Latest Agencies Headlines
All the headlines from our Agencies Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Two Big Southern California Agencies Merge
Aug 1 2011 // Two independent insurance brokers announced today they are joining forces to become one of the largest insurance brokerages in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The August 1st agreement combines Northridge Insurance Agency...
SEC Seeks More Disclosure by AIG on Credit Ratings
Aug 1 2011 // The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has asked insurer American International Group (AIG) to provide more disclosure about how and why it assigns credit ratings to investments in its portfolio, according to letters...
Organic 100
Aug 1 2011 // It’s that time of year again, when the nation’s leading privately held independent insurance agencies are put in the spotlight. Welcome to Insurance Journal‘s exclusive Top 100 Independent...
Insurer Wants to Sign 100 Agents in 100 Days
Aug 1 2011 // A commercial lines insurer is on a mission to sign a number of independent agents – as many as 100 of them – within 100 days. From July 12 through October 12, South Carolina-based Accident Insurance Co. (AIC)...
Surplus Lines Law In Effect; Taxes Up in Air
Aug 1 2011 // The implementation deadline for the Non-admitted and Reinsurance Reform Act arrived on July 21. States have been scrambling over the past year to update their surplus lines laws to comply with NRRA requirements and to...
Declarations
Aug 1 2011 // 100 Agents “We’ve got a lot coming out in 2012.” —Jon Beckham, chief marketing officer at South Carolina-based Accident Insurance Co., who said the company is looking to add 100 agents in the 100 days...
Agency Satisfaction With Insurers Not Driven by Price, Compensation
Aug 1 2011 // Insurance agents tend to give a greater share of their business to insurers with whom they are highly satisfied, according to a J.D. Power and Associates Insurance Agency Satisfaction Study-Personal Lines. The study, based...
People
Aug 1 2011 // Tim Brady, chairman and former CEO of Brady, Chapman, Holland and Associates in Houston, was named the 2011 Drex Foreman Award winner at the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas 114th Annual Conference & Trade Show...
Agents Question GM Free Car Insurance Deal With MetLife Auto
Aug 1 2011 // Independent insurance agents are raising concerns over a General Motors promotion that offers car buyers in the Pacific Northwest a year of free liability and damage insurance from MetLife Auto & Home. Hoping to put...
Surplus Lines Law In Effect; Taxes Up in Air
Aug 1 2011 // The implementation deadline for the Non-admitted and Reinsurance Reform Act arrived on July 21. States have been scrambling over the past year to update their surplus lines laws to comply with NRRA requirements and to...
Denialism: It’s a Win-Win Situation
Aug 1 2011 // Within confines, people can succeed without accepting reality. The Western church succeeded in building itself into a hugely successful entity while denying the world was round for 1,000 or so years. Many banks and bankers...
People
Aug 1 2011 // Wholesale insurance broker AmWINS Group Inc. is expanding its operations with a new office location in Morehead City, North Carolina. Karen G. Toler, formerly of Burns & Wilcox, has joined AmWINS to lead this new...
Agents for Logging Industry Hang On in Downturn
Aug 1 2011 // The logging and forestry industry has suffered dramatically since 2006, with the amount of lumber being harvested dropping by half to 5 billion from 10 billion board feet since then. Underwriters in this class agree that...
Declarations
Aug 1 2011 // 100 Agents We’ve got a lot coming out in 2012.” —Jon Beckham, chief marketing officer at South Carolina-based Accident Insurance Co., who said the company is looking to add 100 agents in the 100 days through...
People
Aug 1 2011 // Joseph Waked was named CEO of Buena Park, Calif.-based Freeway Insurance, a subsidiary of New York-based Confie Seguros. He will have responsibility for California, Texas and Arizona. Waked replaces Freeway’s former...
People
Aug 1 2011 // Wholesaler Swett & Crawford has added Ricky Dawson to its casualty staff in New York. Dawson, who has a background in both insurance wholesale brokerage and underwriting, previously served as a wholesale broker with...
Allstate Agents Hope Unionization Sparks Changes at Insurer
Aug 1 2011 // Some unhappy Allstate Insurance agents who say the insurer controls them like employees even though they are independent contractors are moving to affiliate with a union. The National Association of Professional Allstate...
Ready or Not, New Surplus Lines Law Is Here
Aug 1 2011 // The implementation deadline for the Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act has arrived. States have been scrambling over the past year to update surplus lines laws that will conform with NRRA requirements, while agents and...
Web Exchange
Aug 1 2011 // Gunning for Business On July 6, InsurnaceJournal.com ran a story about Aaron Merchant, a Farmers Insurance agent in Ahwatukee, Ariz., who in 2008, turned his firearms hobby into a small business, selling guns in a small...
Safe Driving Habits Pay Off for Consumers with Usage-Based Insurance Programs
Aug 1 2011 // The driving habits of personal auto consumers are shaping the way carriers price coverage today. Those carriers providing usage-based insurance (UBI) options, including telematic systems or devices to monitor an...
