Latest Carriers Headlines

All the headlines from our Carriers Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Miss. Gov. Barbour Rejects Hood’s Call to Block State Farm

Feb 20 2007 // Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said he will seek legislation aimed at blocking State Farm Insurance Cos. from refusing to write new homeowners and commercial policies in the hurricane-battered state. Hood’s...

Fla. Insurers Advised on Filing Discounted Rates Required by Law

Feb 20 2007 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty signed an order advising residential insurers to make rate filings to include the new discount factor mandated by legislation passed during the recent special session. The new...

Insurer Plans to Expand Tucson Work Force

Feb 19 2007 // Insurance company Geico plans to add more than 200 new customer service employees at its Tucson call center by the end of the year, part of a planned expansion that has already added 125 workers since September. Geico...

Calif. Judge Rules Against Auto Insurers in Lawsuit over ZIP Codes

Feb 18 2007 // Siding with consumer groups and state regulators, a state judge on Feb. 15 threw out a lawsuit that challenged rules requiring auto insurers to base their rates primarily on drivers’ records instead of where they...

Insurers Dispute Fla. Criticisms of Education and Job Rating Criteria

Feb 16 2007 // The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies disputed claims made by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation that auto insurance companies use education and occupation underwriting criteria to charge higher...

Smoke Alarms Need Attention, Texas Insurer Group Says

Feb 16 2007 // A recent survey by firefighters in Farmers Branch, Texas, found that one third of the smoke alarms they tested inside homes didn’t work. The Insurance Council of Texas (ICT) reported that the firefighters said most...

Insurer Agrees to Extend Deadline for Holocaust Victims’ Claims

Feb 15 2007 // An Italian insurance company’s agreement to extend by 17 months the deadline to accept new claims from Holocaust victims and their relatives gives some victims another chance to find records of their losses, a museum...

Maryland Mulls Ways to Keep Insurers from Abandoning Coastal Properties

Feb 15 2007 // Alarmed that homeowners on Maryland’s coasts may one day be cut off from home insurance, state lawmakers are mulling new rules prohibiting insurers from pulling out of areas they deem risky. But insurers met with...

Patrick Administration Holds Hearing Today on Mass. Assigned Risk Plan

Feb 15 2007 // There is another public hearing today in Boston on a proposed assigned risk plan for the Massachusetts auto insurance system, a plan that has been in the works and the subject of multiple hearings since 2003. Last month,...

Senate, House Get Bipartisan Bills to Repeal Insurance Antitrust Immunity

Feb 15 2007 // Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, joined with Senate Democratic and Republican leaders this week to introduce a bipartisan bill that would strip the insurance industry of its limited...

Insurance Journal-Demotech Report Identifies 139 Super Regional P/C Insurers

Feb 14 2007 // Hoping to spark a discussion of so-called “super regional” insurance carriers, Insurance Journal magazine (Feb. 12 issue) this week is publishing its first list of Super Regional Property Casualty Insurers™,...

Florida Insurers Fight Emergency Rule

Feb 14 2007 // Insurance companies are seeking to invalidate an emergency rule adopted last month by the Florida Financial Services Commission that restricts their right to price and drop homeowners policies. The rule, 690ER07-01,...

Hiscox Acquires Dutch Art Insurer’s Renewal Rights

Feb 14 2007 // Hiscox, the Bermuda-based Group that specializes in fine arts coverage in the US and the UK, “announced the acquisition of the renewal rights of Eriks Assuradeuren, a Dutch insurer specializing in commercial fine...

Industry Defends Job, Education as Rating Factors in Fla. Inquiry

Feb 13 2007 // Insurers are defending the factors they use in pricing auto insurance, including the occupation and education levels of insureds, arguing that the criteria have been actuarially tested for their ability to predict...

Washington To Hold Hearing on Purchase of Dental Malpractice Insurer

Feb 13 2007 // Washington’s Office of the Insurance Commissioner has scheduled a Feb. 26 public hearing in Tumwater, Wash., to consider a request by the Washington Dental Association and a Portland, Ore., company to acquire a...

Insurance Company Run-Off Management Strategies Face Obstacles, Study Says

Feb 13 2007 // The U.S. insurance industry should be paying greater attention to the run-off market, according to a study published by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) Insurance Restructuring Group. The “US Discontinued...

Tighter steering in Conn.

Feb 12 2007 // Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has drafted legislation that he says would strengthen the state’s anti-steering law prohibiting insurers from forcing consumers to use a preferred auto repair shop as a...

Mild-mannered report

Feb 12 2007 // If some politicians can be accused of engaging in “fuzzy” math, some property/casualty insurers might be said to practice “fuzzy” marketing. They call themselves Super Regionals but everyone has a...

Why a regional carrier might be an agent’s best friend

Feb 12 2007 // The old saying “all politics is local” is born of the realization that the things that most directly affect us are local issues. In that respect, one could say that insurance is a local business. Risk...

Mild-mannered report

Feb 12 2007 // If some politicians can be accused of engaging in “fuzzy” math, some property/casualty insurers might be said to practice “fuzzy” marketing. They call themselves Super Regionals but everyone has a...