Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
CRM First Quarter Reflects Self-Insured Group Closings in N.Y.
May 7 2008 // Workers’ compensation insurance firm CRM Holdings, Ltd. reported that net income increased 71.7% to $5.0 million, from $2.9 million a year ago, but fee income plummeted due in part to the closing of CRM’s...
Kentucky Company Enters Reinsurance Agreement with California Underwriter
May 6 2008 // California-based NAS Insurance Services and Kentucky Hospital Insurance Company have entered into a new reinsurance arrangement for network security insurance. The agreement provides for KHIC to cover the insured...
California Assembly Insurance Committee Passes Agent-Broker Bill
May 5 2008 // California’s Assembly Insurance Committee has passed Assembly Bill 2956 by a vote of 7-0, moving one step closer to codifying the traditional “totality of the circumstances” test for determining whether...
California Earthquake: Damage Predictions of ‘Big One’ Get Bigger
May 5 2008 // A new report is predicting that a repeat of San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake would damage more than 90,000 buildings and cost $150 billion to repair. According to the report, “When the Big One Strikes...
On Shaky Ground
May 5 2008 // There have been a lot of rumblings lately — with scientists recording earthquakes in Nevada, Oregon and throughout the Midwest ranging from magnitudes 4.7 to 5.4. The U.S. Geological survey recently noted that...
Survey: Majority of October’s California Wildfire Claims Settled
May 5 2008 // A new survey of insurance companies estimated that nearly 90 percent of claims stemming from the devastating October 2007 fire and wind storms in California have been settled. A poll by the Insurance Information Network of...
People
May 5 2008 // Patrick G. Ryan, founder and executive chairman Aon Corp., said he intends to retire Aug. 1, 2008. Ryan said the firm’s transition to a new management team under CEO Greg Case is complete. Ryan founded Aon, which has...
Court Denies Allstate’s Request to Avoid Rate Decrease
May 5 2008 // A San Francisco judge has refused Allstate’s request to block a 15.9 percent automobile insurance rate decrease. Thus, the California Department of Insurance said the rate decrease should take effect immediately, and...
Earthquakes Raise Questions of Future Shocks, Public Readiness
May 5 2008 // Just weeks after earthquakes rattled Nevada, the Midwest and the coast of Oregon, and on the heels of the 102nd anniversary of San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake, the public, government officials and insurance industry...
California Aims to Improve Insurance Rate Approval Process
May 5 2008 // California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has issued emergency regulations that he believes will clarify and streamline the prior approval rate system for insurance. However, a consumer advocacy group said the...
Consumer Federation Says Prior Approval Works, Industry Says Not True
May 5 2008 // A nationwide consumer study of automobile insurance regulation says rates have risen more slowly in the 15 states that require insurers to receive advance approval of rate increases from the state in the past two...
Business Moves
May 5 2008 // BB&T Insurance Services, Union Bank of California Raleigh, N.C.-based BB&T Insurance Services reached an agreement with Union Bank of California North America to purchase its San Diego-based insurance subsidiary,...
It Figures
May 5 2008 // 204 The number of jobs Nationwide Insurance announced it would be cutting from its Portland, Ore., offices, as part of a plan to eliminate certain departments. Company spokesman Joe Case said more than 300 employees will...
Business Moves
May 5 2008 // NSM Insurance, Insurex NSM Insurance Group, a national wholesaler and program manager based in Conshocken, Pa., has acquired Insurex, a California-based workers’ compensation brokerage. The acquisition...
Industry Douses Consumer Group Praise for Prior Approval of Auto Rates
May 5 2008 // A nationwide consumer study of automobile insurance regulation says that rates have risen more slowly over the past two decades in the 15 states that require insurers to receive advance approval of rate increases from the...
Consumer Group Alleges New Rules Will Raise Insurance Rates in Calif.
May 2 2008 // A consumer group this week accused California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner of adopting emergency regulations that would lead to higher rates for auto, homeowner and most other types of insurance coverage. In a...
Magnitude-5.2 Earthquake Hits Northern California
May 1 2008 // A moderate earthquake hit a mountainous region of Northern California on Tuesday night. There are no immediate reports or injury or damage. The magnitude-5.2 temblor struck at 8:03 p.m., centered about 11 miles southeast...
Allstate to Comply with Order to Lower Calif. Auto Rates by 15.9%
May 1 2008 // California automobile insurance units of Allstate Corp. will lower rates by 15.9 percent by a May 12 deadline, complying with an order by the state’s insurance regulator that it had challenged, a company spokesman...
Homes, Schools Threatened as Fires Scorch Nevada, Arizona and California
May 1 2008 // Firefighters had to contend with gale-force winds while battling a huge brush fire that raced along the edge of a valley south of Reno, forcing a major highway to close, threatening homes, and causing the evacuation of a...
Insurers Boost California Economy By $27.3 Billion
Apr 29 2008 // California has a $1.6 trillion economy that ranks it as a global financial power, thanks in part to a multi-billion dollar boost from the insurance industry, according to a new report by the Insurance Information Network...
