Congratulations to Adam H. Fleischer, who recently conducted a seminar for over 250 insurance professionals from over 25 different companies on the topic of Primary v. Excess insurance issues.  The seminar, hosted by Swiss Re, addressed various drop-down issues discussed in Adam’s 35-page article on the topic.

The specific issues addressed in the seminar and article include the following:

1. Duty to Investigate: when does an insurer have to dig beyond the materials received from the insured? What types of obligations are courts placing on primary and excess insurers in terms of investigation obligations?
2. Does an excess insurer have a duty to defend when a primary insurer refuses to defend?
3. When a primary settles for less than its full limits, does an excess insurer have its excess obligations triggered?
4. When an excess insurer’s indemnity obligations are triggered, must the excess insurer indemnify the insured’s defense costs?
5. Does an excess insurer have to drop down and pay post-judgment interest on a large verdict, even when it was the primary controlling the whole defense?
6. When does an excess insurer have to pick up orphaned shares of an insolvent primary insurer?
7. Must an excess insurer drop down to pay defense or indemnity when there are earlier or later primary policies still available?
8. Excess v. Primary: What are an excess insurer’s rights to pursue a primary insurer for bad faith failure to settle?

If you are a client of BatesCarey LLP and would like a copy of Adam’s article or a presentation of these issues for your colleagues, please contact Adam any time at afleischer@BatesCarey.com.