Latest Agencies Headlines

All the headlines from our Agencies Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Risks in a Bad Economy

Feb 21 2010 // Agents Take Note of New Errors and Omissions Exposures The current economic turmoil is wreaking havoc across the board. Businesses are downsizing or going out of business. Families are suffering from lost jobs and...

50 Things Young Agents Like LEAST

Feb 21 2010 // The exclusive 2010 Insurance Journal Young Agents Survey asked independent agents 40 years old and younger what they like least about being an independent agent. Here’s what some of the 631 agents who responded had...

Lee & Mason Increases Limits on Insurance Agents’ Professional Liability

Feb 19 2010 // Lee & Mason Financial Services, Inc. has increased its limits for insurance agents’ errors and omissions coverage from $5 million to $10 million. Insurance agents E&O coverage, with limits of up to $10...

Agents Encouraged to Review Flood Risk in Minnesota

Feb 18 2010 // With the potential for serious flooding in the Red River, Minnesota and possibly Mississippi river valleys this spring, Governor Pawlenty is reminding insurance agents to talk with their homeowners customers about optional...

Combined Agents Group Premiums Grow to $410M in 2009

Feb 18 2010 // Austin, Texas-based Combined Agents of America LLC (CAA) announced it achieved more than $410 million in combined property and casualty premiums and more than $53 million in revenue for 2009. The group, which recorded...

AJ Gallagher Buys Brazil Facultative Reinsurance Broker

Feb 17 2010 // Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Securitas Re of Sao Paulo, Brazil from Estater Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. It will trade internationally as Gallagher Brazil, as a...

Large Brokers Freed to Go After Contingent Commissions But Will They?

Feb 17 2010 // The nation’s largest insurance brokers have received the go-ahead to begin accepting contingent commissions again — but two of them say they won’t do it. Officials in New York, Illinois and Connecticut...

Willis CEO Plumeri Reiterates Broker’s Contingent Commissions Rejection

Feb 16 2010 // Willis Group Holdings Chairman and CEO Joe Plumeri, speaking to a meeting of insurance executives at Willis’ London headquarters, reiterated the broker’s long standing position that it would not accept...

Keystone Insurers Adds 2 More Kentucky Agencies; Total Now 13

Feb 16 2010 // Keystone Insurers Group (KIG) is continuing its expansion in Kentucky. The company announced it has added Rowland Insurance and Rudd Insurance to its growing list of partner agencies in Kentucky. These two firms join...

2 Nebraska Agents Sentenced

Feb 16 2010 // Two insurance agents in Nebraska have been handed sentences for unlawful conduct, the Nebraska Department of Insurance reported. A previously licensed insurance agent, Bobby L. Hoeft, sentenced by District Court Judge...

Mass. Supreme Court Rules Against Agents in Auto Insurance Lawsuit

Feb 16 2010 // The Massachusetts Supreme Court has sided with the state’s insurance commissioner in a heated lawsuit brought by the state’s insurance agents and Arbella Mutual Insurance Co. over how new companies are assigned...

North Carolina Agent Sentenced for Embezzlement

Feb 12 2010 // A North Carolina insurance agent has been sentenced to 48 months supervised probation with one year of electronic house arrest after pleading guilty to five counts of embezzlement, according to state officials. Insurance...

Study: Agent Satisfaction Rises According to Size of Business Placed

Feb 11 2010 // The more personal lines business an agency places with a particular carrier, the more satisfaction the agency reports having with that same carrier. That’s according to a new industry study which states that insurers...

Wholesale Insurance Broker Towerstone Adds to Staff

Feb 11 2010 // Dallas-based Towerstone Inc., a wholesale insurance broker and managing general agency, announced that Rachel Blais, Jennie Conditt, J.B. Hill, Amy McCarty and Ryan Taylor have joined the company. Conditt is an assistant...

New York Requires Agents to Reveal How Much They’re Paid

Feb 10 2010 // The New York Insurance Department has officially released a new set of rules that will require insurance agents and brokers to provide some detailed information to clients about how agents are paid. The new regulation,...

New York Agents Group Suing State over Pay-Disclosure Rules

Feb 10 2010 // A trade group for New York insurance agents says it will sue the state over newly issued rules that would force agents to reveal to clients how much they are paid. The Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of New York...

New York to Issue Watered-Down Disclosure Rules for Agents

Feb 9 2010 // New York regulators are expected to release new rules tomorrow that require agents to disclose to clients some aspects of their compensation, although the rules are more palatable to agents than previous proposed...

Keystone Insurers Continues Kentucky Expansion; Adds 5 Agencies

Feb 8 2010 // Five more insurance agencies have joined the Keystone Insurers Group in Kentucky, bringing to 11 the total number of KIG agencies in the state. The latest to join are Hayes-Utley-Hedgspeth, Moore Insurance, Cambridge...

Four Steps to Using Agency Technology for Target Marketing

Feb 7 2010 // Conducting a target marketing campaign used to be cumbersome and expensive. Today, with an up-to-date agency management system, getting started is a snap. It still takes persistence to succeed, but getting going...

Four Steps to Using Agency Technology for Target Marketing

Feb 7 2010 // Conducting a target marketing campaign used to be cumbersome and expensive. Today, with an up-to-date agency management system, getting started is a snap. It still takes persistence to succeed, but getting going...