Latest Agencies Headlines
All the headlines from our Agencies Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Digital Insurance Buys North Carolina Benefit Broker BSD
Feb 20 2013 // Atlanta-based benefits broker Digital Insurance has acquired Benefit Services & Design (BSD) of Raleigh, North Carolina. The 30-year-old BSD has been merged with the Raleigh office of Digital Benefit Advisors (DBA), a...
Commentary: N.Y. Court’s Latest Take on Insured’s Duty to Read Policy
Feb 19 2013 // The New York Court of Appeals recently found that the insured’s failure to read the insurance policy does not bar claims for broker negligence in failing to procure requested insurance. Almost one hundred years ago...
Farmers CEO: Changes Align Leadership Around Core Businesses
Feb 19 2013 // Jeff Dailey, chief executive officer of Los Angeles, Calif.-based Farmers Group Inc., on Tuesday announced several executive leadership team appointments he says better aligns the leadership team around Farmers core...
North Carolina Agent, Farmer Sentenced for Crop Insurance Fraud
Feb 18 2013 // Two North Carolina men have been sentenced for their roles in a massive crop insurance fraud. A federal judge last Wednesday sentenced insurance agent William Larry Rogers to 9 years in prison for conspiring to make false...
Ironshore Acquires Specialty Stop Loss Insurance Broker
Feb 14 2013 // Ironshore Inc. has acquired Excess Risk Reinsurance (ERR) Inc., a managing general underwriter specializing in the Employer Stop Loss insurance sector. ERR will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ironshore Insurance...
Saft Commentary: The Fed Discovers Chicanery
Feb 14 2013 // Acknowledging that sometimes banks chisel clients and bank employees chisel banks may sound obvious to you, but for the Federal Reserve this is a pretty big step forward. Jeremy Stein, a member of the Board of Governors of...
Florida Lawmakers Unveil Property Reform Proposals
Feb 11 2013 // Florida lawmakers’ first draft of a property reform emphasizes depopulating and diverting policies from Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-backed property insurer that has 1.3 million policyholders. The...
Emails Show Change in Oklahoma Health Exchange Policy
Feb 11 2013 // A 2011 decision by Oklahoma’s insurance commissioner to return a federal health care grant came just days after a prominent conservative encouraged state officials to reconsider their approach to President Barack...
Agents Act Now on Healthcare Reform
Feb 11 2013 // The year is a prime time for agents and brokers to begin preparing their clients for Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements coming in 2014. Don’t assume that you can wait until the beginning of the plan year to...
People
Feb 11 2013 // San Diego, Calif.-based Barney & Barney LLC named David Freeman director of property/casualty sales. Freeman, who will be based in San Diego, will oversee a team of client executives in San Diego, Orange County,...
Garagekeepers Sometimes Lags in the Auto Repair Shop
Feb 11 2013 // The neighborhood auto repair shop might seem to be an easy risk to insure. But there are a few misunderstood coverages that agents and brokers should know about, says one California broker specializing in the auto services...
How to Grow Your Own Producers
Feb 11 2013 // Finding a good, qualified producer has always been difficult. When one finds a good producer, that person might be restrained by a contract from another agency or specialize in a line the agency does not sell,or the person...
Advice for Nonprofit Brokers
Feb 11 2013 // Pamela Cutchlow, executive director of two centers for abused and abandoned children, in Southern California, doesn’t mince words when asked what she wants to hear when an insurance broker comes in to speak to her...
How Agents Help Nonprofits in Hard Times
Feb 11 2013 // Still struggling through the recession, the last thing the nonprofit sector needed is the negative publicity generated by Jerry Sandusky and Lance Armstrong. The recession was hard on just about everyone, particularly the...
Oklahoma Agents Group on Workers’ Comp Reform: Wait-and-See
Feb 8 2013 // Workers’ compensation reform is certain to be an issue during the 2013 legislative session in Oklahoma and it is a major concern for the state’s independent insurance agents. The board of the Independent...
Lockton Expands Australia Operation with Melbourne Broker Acquisition
Feb 8 2013 // Lockton announced that it has expanded its operations on Australia’s East Coast with the acquisition of niche insurance brokerage firm Strategic Insurance & Risk Solutions, owned by insurance industry leader...
AIG Survey Shows Top Executives’ Concerns with Cyber Risk
Feb 8 2013 // A survey of perceptions about cyber risk sponsored by the American International Group Inc. (AIG) found that among corporate executives, more are concerned about cyber threats than about other major business risks. More...
Burand’s Agency E&O Blog: Tip #22
Feb 8 2013 // Is it smart to sell insurance to prospects that do not speak English? In an earlier blog, I emphasized the need for employing bi-lingual CSRs if an agency is to sell insurance to people that do not speak English. Two...
First Fidelity Brokerage Launches Flood Insurance Website
Feb 7 2013 // First Fidelity Brokerage of New York has launched www.insureflood.com for homeowners and businesses to obtain flood insurance, as well as information about flood insurance. The site also has a link to estimate flood damage...
Policyholder Education: Agent or Carrier Responsibility?
Feb 7 2013 // Policyholder education about insurance coverage wording is a critical challenge for the property/casualty insurance industry. But who should be doing the teaching — agents or carriers? During a recent industry meeting, a...
