Latest Excess Surplus Headlines
All the headlines from our Excess Surplus Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Specialty MGAs Continue to be Popular Acquisition Targets
Sep 14 2017 // With growth prospects becoming rarer in the continuing competitive insurance market, carriers are among three sets of buyers fueling a hot M&A environment for specialized managing general agencies, representatives of...
Sciemus Partners with HSCM Bermuda and Is Renamed Argon Underwriting
Sep 13 2017 // Sciemus, a specialty Lloyd’s MGA, is forming an investing partnership with HSCM Bermuda, a firm that invests in reinsurance and insurance-linked assets across all lines of business. The deal also calls for Sciemus to...
Cat Facility CCRIF to Pay 6 Caribbean Nations $29.6M for Hurricane Irma Damage
Sep 13 2017 // Cayman Islands-based CCRIF (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility) will make payments totaling US$29.6 million to six Caribbean nations recovering from Hurricane Irma. CCRIF’s parametric tropical...
Colony Specialty Appoints York as North Region Casualty Manager
Sep 13 2017 // Colony Specialty, a member of Argo Group International Holdings Ltd., has appointed Mike York as regional manager of the North Region within its U.S. Casualty Division. York will report to Tim Williams, vice president of...
Louisiana’s LCTA Acquires Risk Management Resources, Creates Specialty Insurer
Sep 11 2017 // Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based workers’ compensation insurance provider, LCTA Workers’ Comp (LCTA), has acquired Risk Management Resources and created a new subsidiary, LCTA Specialty Insurance Co. Risk...
Future of State Auto Insurance Group’s E&S Business Under Review
Sep 8 2017 // Columbus, Ohio-based State Auto Insurance Group (State Auto) is reviewing options for its excess and surplus (E&S) lines business, including a possible sale, the company said in an announcement. State Auto has a market...
HDI Launches Cyber Coverage for Manufacturing Companies
Sep 8 2017 // International insurer HDI Global Insurance Company (HDI) has introduced a new cyber product, Cyber+ Smart, designed to support the manufacturing sector. Cyber+ Smart is designed for U.S. enterprises with annual revenues of...
Specialty Program Group Acquires Assets of Monarch E&S Insurance Services in California
Sep 7 2017 // Specialty Program Group LLC has acquired the assets of Burbank, Calif.-based wholesaler Monarch E&S Insurance Services. Monarch E&S is a full-service MGA and wholesale brokerage established in 1986. The firm...
Increasing Competition, Flat Exposures Put Drag on Surplus Lines: A.M. Best
Sep 5 2017 // For a second consecutive year, underwriters of surplus lines insurance in the United States generated just modest growth in direct premium of 2.8 percent in 2016, according to a new A.M. Best special report. Surplus lines...
New York Bus Firms Seek Damages Over Handling of Workers’ Comp Claim
Sep 4 2017 // New York Bus Operators Compensation Trust (NYBOCT), a Bay Shore, N.Y.-based group self-insured trust created by a number of New York passenger bus companies, has filed a complaint against Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.,...
WSIA: Past, Present and Future
Sep 4 2017 // The wholesale, specialty and surplus lines market is healthy and stable with a bright future. Proof of this can be found in recent quantitative analysis like A.M. Best’s 2017 Special Report on U.S. Surplus Lines, as...
Brokers Bucking Disruption: How Wholesalers Hang On Through Change
Sep 4 2017 // As long as there is an insurance industry, wholesaler brokers believe they will have a role to play. “We will continue to be an important sector – a small sector – but still a very important sector of how...
Japan’s Sompo Holdings to Sell Sompo Canopius for $952M to Centerbridge
Sep 1 2017 // Japan’s Sompo Holdings Inc. announced it has agreed to sell Lloyd’s re/insurer Sompo Canopius AG to a private equity consortium led by Centerbridge Partners for $952 million. On completion of the purchase,...
Ascot Launches Specialty MGA, Vertical Underwriting Managers
Aug 31 2017 // Ascot Group Ltd. (AGL) announced the creation of Vertical Underwriting Managers, its first specialty managing general agency (MGA) cell under Ethos Specialty Insurance Services, AGL’s standalone MGA Vertical will...
XL Catlin Adds Technology, Excess D&O Coverage for Design Professionals
Aug 31 2017 // XL Catlin has added two new enhancements to its professional liability insurance for architects, engineers and other design professionals in the US, including an expanded professional services definition and Principal...
Beazley Expands Coverage for Social Engineering, Online Fraud Scams
Aug 30 2017 // Beazley has launched a new excess policy for the U.S. market that significantly expands the protection available to firms that fall victim to impersonation scams by fraudsters convincing employees to wire funds to external...
AXIS Capital’s $611.5M Acquisition of Novae Approved in Shareholder Vote
Aug 29 2017 // AXIS Capital Holdings Ltd. announced that shareholders of Novae Group have approved the company’s acquisition by AXIS. Approximately 99.97 percent of shareholder votes were cast in favor of the deal. AXIS announced...
Lloyd’s Insurers’ Stocks Fall on Possible Claims from Hurricane Harvey
Aug 29 2017 // Lloyd’s of London insurers dropped amid speculation that they will suffer losses from Tropical Storm Harvey that’s battering Houston, the epicenter of the U.S. oil industry. The storm, which which made landfall...
AXIS Sweetens Offer for Lloyd’s Specialty Carrier Novae to $611.5M
Aug 25 2017 // AXIS Capital Holdings Ltd. has substantially sweetened its offer for Novae Group plc, a Lloyd’s of London specialty insurer and reinsurer. AXIS, a Bermuda-based specialty insurer and reinsurer, said it will now pay...
A.M. Best Assigns ‘A’ Rating to New Texas Insurer, Starr Specialty
Aug 23 2017 // Ratings agency, A.M. Best, has assigned a Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and a Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) of “a” to Starr Specialty Insurance Co. (Starr Specialty),...
