understand. So, we moved the dental illness coverage to our new Dental Rewards coverage, which is packaged with dental cleanings (more on this new coverage later this week). As a result, the Drugs & Dental optional coverage has been renamed by Prescription Drug optional coverage with a corresponding decrease in cost.
Coverage increase:
This is a biggie - we have removed the annual sublimit for continuing care issues. Now, any conditions, new or ongoing, comes under the full annual limit you've picked. We have added a new $50,000 lifetime limit. This is a wonderful improvement for our pet parents.
Clarification of our coverage:
We have now clarified that preventative sterilization surgery is excluded, such as for treatment for cryptorchidism, chimerism, or chromasonal abnormalities. We do not cover spay or neuter in our insurance coverage (it is covered in our Wellness Rewards coverage) but it was unclear what we do for preventative sterilizations surgery. While it's not covered in the insurance coverage, it is covered in our wellness coverage.

In addition to these insurance policy changes, we have also updated the Wellness Rewards coverage and added another coverage level - Wellness Rewards Plus. More details on the wellness coverage tomorrow.

I am really excited about all these changes. Most of them come in response to your comments and suggestions about our policy terms.

So you can thank your fellow Embraced pet parents for these delicious changes that will make your Embrace experience all the more better.

Download RLI terms and conditions 05.10
Download Declaration Page and Schedule of Insured Pets sample (these would be specific to you and your pets)

Posted by Laura on Monday, August 16, 2010 at 05:01 AM in Embrace Pet Insurance, Embrace products, passion for pets, pet insurance , pet insurance news, RLI Corp | Permalink | Comments (2)

Embrace has a new insurance partner - A+ rated RLI Corp

Drum roll please - a big moment for Embrace...

As of today, Embrace is selling RLI Corporation pet insurance policies in 23 states (see the list at the bottom of the post). We are in the process of rolling out all 51 jurisdicitions we work in, so if your state isn't in the list below, it will be soon.

Why are we changing insurance underwriters?
Our current underwriter, Lloyd's of London, has been wonderful for Embrace but we have outgrown them here in the US. This is not a surprise and we knew it was going to happen at some point and now the time has come.

We are very grateful and appreciative of the support and help our Lloyd's syndicate Brit has given us since well before we sold our first policy in 2006. We would not be here without their support.

Who is RLI?
I am absolutely delighted to partner with RLI Corp. Here are my top 5 reasons for partnering with RLI, from the most obvious down to the most important:

RLI is A+rated by AM Best, meaning that RLI has a superior ability to meet its ongoing insurance obligations - a most important characteristic if you want a company that is going to be there in the future when you need it the most.
RLI has been named as one of the insurance industry's top performing companies by the Ward Group for the 20th consecutive year. RLI is one of only five property and casualty insurers to have been recognized for excellence among 3,000 property and casualty insurers every year since the inception of the Ward's 50® Top P&C Performers in 1991.
RLI is a specialty insurance company serving niche or underserved markets. So they know how to handle nice marketplaces and knows what it takes to succeed.
RLI had an entrepreneurial start in contact lens insurance and still cultivates its entrepreneurial culture. This is very important to me because I want and need an insurance partner that is going to understand the entpreneurial culture at Embrace.
RLI has an amazing culture with strong people who are wonderful to work with. The people we are dealing with is the most important aspect of the Embrace partnership with RLI since these are the people we are "married" to in this partnership. Two separate companies working together as one is not as simple as it seems. Trust in, and respect for, one another is key and there is no shortage of trust and respect between us. That's such a relief for me on behalf of our Embrace pet parents.

Check out "What the new Embrace RLI partnership means for you" where I talk about the policy terms and conditions changes. We have a lot of policy enhancements I know you are going to like.

States that have converted over to RLI policies (for an up-to-date list, see the Embrace Pet Insurance website):

Alabama	Illinois	Maine	New Jersey	Texas
Arizona	Indiana	Michigan	Ohio	Utah
Arkansas	Iowa	Mississippi	Oregon	Wisconsin
Colorado	Kansas	Montana	Pennsylvania
District of Columbia	Kentucky	Nebraska	South Dakota