Latest Agencies Headlines
All the headlines from our Agencies Topic Page, ordered by recency.
High Hopes for High Tech
Oct 17 2011 // Tech Talk with Reid French, Applied Systems’ New CEO Insurance agencies are under pressure to quickly adopt new technologies in order to keep up with competitors, according to a newcomer to the insurance industry who...
More Optimism, but Plenty of Controversy Surrounds Mortgage Broker Errors and Omissions Market Segment
Oct 17 2011 // Insurance agents serving the mortgage broker marketplace see some signs of improvement but they aren’t yet jumping for joy. The mortgage brokers error and omissions (E&O) market became severely strained when the...
Nationwide, Harleysville CEOs Say Merger All About Growth
Oct 17 2011 // The merger of insurer Nationwide Mutual with regional carrier Harleysville Mutual is all about growth, not only for the companies but also for their independent agents, according to the CEOs of the two...
Volunteerism Feeds Employees’ Need to Serve
Oct 17 2011 // “It was like I gave her a million dollars.” That’s how Sean Ramalho of Travelers described the reaction from a woman to whom he gave a blanket on a bitterly cold winter day while he was volunteering at...
Nevada Young Agents Group Grows the Old-Fashioned Way
Oct 17 2011 // The Nevada Young Agents Committee started out small with a young insurance agent collecting and passing out a few cards around the state, and it’s now a rapidly growing organization that has garnered a bit of...
Who Is Reid French and Why Is He Saying Nice Things About Insurance?
Oct 17 2011 // Applied Systems’ new CEO Reid French is no stranger to technology, having worked for several software makers over the past 15 years. One job was with a company called Six Solutions that sold software for professional...
How Agency Technology Drives Profitable Growth
Oct 17 2011 // Profitability and growth continue to be the drivers of independent insurance agency valuations, and leading agencies around the country are using new ways to produce profitable growth. “You cannot have strong...
People
Oct 17 2011 // Higginbotham & Associates has promoted commercial insurance broker Mike Bateman to its managing director group for 2012. Bateman, who joined Higginbotham’s Dallas office in 2004, was promoted from account...
E&O Spotlight: Insuring Commercial Properties? Important Issues to Watch For
Oct 17 2011 // Most agencies write some degree of commercial insurance. There is a good chance that insuring the building is part of the overall program for these commercial exposures. Unfortunately, as demonstrated by the following...
New York Officially Combines Regulatory Agencies
Oct 17 2011 // New York Department of Financial Services, the new department that combines the state’s insurance and banking regulators, was officially launched on Monday, Oct. 3. Financial Services Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky...
What’s New, And Not So New, in Technology?
Oct 17 2011 // Cool Apps There are apps available on smartphones and tablet devices today that agents and brokers utilize for live streaming (Ustream), scanning documents (JotNot), conferencing (GoToMeeting and others), VoIP calls...
People
Oct 17 2011 // Wells Publishing Inc. has named Don Jergler as its new West editor for its flagship Insurance Journal online and print property/casualty insurance publications. Jergler, based in California, will cover the western states...
Penn.-based Insurance Agents & Brokers Hires Brinjac
Oct 14 2011 // Insurance Agents & Brokers Services Group in Pennsylvania appointed Lauren Brinjac as government affairs director. In her role, Brinjac will oversee legislative advocacy efforts of the organization throughout...
Independent Agencies Showing Signs of Recovery, Says Big ‘I’ Study
Oct 13 2011 // Things are looking better for the nation’s property/casualty independent insurance agencies. Organic growth for these agencies improved somewhat last year and their profitability held constant across most of the six...
NIF Group, Ironshore Partner to Insure Health, Human Service Agencies
Oct 13 2011 // NIF Group, Inc., a program administrator and specialty brokerage firm, joins with Ironshore Programs unit to insure health and human service agencies. Coverage will be provided for general and professional liability, on an...
New Billing, Commission System at Texas Windstorm Pool Starts Jan. 1
Oct 13 2011 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) will be implementing a new billing and commission system beginning Jan. 1, 2012. In a bulletin to insurance agents, TWIA said under the new system it will assume the...
2,100 Jobs Lost in Insurance Industry in August
Oct 13 2011 // The latest U.S. jobs data show the insurance industry lost 2,100 jobs overall in August. The industry employs some 2,211,000 workers according to the latest numbers. The Insurance Information Institute reported that most...
Oklahoma’s Bramlett Installed as Chairman-elect of Big ‘I’ Executive Team
Oct 12 2011 // The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big “I”) announced that Robert “Bobby” Bramlett has been installed as chairman-elect of the IIABA’s executive...
Confie Seguros Enters Florida Market, Buys Trustway Agencies
Oct 11 2011 // Confie Seguros, a group of insurance agencies targeting Hispanic customers, has acquired the Miami, Florida-based Trustway Insurance Agencies. Founded in 1998, Trustway has 28 locations in the state and additional offices...
Jackson to Represent BrokersLink’s Latin America Interests
Oct 11 2011 // BrokersLink, the independent insurance broker network, announced changes to its representation in Latin America. The bulletin said: “Following a decision by Alinter, the international arm of Mexican insurance and...
