Carriers - Latest Insurance News

Insurers’ Income, Surplus Rise Despite Record Catastrophe Losses

Dec 28 2005 // The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry’s net income after taxes rose 4.4 percent, or $1.2 billion, to $28.8 billion in nine-months 2005 from $27.6 billion in nine-months 2004. Reflecting the industry’s...

Maine Health Insurers File Second Suit to Block Dirigo Fees

Dec 23 2005 // A dispute between the health insurance industry and Maine’s Dirigo Health program continues to escalate, as a trade group representing four large health insurers files a second lawsuit against the 2-year-old...

Insurers Warned about Bird Flu “Species Jump”

Dec 22 2005 // Even as new reports of deaths caused by the bird flu virus are coming in from Indonesia and Vietnam, the insurance industry received an additional warning about its potential exposures. An article on the Lloyd’s...

Insurers Support Va. Red Light Cameras

Dec 22 2005 // The American Insurance Association has added its support to the call of traffic safety advocates to reinstate red light camera enforcement in the state of Virginia. The law that allowed seven Virginia communities to use...

Truck Insurer Ordered to Pay for Plane Damage Under Michigan No-Fault Law

Dec 22 2005 // Two courts in Michigan have ruled that the insurer of a truck must pay $18,000 for damage caused to a small airplane that crashed after clipping the truck as the pilot tried to land in a grassy airfield. The truck was...

Calif. Court Decision Expected to Lower Workers’ Comp Rates

Dec 22 2005 // Los Angeles based law firm Roxborough, Pomerance & Nye LLP recently won a ruling that the firm said will affect the way workers’ compensation premiums are calculated for California employers covered by a carrier...

California Insurers Charge Drivers in Black, Latino Neighborhoods More, Report Indicates

Dec 20 2005 // Insurers charge good drivers living in California’s predominantly African-American and Latino zip codes substantially more for automobile insurance than good drivers in predominantly white communities, claims an...

ANOTHER INSURER LEAVES COAST:

Dec 19 2005 // The state’s second largest commercial insurer of coastal properties is dropping coverage to 6,500 policy holders in southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod because company reinsurance payments are rising by as much...

INSURER TO PAY $8 MILLION:

Dec 19 2005 // State Farm Insurance has been ordered to pay more than $8 million to a tow truck driver and his sister-in-law who were acquitted of insurance fraud after being accused of faking the theft of a vehicle. Jackson County...

Jury Awards $52.5 Million Against Insurer in Asbestos Case

Dec 19 2005 // A jury has awarded $52.5 million to a Roseville, Minn., construction company that sued its Boston-based insurer for failing to defend it against hundreds of personal injury and wrongful death claims tied to asbestos...

Best Rates U.K.’s Hiscox, Lloyd’s Syndicate, Bermuda Start-Up

Dec 19 2005 // A.M. Best Co. has announced its credit ratings on U.K. specialist and Lloyd’s insurer Hiscox plc. and its operating entities. It affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of “A-” (Excellent) and the...

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:...

Insurance Commissioners Push Framework for National Cat Program

Dec 19 2005 // Insurance regulators, on the heels of the National Catastrophe Insurance Summit in Burlingame, Calif., in November, are peddling the framework for a national catastrophe insurance program they say would protect U.S....

Guy Carpenter Study: U.S. Tort System Less Hostile to Corporate Defendants, Their Insurers

Dec 19 2005 // Guy Carpenter & Company Inc. reported the release of a new study, Recent Legislative and Judicial Trends Affecting the U.S. Casualty Industry, on key legislative and judicial developments and their impact on the U.S....

Role of Government, All-Perils Policy Among Sticking Points Cited by Insurers

Dec 19 2005 // Role of Government, All-Perils Policy Among Sticking Points Cited by Insurers Industry representatives generally support state regulators’ efforts to craft a comprehensive plan for natural catastrophes but take issue...

Eurpoean Collector, Insurer Addresses ‘Art Basil’ in Miami Beach

Dec 19 2005 // The trials and tribulations of maintaining and insuring a well-known corporate art collection, from bombings by the IRA, to being stolen by builders and damaged when cleaners sprayed paintings with window cleaner, were...

A House Divided: Independent Counsel After Frank’s Casing

Dec 19 2005 // If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” “No man can serve two masters.” These two maxims underlie a central tenet of the attorney/client relationship: The client is...

Insurers Urged to Assess Climate Change Risks

Dec 19 2005 // State treasurers and controllers from around the country are urging major insurance companies to analyze and disclose their financial risk from climate change, warning that higher rates and loss of coverage are...

Words Mean a Lot in Vows Between Program Administrators and Carriers

Dec 19 2005 // As in a marriage, if you’re in a good relationship, you never have to consider the contract. But if things go badly, words mean everything,” Greg Thompson, president of THOMCO brokerage in Kennesaw, Ga., told...

Industry Voices Concerns Over National Insurance Catastrophe Plan