Latest Agencies Headlines
All the headlines from our Agencies Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Public Broker Stocks Down in Dec. as 2007 Closes With 205 M&A Deals
Feb 24 2008 // Stock Prices: Brokerage stocks mimicked the overall uneasiness of the stock market during January. Hilb Rogal & Hobbs (NYSE:HRH) traded down 11.2 percent while Arthur J. Gallagher traded up 5 percent. Overall the...
Lockton Expands Atlanta Brokerage Team
Feb 22 2008 // Lockton Companies added Mary Guzman to its Atlanta brokerage team as senior vice president and producer for all property and casualty lines. The addition of Guzman expands Lockton’s Atlanta-based professional...
U.S. Court Dismisses ‘Agent Orange’ Case Against Chemical Firms
Feb 22 2008 // A federal appeals court Friday upheld a lower court ruling dismissing a civil lawsuit against major U.S. chemical companies brought by Vietnamese plaintiffs over the use of dioxin, or “agent orange,” during the...
Mich. Accident Fund Honors Agencies with 2007 President’s Club Award
Feb 22 2008 // Accident Fund Insurance Company of America recently recognized agencies by presenting its 2007 President’s Club Awards. The award is presented each year to a select number of independent insurance agencies that work...
Final Call to Participate: Who’s Worth What in the Independent Agency System?
Feb 22 2008 // Insurance Journal is polling insurance agents and brokers nationwide in its quest to find out who’s worth what in the independent agency system. More than 1,600 agencies nationwide have already responded to Insurance...
Arthur J. Gallagher Acquires Houston-based Leicht General Agency
Feb 20 2008 // Ill.-based Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. announced that its subsidiary, Risk Placement Services Inc., acquired Leicht General Agency, headquartered in Houston. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Established in...
Rating Agencies React to AXA’s Acquisition of ING Seguros
Feb 19 2008 // A.M. Best Co. and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services have taken slightly different views of France’s AXA Group’s agreement to purchase 100 percent of the share capital of the ING Group’s...
Chinese Regulators Cite Marsh as #1 International Broker
Feb 19 2008 // Marsh got a chance to deliver some good news, when the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) ranked it number one out of China’s top 20 intermediaries based on annual invoiced revenue. The survey published in...
S.D. Court Rules Against Former Agent Who Held Insurance Executive Hostage
Feb 19 2008 // A federal appeals court has upheld a judge’s ruling against the Sioux Falls man who held an insurance executive hostage in 1991. Eric Castaneira, who served 10 years for kidnapping, filed a lawsuit against the...
Who’s Worth What in the Independent Agency System?
Feb 19 2008 // Insurance Journal is polling insurance agents and brokers nationwide in its annual quest to find out who’s worth what in the independent agency system. Nearly 1,000 agencies nationwide have already responded to...
Ind. to Send Agents Back to School for Flood Coverage Refresher
Feb 14 2008 // This winter’s flooding has prompted state insurance regulators to require a training course for agents selling flood coverage. Those already selling insurance will have to take a continuing-education course of at...
Connecticut Agents Get Online License Renewals
Feb 12 2008 // There’ll be no more ink and paper for Connecticut agents looking to renew or change their insurance licenses. That’s because the state’s insurance department said it has upgraded its computer systems to...
AIG Downplays $5B Write-Down; Rating Agencies, Wall Street Concerned
Feb 12 2008 // While American International Group Inc. sought to downplay its miscalculation of losses on a derivatives portfolio as not “material to the company,” Wall Street was abuzz with speculation over whether the...
Survey: Wealthy Americans Still Fret Over Financial Stability, Security Issues
Feb 12 2008 // High-net-worth Americans with investment assets in excess of $1 million believe having money brings overall peace of mind, yet these wealthy Americans still have a variety of financial and security concerns, according to...
N.D. Insurance Agent Pleads Guilty to Fraud and Theft
Feb 11 2008 // A Fargo, N.D. insurance agent has pleaded guilty to 38 felony charges as part of a plea agreement recommending that he serve a total of two years in prison. Sixty-one-year-old David Skjerven (SHUR’-ven) also would...
Arson Suspected at Tenn. Mosque, Federal Agents Investigate
Feb 11 2008 // A mosque in Columbia, Tenn., was destroyed by a fire last week that federal investigators say appears to have been caused by arson. Investigators also found drawings of swastikas and other graffiti at the Islamic Center of...
La. Bail Bond Agent Arrested
Feb 11 2008 // A Shreveport, La., bail bond agent has been arrested, issued a cease and desist order, a notice of revocation of his license and fine notice for misappropriation and unfair trade practices, the Louisiana Department of...
RPS Names Anderson Underwriter/Broker at Scottsdale Office
Feb 11 2008 // Risk Placement Services, Inc., a national excess and surplus lines wholesaler, announced that it has promoted T.C. Anderson, IV, to underwriter/broker at the company’s office in Scottsdale, Ariz. Since joining RPS in...
Wis. Senate Squeaks Through Bill to Ban Credit Scoring
Feb 10 2008 // With the 2008 legislative sessions now in full swing, many states are taking another look at the issue of insurers using credit scoring to underwrite or rate auto or homeowners insurance. Insurance trade groups are...
AIG Reaches $12.5M Settlment With States Over Bid-Rigging Allegations
Feb 10 2008 // American International Group, Inc. (AIG) has reached settlements with Florida, West Virginia, seven other states and the District of Columbia relating to their investigations into alleged bid-rigging and price-fixing and...
