Latest Excess Surplus Headlines

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

A.M. Best, Fitch Explain Recent Downgrades of Tower Group

Oct 16 2013 // Rating agencies have downgraded Tower Group following the insurer’s announcement of loss reserve and goodwill charges in excess of what was expected. Tower has said that the company’s board of directors is...

Top Excess & Surplus Insurers by Market Share: SNL

Oct 15 2013 // Source: SNL Financial

Sanders to Succeed Latham as President of Markel Wholesale

Oct 10 2013 // John Latham is stepping down as president of Markel Wholesale effective Dec. 31, 2013 and will be succeeded by Bryan Sanders, who currently serves as executive vice president of Markel’s Wholesale division. Sanders...

Berkshire Specialty Introduces Business Crisis Event Cost Coverage

Oct 8 2013 // Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance has introduced business crisis event cost coverage, which extends its casualty and healthcare lead umbrella policies to cover costs incurred to manage a business crisis, including the...

Lloyd’s CEO Richard Ward Reflects on ‘Nearly 8’ Eventful Years

Oct 6 2013 // Lloyd’s CEO Richard Ward is stepping down from the post at the end of the year. Despite the catastrophes of 2005 and 2011, the two costliest years in the industry’s history, as well as the financial crisis, he...

Underwriting, Investment Gains Boosted P/C Insurers’ Bottom Line in First Half 2013

Oct 3 2013 // Private U.S. property/casualty insurers’ net income after taxes rose to $24.5 billion in first-half 2013 from $17.2 billion in first-half of last year. Insurers’ overall profitability as measured by their...

Guy Carpenter Launches Specialty Practice for Excess and Surplus Lines Carriers

Oct 2 2013 // Guy Carpenter & Co., a global risk and reinsurance intermediary specialist and member of Marsh & McLennan Cos., announced the launch of its new Excess & Surplus Lines Specialty Practice. Guy Carpenter said the...

MarketScout Expands Workers’ Comp Specialty Division

Sep 29 2013 // MarketScout, the national electronic insurance exchange and specialty MGA headquartered in Dallas, Texas, announced staff promotions related to the expansion of its Workers’ Compensation Specialty Division. Brian...

Profits Steady, GWP Up, But Investments Still Low: Lloyd’s CFO Luke Savage

Sep 27 2013 // Lloyd’s first six months results, released yesterday, were generally good. Profits were down slightly at £1.38 billion [[$2.222 billion] from £1.53 billion [$2.463 billion] for the first half of 2012, while gross...

Metcalf to Head New Liberty Mutual Specialty Markets Unit

Sep 27 2013 // Liberty Mutual Insurance Group announced that Nick Metcalf has been named President and Group Managing Director of Liberty Specialty Markets, a new operation created by integrating the Company’s existing...

Arch Insurance Group’s Contract Binding Operations Launch Excess Liability Capacity

Sep 26 2013 // Arch Insurance Group, a subsidiary of Arch Capital Group Ltd., has increased limits of up to $5 million on its general liability coverage in the newly-formed Contract Binding Operations. The Arch Contract Binding...

Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford’s CEO Toby Esser on its Global Business

Sep 26 2013 // Toby Esser is a truly global executive. As the CEO of Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford (CGSC), he coordinates the broker’s far flung operations in the UK, Europe, Asia and South America, as well as North America,...

Lloyd’s Posts $2.215 Billion 1st 6 Months Profit; Investment Returns Down

Sep 26 2013 // Lloyd’s announced a profit of £1.38 billion [$2.215 billion] for the six-month period ending 30 June 2013. “The market continued to grow with gross written premium increasing 4.9 percent to £15.5 billion...

ProAssurance Backing New Lloyd’s Syndicate

Sep 25 2013 // Birmingham, Alabama-based medical liability insurer ProAssurance Corp. will be the majority capital provider to the proposed new Syndicate 1729 at Lloyd’s of London. Its planned inception date is January 1, 2014. The...

ProAssurance to Acquire Workers’ Comp Insurer Eastern Holdings

Sep 24 2013 // Medical professional liability insurer ProAssurance Corp. said it is acquiring monoline workers’ compensation insurer Eastern Insurance Holdings Inc. in an all-cash transaction that values Eastern at $24.50 per...

Surplus Lines Took Hit from Sandy in 2012 But Appears Back on Track in 2013

Sep 23 2013 // Surplus lines insurers in 2012 posted one of their worst years overall as their underwriting performance fell below that of the total property/casualty (P/C) industry for the first time in more than a decade. Much of the...

ANV’s CEO Matt Fairfield Tells What it’s Like to Run a Global Insurer

Sep 23 2013 // R. Matthew “Matt” Fairfield, the Founder and CEO of ANV, is the epitome of a global insurance executive. He lives in Spain, runs a company based in the Netherlands, which in turn runs a Lloyd’s syndicate...

Cooper Gay and Swett & Crawford Acquires Lloyd’s Broker NMB

Sep 23 2013 // Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford (CGSC) has announced the acquisition of independent Lloyd’s insurance and reinsurance brokerage group Newman Martin and Buchan (NMB), subject to regulatory approval from the UK...

Wholesale: More Special Than Ever

Sep 23 2013 // Savvy wholesalers are meeting the demand for specialized knowledge Everyone loves the wholesale insurance business these days, or so it seems. “We’ve seen the entrance of a lot of other people coming into the...

Changing Realities of the Wholesale Market

Sep 23 2013 // Throughout our history, the American Association of Managing General Agents (AAMGA) has retained its mission and identity while adapting to changes in the insurance industry. We began in 1926 as the Association of Fire...