The Central Station Alarm Association's (CSAA) Insurance Industry Liaison Committee, chaired by Stan Oppenheim of DGA Security Systems, Inc., is pleased to announce the results of a joint meeting held in New York City in June of 2004. This meeting was a collaborative effort between CSAA, Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL), and the Inland Marine Underwriters Association (IMUA) which represents the major property/casualty insurance companies. 

The purpose of the meeting was to establish goals and objectives that would further the relationship between the three parties with respect to understanding the insurance industry's  need for higher levels of service and coverage and to begin the process of educating present-day underwriters and loss prevention professionals as to what types of protection should be required by the insurance companies to meet applicable codes, standards, UL and CSAA recommendations.

According to Chairman Stan Oppenheim, "Never has the time been better for us to come together and accomplish our ambitious goals and objectives. It is right for the insurance industry, the alarm industry and, most importantly, the public we serve to work towards establishing a framework for underwriting guidelines for alarm systems. We have made more progress in the last few months than in the last ten years with the considerable help and assistance of UL and the IMUA. Ron Thornton, Executive VP and CEO of the IMUA has done an exceptional job to help move forward this vital agenda ".

"For many years, the insurance industry spent considerable time and money educating their field underwriters and loss prevention professionals about proper underwriting guidelines, how burglar and fire alarm systems work, and what to require when underwriting a certain risk," said CSAA's Executive Vice President Steve Doyle. "Over the years, this education and collective wisdom disappeared as the insurance market changed. However, now many insurance companies have come to realize that there are differences between alarm systems, and that to mitigate losses, certain levels of protection need to be specified. The insurance industry has also indicated the need to easily identify companies that can properly install and monitor these systems. UL has done a magnificent job with its www.alarmfinder.com website, a ready reference for the insurance industry and the general public," added Doyle.

CSAA member companies are identified by the CSAA logo and UL Listed central stations will soon be able to have a hyperlink from the UL website to their company's home page.

The group of over fifty representatives came to a common resolution to pursue a number of initial action items aimed at raising the levels of burglar and fire alarm protection. It should be noted that a number of these have already been fully implemented, while others are in currently in process.

ACTION ITEMS

1. IMUA will feature relevant burglar and fire alarm issues to its member insurance companies via its website newsroom. IMUA will obtain this information from CSAA Signals or press releases on these Action Items.

2. IMUA will establish a link on their website to the UL "AlarmFinder" website, as will CSAA.

3. CSAA will contact IMUA's public relations firm and obtain information on insurance industry periodicals. CSAA will put these media sources on the CSAA press distribution list for items relevant to the property/casualty insurance industry.

4. CSAA will complete the updated "Guide To Understanding Burglar Alarm Systems" and the "Guide To Understanding Fire Alarms Systems" and submit them to the IMUA for its review and comment. The IMUA will then seek board approval to endorse these educational tools and CSAA will draft order forms for the publications which the IMUA may chose to send out to its members.

5. A mutually acceptable date will be determined in November/December 2004 for a second "Summit Meeting" similar to the first to determine what progress is being made with specific emphasis on the burglar alarm certification process.

6. The IMUA sponsors regional educational seminars utilizing local Program Committees in the cities of New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Dallas and Atlanta. The IMUA will advise these Program Committees about CSAA and UL interest in providing speakers to explain the program, how central stations operate, and the importance of UL and FM Certificated Service and UL Listed Central Station Service in providing a higher level of service to the insured. The approximate time for such a presentation will be by agreement, but usually will be about two hours in duration. If possible, CSAA will attempt to gain local company sponsors from the alarm industry.

7. UL will be asked to develop advertising for the insurance industry periodicals that will explain the benefits of UL central station service and the UL "AlarmFinder" website".

8. The committee will explore the feasibility of pursuing a project outlined in a presentation at the meeting by Insurance Services Office Inc. (ISO), a major insurance carrier, with regard to "Verifying Alarm Installation and Monitoring for Insurance Companies". ISO retains databases for claims activities and has the ability to accomplish this. What remains to be determined is what the alarm industry needs to do to provide this information to ISO in an electronic format, and whether it is feasible to do so on an annual basis. This would allow the insurance industry to know when a business or homeowner no longer had a monitored alarm system, thereby allowing the insurance company to disallow the deduction for an alarm system.

9. CSAA will develop information about the willingness of its members to conduct localized training sessions or tours of central station operations for employees of specific insurance companies. Once developed, this information will be shared with IMUA member companies and the insurance media.

10. UL has initiated a positive program to enforce the standards for certificated systems. If any certificated system is not up to the UL standards, the certificate for that location may be suspended or the central station may have its UL Listing suspended or revoked.