Am I part of the Settlement Class?

You are a Settlement Class Member if:

• You are a Colombian National or of Colombian origin;
• You were paid by Perennial Pete, LLC or one of its affiliated entities or companies, including SM Cleaning Solutions Inc.; WD Cleaning Solutions Inc.; DM Cleaning Solutions Inc.; JM Cleaning Solutions Inc.; EV Cleaning Solutions Inc.; EM Cleaning Services and Solutions Inc.; SD Cleaning Services and Solutions Inc.; and
• You provided housekeeping services at resorts in the United States where MasterCorp was responsible for housekeeping between March 19, 2021 and May 15, 2024.

What is this lawsuit about?

Plaintiffs claim that MasterCorp subjected Settlement Class Members to unfair and unlawful practices. These included working Settlement Class Members for long hours without overtime pay, and immigration-related misconduct that made Settlement Class Members vulnerable. MasterCorp denies these claims. The Court has not decided who is right or wrong. The parties have agreed to the Settlement to avoid the risks, uncertainty, expense, and burden of litigation.

What does the Settlement provide?

Settlement Class Members who file a valid and timely claim will receive an equal share of the $4,950,000 USD Settlement Amount less attorneys’ fees and litigation costs, service awards, settlement administration costs, and any applicable taxes (“NET Settlement Amount”).

There are an estimated 205 Settlement Class Members. If all 205 file a claim, they will each receive 1/205 of the NET Settlement Amount. If fewer Class Members file a claim, payments will increase equally on a pro rata share, up to a maximum of 1/50 of the NET Settlement Amount. Any remaining funds will be distributed to St. Jude for undocumented-immigrant-related services.

How can I get a payment?

You must complete and submit a timely Claim Form online at www.ColombianHousekeeperSettlement.com or mailed postmarked by August 13, 2024  to: Colombian Housekeeper Settlement, c/o JND Legal Administration, PO Box 91308, Seattle WA 98111. If you do not submit a valid Claim Form by August 13, 2024, you will not receive a payment, but you will be bound by the Court’s judgment.

What are my other options?

1) Do nothing. Receive no payment. Be bound by the Court’s decision. Give up your right to sue or continue to sue MasterCorp for the claims in this case.

2) Exclude yourself (“Opt Out”). Remove yourself from the Settlement Class and receive no payment. This is the only option that allows you to keep your right to sue or continue to sue MasterCorp for the claims in this case.

3) Object. Tell the Court what you do not like about the Settlement. You will still be bound by the Settlement, and you may still file a claim.

The deadline to exclude yourself or object is August 13, 2024. For more details about your rights and options and how to exclude yourself or object, visit www.ColombianHousekeeperSettlement.com.

What happens next?

The Court will hold a Final Approval Hearing on September 20, 2024 to consider whether to give final approval to the Settlement and grant Class Counsel’s request for attorneys’ fees and litigation costs not to exceed one third of the Settlement Amount plus reasonable costs; service awards to Plaintiffs at a maximum amount of $7,500 in U.S. dollars each; as well as reimbursement for expenses incurred for settlement administration, including notice and taxes. The Court appointed Rachel Geman from Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP and Mark Hanna from Murphy Anderson PLLC as Class Counsel. You will not be charged for these lawyers. You do not need to attend the hearing, but you are welcome to attend at your own expense.

How do I get more information?

Visit www.ColombianHousekeeperSettlement.com or call 1-888-825-1238 (from U.S.) or 01-800-519-1529 (from Colombia).

Damages in the city of Cali add up to about 48.21% of insurance claims, by value.

Cali, Colombia’s third largest city was hit especially hard by vandalism and claims from the city represent 48.21% of the total amount. According to Fasecolda, insurers expect to pay $154.7 billion pesos on 1,850 private risks, and $60.7 billion on 347 public-sector risks.

“By responding to claims payment requests, insurers are honoring their commitment to assume the risks of their policyholders. At this time, insurance takes on all its meaning. By responding to claims, insurance fulfills its missionary role in the economy,” said Fasecolda President Miguel Gómez Martínez (above). “These assets represent the heritage of Colombians, and the transfer of risks is achieved thanks to everyone’s taxes. To affect them is to attack ourselves.”

Following figures in Colombian Pesos:

Perils by City

Bogotá

• Damage to public property: $8,783 million; 96 risks covered the industry, equivalent to 19.96% of the insured.
• Damage to private property: $6,755 million; 385 risks covered the industry, equivalent to 80.04% of the insured.

Cali

• Damage to public property: $28,194 million; 78 risks covered the industry, equivalent to 12.64% of the insured.
• Damages to private property: $75,656 million; 539 risks covered the industry, equivalent to 87.36% of the insured.

Medellín

• Damage to public property: $3,608 million; 43 risks covered the industry, equivalent to 20.48% of the insured.
• Damage to private property: $9,857 million;167 risks covered the industry, equivalent to 79.52% of the insured.

Rest of Colombia

• Damage to public property: $20,137 million;130 risks covered the industry, equivalent to 14.62% of the insured.
• Damage to private property: $52,401 million; 759 risks covered the industry, equivalent to 85.38% of the insured.

Damages to vehicles and cargo

The insurance industry has received 2,772 claims in the country for damages to automobiles during acts of vandalism from May to July, for which it has paid $18.707 million.

• Of 692 claims in the country for damages to private vehicles, Bogotá registers the highest number, with 186 claims.
• Of 2,080 claims in the country for damages to public vehicles, Bogotá once again leads the list, with $1,533 million.
• For cargo transportation, the insurance sector has received 175 claims, for which it has paid $6,986 million.

“We decided to work with FRISS because we recognized they could give us great value in our claims management process by providing a real-time risk score that allows us to better focus our investigation process and improve the claim process for honest customers,” says Ruben Dario Cañas Aranzazu, Motor Claims Manager at SURA Colombia. “Furthermore, the Guidewire accelerator is easily and quickly downloaded, and implemented. Finally, FRISS and Munich RE’s partnership has been such that we felt confident in the project’s success and in reaching the goals we have set.”

Harald Schnabel, Head of Department Casualty Underwriting Latin America, Iberia & Caribbean of Munich Re says, “In this exclusive partnership with FRISS in Latin America, Munich Re brings claims and client expertise, and FRISS its competence for fraud detection in insurance based on state-of-the-art technology. This enables a fast implementation process and supports our clients with an innovative solution. We are convinced that FRISS will have a positive impact on loss ratios and the efficiency of claims processes, which creates value for the client and Munich Re. We are pleased to have SURA Colombia as the first joint implementation in Colombia.”

Suramericana S.A. is a Medellín, Colombia based insurance company and subsidiary of Grupo SURA (81.1%) with Munich Re as a minority shareholder (18.9%). The company presents itself as the SURA brand, with a comprehensive portfolio of insurance solutions and integral trend and risk management. Suramericana has operations in nine countries of Latin America (Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Panama, Dominican Republic and El Salvador), where it reaches 17.5 million clients.

The technology tool allows policyholders to interface with company staff through video calls on WhatsApp to streamline their claims, something that can drastically reduce response times, according to the Liberty Seguros.

César Rodríguez, vice president of operations and compensation at Liberty Seguros, said a process that previously took between three to seven days can now be completed in under an hour.

The insurer has been implementing the video capability over the past two months and recently increased the rollout, which aims to speed up damage inspection reports related to factors including flooding and electronics. The number of perils that will be available within this video claims management solution is expected to expand in time to cover areas such as fire.

(Image credit: Microsiervos)

Susan Froma, n McLarens (Credit: McLarens)

Loss adjusting and claims specialist McLarens has promoted Susan Froman to senior vice president of business development for the Americas.

In her new role, Froman, who began working for the Atlanta-based firm three years ago, is charged with expanding client relationships and improving services.

The executive has spent the past decade in loss adjusting within the excess and specialty lines market in addition to her prior work in marketing, sales, and management, among other insurance- and loss-related roles.

McLarens, which provides provides claims management, loss adjusting, surveying, and auditing services, has three offices in Colombia — in Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali — as well as operations throughout Latin America, including locations in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Panama.

The company specializes in claims and business in areas including property, casualty, aviation, marine, transit, and agriculture.

“Working with my colleagues to present a refreshing, intentional approach to the market is proving to strengthen relationships with our clients at home and abroad,” said Froman. “Building trust among our colleagues and clientele is my primary goal to reflect our quality of service.”

SOAT is an insurance coverage with a high social impact implemented in countries in the region (Costa Rica, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia), with premiums totaling $2 billion USD as of 2015. Colombia is one of the countries with the highest ubiquity of this insurance, where premiums reached $1.93 billion COP as of December 2015

SOAT has played an important role to insurance penetration and promoting insurance culture in Colombia. This business line maintains an important participation in the industry with 8.8% of the total written premiums as of December 2015 (8.2 % as of December 2010), and has been one of the most important growth engines of the industry. During the last three years (2015-2012), this segment recorded a consistent and sustained growth average of 13% on written premiums and 17% on insurance policies (average 2013-2015). SOAT has also a significant influence on the market’s profitability ratios; given it is a fully retained business that represents a substantial portion of retained premiums (10.2% December 2015) and paid claims (11% December 2015)

According to Fitch, the growing incidence of fraud is mainly due to a liquidity problem in the Colombian health system…

The technical profitability of this segment, records a negative trend since 2012, when SOAT’s technical results started to be increasingly deficient. Closing 2015, SOAT’s technical losses reached $250 billion COP, 68% higher than 2014, which represented almost 4 percentage points of the industry’s combined ratio that stood on 113% at December 2015. This negative performance was partly affected by the IBNR reserves adjustment under the new regulation, which according to rating agency estimations, impacted the technical result in about $100 billion COP at 2015. Notwithstanding, SOAT’s viability is also being affected by several structural factors

Technical fraud is one of the main factors that have affected SOAT’s loss ratio. This situation is generating an overcharge of medical expenses for events that, even in some cases, are not caused or related to traffic accidents. According insurer’s association estimates, detected fraud cases have generated claim’s overcharges of between $80 billion and $100 billion COP in 2015

According to Fitch, the growing incidence of fraud is mainly due to a liquidity problem in the Colombian health system, along with two major changes in the segment’s claims scope and operation during the last three years: increase of the coverage of the SOAT from 500 times to 800 times the minimum monthly wage and elimination of “in situ” accident declaration. These changes have opened the possibility and generated perverse incentives to declare a common accident as a traffic accident under the SOAT coverage

Likewise, the loss ratio has been also affected by a major change in the country’s vehicle fleet composition during the last five years, which now has  a growing proportion of motorcycles to cars. According to agency estimations, motorcycles represented 56% of the fleet as of December 2015 and the risk profile of this type of vehicle is greater due to the higher accident frequency and severity. The insurer’s association estimates that 80% of the SOAT’s total paid claims correspond to motorcycles, which clearly highlight their higher risk and importance on the total loss ratio. Given the slower growth rate in car sales, Fitch expects a further increase of motorcycles’ share in the overall vehicle fleet, which is expected to have a negative impact on the segment’s profitability. In addition, the shock of external factors such as medical inflation and the sharp local currency devaluation had increased the cost of claims, particularly in medicines and osteosynthesis, which has not been compensated with by a proportional price adjustment that is indexed to minimum wage variation

Moreover, SOAT’s profitability has also been affected by high levels of acquisition costs. Given that pricing is regulated, product commercialization plays an important role for market agents. However, Fitch anticipates an improvement of this factor in the long term as a result of the policy virtualization, which will increase the sale process efficiency, reduce evasion and could improve market’s grasp to distribution costs

The industry has taken measures to recover the technical profitability of this segment by focusing on two strategies. On one hand, a large number of companies that subscribe SOAT have implemented measures to improve distribution channel’s management and profitability, and have identified the need to modernize their technology platforms for a more efficient sales workflow and to implement information technology strategies. On the other hand, the insurer’s association joint work with the Colombian Financial Supervisory Authority and the Health Ministry, is taking place in order to find ways to improve claims control, avoid technical fraud and recover the technical profitability

Fitch does not expect a quick recovery of SOAT’s technical profitability, given that most of the measures required to improve some of the structural factors will be implemented within the next 18 months. Moreover, Fitch believes that segment’s sustainability and profitability challenges will persist. Adequate control and proper claims monitoring, while maintaining efficient operations, is essential in order to recover the technical profitability of a high relevance segment for the industry