Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Allstate 4Q Profit Falls 37% as Calif. Wildfire Losses Top $300M
Jan 31 2008 // Hit by an increase in catastrophe losses, Northbrook, Ill.-based insurer Allstate Corp. saw its profit drop by more than 37 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006. The fourth quarter net...
Insurance Charitable Foundation to Hold Club100 Dinner, March 6
Jan 30 2008 // The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation, a national not-for-profit organization of insurance agents, brokers, and companies will hold its fourth annual Southern California Club100 Dinner on Thursday, March 6, 2008 at...
Calif. Insurance Dept. and DHMC Target PacifiCare for Poor Claims Handling
Jan 30 2008 // California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and Cindy Ehnes, director of the California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC), announced Tuesday a joint action against PacifiCare companies, owned by UnitedHealth...
Calif. WC State Fund Appoints Simons Marketing Manager
Jan 29 2008 // Gina Simons has been appointed operations manager of the California State Fund’s marketing department. Simons began her workers’ compensation insurance career in 1988 as a marketing consultant in the State...
Ascension to Acquire Calif.-based Pan American Underwriters
Jan 28 2008 // Ascension Insurance Inc. signed an agreement to acquire the assets of the California -based insurance agency, Pan American Underwriters Inc. Pan American is a wholly owned subsidiary of PAULA Financial (Pink Sheets:PFCO)....
Southern Calif. Braces for Another Storm; Mudslides Feared
Jan 28 2008 // Winter storms continued to soak Southern California and meteorologists warned that wetter weather was on its way. Up to 2 inches of rain fell overnight in valley and coastal areas and about double that in the mountains,...
Calif. High Court Rules Employers Can Fire Workers Using Medical Marijuana
Jan 28 2008 // Employers can fire workers found to have used medical marijuana even if it was legally prescribed, the California Supreme Court ruled last Thursday, dealing the state another setback in its standoff with U.S. law...
California AG Approves Uninsured Motorist Ballot Initiative
Jan 27 2008 // Commissioner Poizner says measure needed to protect public safety, insurance costs A proposed measure that would require California state and local law enforcement officers to remove the license plates of any vehicle...
It Figures
Jan 27 2008 // $62,000 Los Angeles-based Farmers Group Inc. announced it gave $62,000 to the La Jolla Band of Mission Indians to help rebuild after the Southern California fires of 2007. Farmers Executive Vice President of Field...
Calif. Agents Brace for Rising Workers’ Comp Rates
Jan 27 2008 // In the largest survey of its kind, fewer than half of California’s 10,000 business insurance agents see California’s business economy improving, either for themselves or for their clients, in 2008. The study...
Southern California Wildfire Losses Could Top $2 Billion
Jan 27 2008 // The California Department of Insurance announced that 37,117 claims have been filed since the wildfires broke out in Southern California in October 2007, and 1,531 of those claims are known to be total losses. Insurers...
People
Jan 27 2008 // Zurich named Kevin Dunham senior vice president and global relationship leader for the western region of its Global Corporate in North America Business unit. Dunham is based in Glendale, Calif., and will manage accounts...
Declarations
Jan 27 2008 // Startling Results “We wanted to know what these insurance agents see for 2008, and the results were more than a little startling.” —Joe Wheeler, vice president of Self Insured Solutions (SIS), commenting on a...
Business Moves
Jan 27 2008 // Beecher Carlson, Alliance Insurance Atlanta-based Beecher Carlson insurance brokerage has acquired Phoenix-based Alliance Insurance Group. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. According to Beecher...
Engineers Warn Flooding is ‘Next Big Disaster’ for California
Jan 27 2008 // While flooding in California’s Central Valley is “the next big disaster waiting to happen,” water-related infrastructure issues confront almost every community across the country, according to engineers...
Calif.-based MOC Insurance, Farallon Assoc. Announce Merger
Jan 25 2008 // Van Maroevich, president and CEO of MOC Insurance Services/Maroevich, O’Shea & Coghlan, and Peter Brown and Harry Humphrey of Farallon Associates Insurance Brokers, both based in San Francisco, announced the...
Calif. Lawmaker Seeks to Ban Some Risky Mortgages
Jan 24 2008 // A California legislator on Wednesday introduced a lending-regulation bill that seeks to mandate the obvious — that people who want to buy a home can actually afford the mortgage, property taxes and insurance. The...
Ludt Joins Lawson-Hawks Team
Jan 23 2008 // John Miller, chief executive officer of Lawson-Hawks Insurance Associates announced the recent addition of Michael Ludt of Irvine, Calif., as a broker for the Healthcare/Medical Malpractice Division for the Mountain...
U.S. Releases New Disaster Response and Recovery Plan
Jan 23 2008 // The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released a comprehensive plan for what the country must do to have a more effective and unified response and recovery in disaster situations. DHS said that the new plan, called...
California AG Approves Uninsured Motorist Ballot Initiative
Jan 22 2008 // A proposed measure that would require California state and local law enforcement officers to remove the license plates of any vehicle lacking proof of insurance and current valid registration is one step closer to reaching...
