Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
New Markets
Mar 20 2006 // Yacht and boat coverage in Calif., Ariz.Nuts & Bolts: Abram Interstate Insurance Services Inc., Rocklin, Calif., is offering a standalone watercraft program for boats and yachts of all sizes, up to 15 years old....
Continental Risk Opens California Marine Facility
Mar 20 2006 // Continental Risk Insurance Services, a surplus lines broker, has opened a new facility in Lodi, Calif., devoted to the marine industry. Operating under the name of Continental Marine Insurance Services, it will concentrate...
Calif. Insurance Commissioner Candidate Bustamante to Address Latin American Agents
Mar 20 2006 // California Insurance Commissioner Candidate Cruz Bustamante, currently the Lieutenant Governor, will be speaking at the Latin American Agents Association (LAAA) meeting, slated for Thursday, April 6th at 7 p.m. Bustamante...
People and Places
Mar 20 2006 // Seattle-based Safeco Insurance Companies has appointed Michael LaRocco as president and chief operating officer. In that expanded role, LaRocco will bring together the company’s property and casualty operations, and...
Study says Californians unmotivated to prepare for next disaster
Mar 20 2006 // Californians believe that their state is prone to disasters, but they see little motivation to prepare for nature’s crushing blows, a new poll has found. The poll, sponsored by the Insurance Information Network of...
Fraud Roundup
Mar 20 2006 // Calif. pair arrested for fraud, grand theft and conspiracy charges California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi has reported that Troy Portillo, a body shop manager, and Gabi Zaarour, a parts department manager, were...
Zurich, 9 States Settle Bid-Rigging Case for $171 Million
Mar 19 2006 // Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott reported that Texas and eight other states have reached a $171 million settlement with Zurich American Insurance Co. relating to bid-rigging and price-fixing in the commercial insurance...
Calif. Man Arrested for Workers’ Compensation Fraud
Mar 17 2006 // California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi has announced that Sacramento resident Wayne Allen Sorenson, 35, has been arrested on workers’ compensation insurance fraud charges after an investigation by the...
Calif. Truck Driver Pulled Over for Falsifying Insurance Claim
Mar 16 2006 // California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi reported the arrest of Jesus Lerma, 51, from Riverside, after an investigation by the California Department of Insurance (CDI) Fraud Division revealed that it was not him,...
Wills Joins Maclean, Oddy as AVP
Mar 15 2006 // Maclean, Oddy & Associates Inc. announced it has appointed Eddie Wills to the position of assistant vice president and manager of the Underwriting Management Company of Maclean, Oddy & Associates. She will be...
Calif. Law Office Manager Sent to Prison in Large-Scale Auto Fraud
Mar 15 2006 // A California man, who with his brother managed a law office reportedly involved in a large-scale auto insurance fraud ring, was sent to state prison and ordered to make restitution of $1.5 million, the Los Angeles County...
Calif. Court Reinstates Class Action Against Lead Paint Makers
Mar 14 2006 // A state appeals court in San Jose, Calif. has reinstated a class-action lawsuit alleging that several paint manufacturers knowingly sold harmful lead-based paint products for decades. The Sixth District Court of Appeal on...
Fresno, Calif., Qualifies for State’s Low-Cost Auto Insurance Program
Mar 14 2006 // Insurance Commissioner Garamendi has announced that the California Low Cost Automobile Insurance program will launch in Fresno County on April 1, bringing an opportunity for eligible low income good drivers to get...
California Bars Workers from Neverland Ranch Due to Insurance
Mar 14 2006 // Michael Jackson has been ordered to pay a $69,000 fine and remove 69 employees from his Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, Calif., for allowing workers’ compensation insurance to lapse at the exotic estate that has been...
Calif. Regulator Reaches Settlement with Marsh to End Secret Commissions
Mar 13 2006 // California’s Department of Insurance (CDI) has reached an agreement with Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. requiring the giant broker to fully disclose commission agreements and put a halt to harmful practices...
Los Angeles Clerk Charged in Fraudulent Disability Claim Scam
Mar 10 2006 // California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi reported the arrest of Linda Carleen Moore, 42, of Palmdale, on felony charges of falsifying an accident disability claim. Moore, an employee of the Los Angeles County...
Union Bank of California Names Janes CEO of Insurance Subsidiary
Mar 10 2006 // Union Bank of California North America, based in San Francisco, has named Michael A. Janes CEO of its insurance subsidiary, UnionBanc Insurance Services Inc. Janes joins the agency from Hilb, Rogal & Hobbs Co. where...
Agents, Brokers Encourage Calif. Supreme Court to De-Publish Opinion
Mar 9 2006 // Insurance Agents and Brokers of the West (IBA West) has urged the California Supreme Court to “depublish” an unprecedented appellate court opinion suggesting that insurance broker-agents owe a legal duty of...
Calif. State Fund, Kern County, Host Heat Illness Prevention Seminar
Mar 8 2006 // The Kern County Builders’ Exchange, in association with California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund, is sponsoring a free heat illness prevention seminar for policyholders, Exchange members and employers at...
Insurers’ Photography Tells Story of ’06 San Francisco Quake
Mar 7 2006 // Finding old photographs to mark the centennial of California’s 1906 “Great Quake” and fire was the easy part of Corey Keller’s job as an assistant curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern...
