Agencies - Latest Insurance News

Sacramento Broker Sentenced for Selling Small Business Phony Insurance

Jul 13 2004 // Suzanne Rita Beall was sentenced on July 12 to three years in state prison for grand theft, possession of forged documents with intent to defraud and embezzlement from an elder, at the Yolo County Superior Court in...

Hub International Acquires Payne & Company

Jul 12 2004 // Hub International Limited announced that Hub International of California Inc., has purchased for an undisclosed amount of cash the assets of Payne & Company Insurance Brokers Inc. Payne was founded in 1973 and earns...

IMMS Launches Online Market Service

Jul 12 2004 // Insurance Marketing & Management Services (IMMS) has announced the launch of IMMSmarkets.com, an online service that allows retail insurance agencies to submit their markets needs, free of charge, to a network of...

Wildfire Victims Question Industry’s Cost Calculator

Jul 12 2004 // Don Robinson says his Residence Mutual insurance policy pegged the cost of replacing his San Diego home at $233,000. After Southern California’s wildfires destroyed the 40-year-old biologist’s four-bedroom...

Consumer Group Claims NAMIC Study on Credit Scoring ‘Flip-Flops’ Earlier Positions

Jul 9 2004 // The consumer group, Center for Economic Justice (CEJ), released a statement in response to a National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) study on credit scoring. CEJ’s Executive Director Birny Birnbaum...

IIANC Names Morehead City Branch of Burns & Wilcox Broker of the Year

Jul 8 2004 // The Young Agents Committee of the Independent Insurance Agents of North Carolina (IIANC) has named the Morehead City office of national specialty insurance wholesaler, underwriter and managing general agent Burns &...

AIIA Young Agents Conference July 22-24

Jul 8 2004 // The Alabama Independent Insurance Agents (AIIA) Young Agents Conference is set for July 22-24 at the New Baytowne Village Resort. Participants can experience the new Village of Baytowne Wharf in the Sandestin Resort. The...

Sacramento Mortgage Broker Arrested in Alleged Auto Insurance Scam

Jul 7 2004 // Jesse L. Jackson, 34, of Sacramento, was arrested at his residence June 28 and booked into the county jail on two felony counts of insurance fraud and one count of attempted grand theft. His arrest is the result of an...

Pinnacle Joins Combined Agents of America

Jul 7 2004 // Combined Agents of America LLC, based in Austin, Texas, announced that Pinnacle Insurance Group Inc., Waco, is its newest member and the first member agency from the Waco area. Pinnacle Insurance Group was founded in...

N.J. Agent Says He Stole More than $429,000

Jul 7 2004 // New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey announced that a Camden County insurance agent has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $429,000 as part of a complex insurance fraud and investment scheme in which he convinced...

Fla. CFO Commends Governor, Lawmakers for Ending Abusive Practices in Annuities Sales

Jul 6 2004 // Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher has applauded Governor Bush and state lawmakers for enacting legislation which puts an end to abusive sales practices used by unscrupulous insurance agents selling...

Cooper Gay Opens San Francisco Office

Jul 6 2004 // London-based Cooper Gay Group, an independent insurance and reinsurance broker, has opened a San Francisco office to complement their existing wholesale insurance network in North America. The new San Francisco office at...

The Sales Meeting

Jul 5 2004 // The practice of “sales management” is embraced by some and ignored by others. It is considered a powerful tool for some agencies, yet others see it as a total waste of time. The bulk in the middle will exercise...

Another Soft Market Creates a Hard Reality

Jul 5 2004 // Like a commercial airline scrambling to squeeze out a profit in the face of increased competition and skyrocketing fuel prices, many insurance agents find themselves caught in the downward spiral of another soft market...

The New Insurers: This Time, They’ll Do It The Right Way

Jul 5 2004 // ‘Clean Slate’ U.S. P/C Insurers Learn from Sins of Their Predecessors In the summer of 2001, the hard cycle had already arrived for the U.S. property/casualty marketplace. Prices were trending up as experts...

Newest E&S Broker Keating at Home in New England

Jul 5 2004 // I always wanted to return here,” Jim Keating says. “Here” is the Northeast, more specifically Atlantic Avenue in Boston, overlooking Boston harbor, where Keating has set up shop as The Keating Group to...

Brokers Urged to Avoid Surprises in Lawyers’ E&O at PLUS Symposium

Jul 5 2004 // The news that the market for lawyers’ liability coverage is softening may not be surprising but the questions that today’s insurance underwriters ask about law firm accounts might be, attendees at a recent...

Principals Should Focus on Creating Agency Value, Not Day-to-Day Issues

Jul 5 2004 // Over the years, I have found that many agency owners peg their agency value to traditional benchmarks and current market values. At one time, the industry benchmark for an average agency was one and a half times annual...

Brokers Urged to Avoid Surprises in Lawyers E&O