Insurance Brokers Mitigate Litigation Risk with RPost’s Registered E-mail Services

August 20, 2008

RPost Transforms Insurance Operations by Delivering Advanced E-mail Liability Protection

LOS ANGELES, CA—August 19, 2008—RPost®, the leader in managed outbound messaging with its flagship Registered E-mail® service suite, today announced significant adoption among leading insurance brokers in the Assurex Global Partners network. Brokers are coming quickly to appreciate that RPost’s Registered E-mail service reduces litigation risk, Errors & Omissions exposure, and provides the sender with the upper hand in any evidentiary disputes related to outbound e-mail communications. Some of the member firms of the Assurex Global Partners’ network that are using RPost’s Registered E-mail service include the Graham Company, Gillis, Ellis & Baker, and Kapnick Insurance Group.
 
Brokers’ apprehensions about the use of standard e-mail are alleviated with RPost’s Registered E-mail service that provides legal and verifiable proof of e-mail delivery, message content including attachments, and official time stamp, all imbedded within a digital snapshot of the server-to-server transaction attached to the Registered Receipt that is automatically returned to the sender. Insurance brokers are now using Registered E-mail services for client and carrier/broker communications that bind coverage, verify strategic conversations, verify terms and conditions or changes in coverage — comfortably using e-mail in more places where fax, courier, and traditional mail was once the only way to transact business at a much more expensive rate.
 
E-discovery horror stories have driven the point home to businessmen and women everywhere that mismanagement or the inability to validate electronic records can cost a company millions in electronic discovery and ultimate fines where unsuccessful. In addition, courts are increasingly taking a hard line with corporate litigants who cannot authenticate their e-mail evidence, by denying their printed e-mail admission into evidence.
 
“We became interested in using RPost’s Registered E-mail service after our firm went through a procedures audit in relation to our E&O renewal. The proper use of e-mail was one of the focal points of the audit. Through the audit, we learned that courts would not always admit traditional e-mail as evidence. We realized we needed to be able to have legally verifiable proof that our e-mails were sent, received and had not been altered,” remarks Doug Mills, vice president and chief operating officer of Gillis, Ellis & Baker, Inc., the Assurex Global Partner in New Orleans. Mills adds, “Since Katrina, the insurance industry has become more sensitive to agent-client and agent-carrier/broker communications as we are dealing more with non-standard policy forms and a constantly changing set of policy terms and conditions. RPost is an essential tool to help us manage this communication by e-mail.”
 
Also attractive to brokers are RPost’s expanded services which include eContracting and e-signing, end-to-end e-mail encryption, PDF conversion, data leak protection by metadata scrub, and the ability to add blind message content to copied recipients in the form of a side-note. Offered at a flat per e-mail price, which is about the cost of a postage stamp, RPost services have been tested, accredited and have been used daily by the U.S. federal government since 2003.

“The encryption capability was the main reason Kapnick Insurance Group started the using RPost service. It was the only encryption solution that met our needs. We looked at many encryption solution providers and selected RPost because it was the most cost effective and user friendly,” says Lynn Tober, network administrator at Kapnick Insurance Group. “Our clients love the fact that they can open their encrypted e-mail within moments of receiving it. Before we switched to RPost, our clients had to go through a multi-step registration process to receive their encrypted e-mail.  This was a hassle for ourcustomers. RPost has allowed us to decrease our costs, improve our productivity, and cut down on both employee and client frustration.”
 
A major convenience for insurance brokers is the pure simplicity of the service which does not require the e-mail recipient, the brokers’ clients and carrier partners, to sign up for the service or maintain additional user names and passwords. In short, the service is recipient agnostic requiring nothing new on the part of the recipient who simply opens, reads and responds to the Registered E-mail message just like standard e-mail.
 
“Standard e-mail sent or received, archived in electronic or in printed form, has limited evidentiary value to protect in case of a dispute. Standard e-mail lacks verifiable proof of delivery, content of e-mails and attachments, uniform time sent and received, and transaction audit trails,” says Zafar Khan, CEO of RPost. “What people tend to overlook is the fact that with a couple clicks, you can change any e-mail to say anything, print it out and represent it as fact — or worse; the other party could claim you did so. For our insurance customers, since much of their communication with clients and carriers takes place over the phone, having the ability to follow up by e-mail to bind coverage, verify terms and conditions, or change coverage, is critical. Once you have a claim, you can’t go back and change the terms and conditions.”
 
During a recent webinar, RPost conducted a poll of 40 Assurex Global Partners member firms, finding that 40% of responding companies reported that they were involved in an e-mail dispute after-the-fact, involving a challenge to delivery or content of the business message. This can become very costly to defend against with respect to time and resource costs involved in electronic file search and legal fees, underscoring the need for RPost’s Registered E-mail service particularly in “claim first reports” and “requests for quotations”.  The complete poll results are available upon request by sending an e-mail to [email protected].


About RPost:
 
RPost has set the global standard for Legal Proof® in internet e-mail with its core Registered E-mail® services. RPost services comprise of an all inclusive and on demand platform of outbound e-mail services for correspondence that has consequence if disputed or can commit the sender.  RPost services permit the sender to prove, sign, secure, record, and collaborate with less cost, time, paper and risk. RPost is a proven leader in delivering innovative and cost-effective services that allow e-mail users to derive more value from their e-mail applications. RPost has strategic business relationships with leading technology and service providers to provide RPost services to their existing clients, including: Pitney Bowes, Google/Postini, Symantec, AT&T, Sprint, Orange (FranceTel) and BTInfonet (BritishTel), among others.
 
Available in eight languages and for all e-mail platforms, RPost’s patented Registered E-mail® services have been used daily by the United States Government since 2003 and have been endorsed and marketed by most of the influential bar associations in the United States, including the bars of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, and the District of Columbia. Headquartered in Los Angeles, RPost has offices in San Diego, Washington D.C. and a worldwide. For more information about RPost, please visit www.rpost.com. “Registered E-mail”, R-mail, RPost and Legal Proof are registered trademarks owned by RPost. www.rpost.com.