Latest Agencies Headlines

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

Ohio Insurance Agents Group Creates Data Analytics Company, IntellAgent

Jan 7 2019 // Ohio Insurance Agents Association Inc. (OIA) has launched IntellAgent LLC, an analytics-driven organization that specializes in actionable insights for independent agents. IntellAgents LLC was formed to help independent...

Toon Named Chief Operating Officer at Combined Agents of America

Jan 7 2019 // Combined Agents of America (CAA), headquartered in Austin, Texas, has promoted Nikki Toon as chief operating officer. Toon previously served as production director for CAA. CAA is a privately held agency partner group...

Gallagher Signs Agreement to Buy UK Specialist Broker Stackhouse Poland

Jan 7 2019 // Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100 percent of specialist UK insurance broker Stackhouse Poland Group Ltd. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is...

Associated Agencies Taps Shapiro to Expand Southeast Presence

Jan 7 2019 // Associated Agencies, Inc. has hired Stuart Shapiro as an account executive on its sales team. Stuart Shapiro Shapiro will be responsible for expanding Associated Agencies’ presence in the Southeast, specifically in...

Southeast Officials Focus on Curbing Fraud, Rising Auto Rates, Flood Insurance, and Distracted Driving

Jan 7 2019 // For the seventh year in a row, the Florida insurance industry, regulators, and consumer advocates will push for reforms to the state’s assignment of benefits issue that has now become an insurance crisis, according...

People

Jan 7 2019 // Insurance broker Willis Towers Watson has appointed Bill Creedon as Construction Industry leader for North America within its Corporate Risk and Broking segment. Creedon, a 30-year insurance and construction risk industry...

Once Upon a Time … Resolving Insurance Coverage and Claims Disputes

Jan 7 2019 // An independent agent in a small rural town insured a farmer whose barn burned down. The agent had failed to schedule the farm structure, so the farm policy did not cover the total loss. The agent routinely placed farm...

2018 Agents of the Year

Jan 7 2019 // Jacob Barzivand Paramount Exclusive Insurance Services Inc. | Encino, California Jacob Barzivand started working as an insurance producer right after college at the age of 20. Now, at just 26, he’s built a sizable...

2019 Insurance Industry Meetings & Conventions Directory

Jan 7 2019 // 2019 CIWA Industry Days Jan 6-8 Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines La Jolla, CA CIWA www.ciwa.net 2019 Big ‘I’ Winter Meeting Jan 9-12 Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch St. Louis, MO Independent Insurance Agents...

Millennial Business Owners Like Agents

Jan 7 2019 // Millennial business owners are more likely to work with insurance agents than those in other generations. What’s more, they’re seeking agent counsel on a variety of financial issues, according to...

The Customer Is in Control

Jan 7 2019 // It’s Time to Get Out in Front and Not Fight Gone are the days of carriers leading the entire purchasing cycle of insurance products and financial services. In an environment of unprecedented change in our industry,...

Future of Agent Distribution

Jan 7 2019 // A funny thing is happening on the way to the future. As consumers’ and carriers’ behaviors, attitudes and expectations have been changing, independent agents are evolving to better serve both customers and...

CoverWallet Opens Its Tech Platform, Carriers to Independent Agents

Jan 7 2019 // “We give you a login and password, and then every time that you talk to a customer, you can use our platform to sell faster, simpler, quicker,” said CoverWallet CEO Inaki Berenguer, referring to insurance...

Arkansas Sees Uptick in the Number of Insurance Agents/Agencies

Jan 4 2019 // There was a 10.8 percent increase in insurance agent licensure in Arkansas in 2018 over the previous year, as well as an uptick in the licensing of insurance businesses, the state insurance department announced. At the end...

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Acquires Pointer Insurance Agency of Mississippi

Jan 4 2019 // Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Southaven, Miss.-based Pointer Insurance Agency, Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Pointer Insurance Agency offers a broad range of property/casualty coverages to...

Former Big ‘I’ Executive Evans Joins Employment Services Firm WAHVE

Jan 3 2019 // Dave Evans, a former executive with the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, has joined Work At Home Vintage Experts (WAHVE) as senior vice president of Business Development. WAHVE, formed in 2010,...

How Big Tech Flirted with Insurance in 2018

Jan 2 2019 // The almost weekly headlines about insurers and venture capitalists investing in insurtechs and tech-savvy insurance startups sometimes blocked the view of what established big technology firms were doing in...

Senior Care Facilities and Their Insurers Try to Keep Up with Aging America’s Falls

Jan 2 2019 // Last March, a 103-year-old resident of a Sunrise Senior Living facility in Willowbrook, Illinois, went on a field trip to the movies. Ruth Smith, who used a walker, fell down two concrete steps in the theater and died...

Texas Surplus Lines Industry Sees Rule Changes at Year’s End

Dec 31 2018 // New rules for the Texas surplus lines insurance industry are coming into effect at the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019. According to the Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLTX), one of the most pressing changes...

Insurance Journal Midwest’s Top Stories for 2018: From Agent Fraud to Ruby Slippers

Dec 31 2018 // The most-read stories in Insurance Journal’s Midwest region in 2018 covered agent fraud, a fatal tourist boat sinking in Missouri, court cases and opinions, and even a pair of stolen — and returned — ruby red...