Latest Agencies Headlines

Jan 1 2006 // Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation, a Boston-based auto insurer, has appointed Matthew H. Cronin as senior marketing representative and Sean P. Farrelly as marketing representative, both in Connecticut. Cronin will...

From New England to Virginia, Courts Made Insurance Headlines in 2005

Dec 30 2005 // From Maine to Virginia, many of the insurance headlines in 2005 dealt with compensation and reinsurance probes, just as they did across the country, casting the industry’s reputation in a bad light. But much of the...

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Adds Pa. Brokerage to Roster

Dec 29 2005 // Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. reported the acquisition of Brokerage Professionals Inc. of Media, Pennsylvania. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Established in 1982, Brokerage Professionals Inc. (bpi) is a...

2005, a Year to Remember: Busiest Hurricane Season of the Century for United States

Dec 29 2005 // The hurricane season made 2005 a year-to-remember, with the southeast encountering the busiest hurricane season of the century, with 26 named storms and 13 hurricanes, meteorologists used up the list of 21 proper names and...

Take Insurance Journal’s Agency Automation Survey

Dec 29 2005 // Insurance Journal is working with Kinetic Information LLC to study how independent insurance agents and brokers are approaching agency automation. The results will appear as an exclusive article in Insurance Journal early...

La., Miss. Relief Agencies to Share $125K in Aid from Council Foundation

Dec 28 2005 // The Foundation for Agency Management Excellence (FAME), an insurance industry educational foundation of The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers, has identified the three relief agencies in Louisiana and Mississippi...

Ill.’s Euclid to Purchase Environmental Insurance Brokers

Dec 28 2005 // Euclid Insurance Services, Inc. in Itasca, Ill., plans to acquire McHenry, Ill.-based Environmental Insurance Brokers, Inc., a commercial insurance agency that specializes in serving the waste-hauling and transportation...

Four Key 2006 Goals Outlined by Florida Big ‘I’ President

Dec 28 2005 // The Florida Association of Insurance Agents has four key goals to accomplish in 2006 according to Jeff Grady, FAIA president and CEO, first, to pass its property insurance market proposal; second, to pass FAIA’s...

Ill. Agents,Companies Plan Annual Insurance Industry Legislative Day

Dec 27 2005 // The Professional Independent Insurance Agents of Illinois, in conjunction with the Illinois Insurance Association, Illinois Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, Illinois State Association of Health Underwriters...

Michigan Agents Push for Improved Smoke Detector Use

Dec 22 2005 // Michigan insurance agents are calling for more use of smoke detectors in Michigan homes as the peak fire season approaches. Last year, 119 people died in Michigan house fires. Only 16 percent of the homes where a fire...

S. Fla. Insurance Agent Arrested for Bilking His Elderly Clients

Dec 22 2005 // A South Florida insurance agent, Thomas A. Masciarelli, was arrested Tuesday by state insurance fraud detectives for bilking elderly clients in an unregistered securities scheme. Masciarelli, 48, was charged with three...

N.Y. Permits Agents to Recover Costs for Bad Checks in Reversal of Opinion

Dec 21 2005 // New York insurance agents will have the same rights that other businesses have to recover costs when customers write bad checks, according to a new opinion issued December 19 by the New York Insurance Department. The...

Pensacola Agent’s License Revoked for Multiple Violations

Dec 20 2005 // Darrell E. Stidham, a Pensacola, Fla. agent has had his license revoked due to multiple violations, including scamming a blind client according to an announcement by Tom Gallagher, Florida’s CFO. Stidham, 54, has...

Texas-based CAA Member Agencies to Participate in Big ‘I’ Best Practices Study

Dec 20 2005 // Bigham-Kliewer-Chapman-Watts and Bosworth & Associates, two member agencies of Combined Agents of America, have been selected to be a part of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America “Best...

From Pinstripes to Prison Stripes: Near North’s Segal on Life Behind Bars

Dec 19 2005 // Former Chicago Insurance Broker Serving Time for Fraud Appears on TV; Is Movie Next? Once you get over the fear…you find that people are just people,” Michael “Mickey” Segal, 63, told an ABC-TV news...

Update from the Gulf Coast: A Policyholder’s Perspective

Dec 19 2005 // Which Came First: the Chicken, the Egg or the Hurricane? While debates wax and wane in newspaper headlines, the harsh reality for thousands of policyholders in the wake of Hurricane Katrina centers around an age-old issue:...

States Urged to Prepare for Catastrophes by Enforcing Smarter Land Use

Dec 19 2005 // The country needs to consider where and how it builds if it is to avoid the worst effects of another Hurricane Katrina or Sept. 11 attack, according to experts at the recent National Conference of Insurance Legislators...

S.D. Court Strikes Down Countersignature Law

Dec 19 2005 // A federal district court judge in South Dakota ruled that the state’s countersignature law is unconstitutional. The ruling means that 50 states have taken action to eliminate the countersignature requirement,...

AGENT NOT LIABLE FOR NON-DISCLOSURE:

Dec 19 2005 // The Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Nassau, has reversed a lower court decision that found an insurance agent could potentially be held responsible for misrepresentations in a life insurance application....

Opportunity Knocks

Dec 19 2005 // As 2005 draws to a close it marks the end of the second tumultuous year for the industry. After the multiple hurricanes of 2004, everyone was hoping 2005 would be calmer, but we ended up having an even more catastrophic...