Latest Market Headlines

Nov 19 2006 // People Greg Thompson, president and chief executive officer of Thomco, is the new president of the Target Markets Program Administrators Association, a national organization serving program managers. Thomco, headquartered...

Power shift in the political landscape

Nov 19 2006 // With Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, we’ll likely see action on a number of insurance issues. Although it took a little time for all the votes to be counted, the 2006 midterm elections saw a wave of...

Power shift in the political landscape

Nov 19 2006 // With Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, we’ll likely see action on a number of insurance issues. Although it took a little time for all the votes to be counted, the 2006 midterm elections saw a wave of...

IIAT survey finds coastal insurance market tighter; more expensive

Nov 19 2006 // Property insurance along the Texas coast is getting harder to find plus premiums and deductibles are increasing, according to results from a survey of independent insurance agents. Respondents are members of the...

Editor’s Note: Your vote still counts

Nov 19 2006 // The final votes from November’s midterm elections may have been tallied, yet the real political campaigning should be just about ready to begin. As expected, elections changed key roles in in the House and Senate...

Insurance industry needs to improve “perceived” value

Nov 19 2006 // Insurance professionals are becoming targets, according to Dave Mosby, technologist, visionary and co-author of “The Paradox of Excellence, How Great Performance Can Kill Your Business.” According to Mosby, who...

People, partnerships lead to nearly a century of success

Nov 19 2006 // Good people can make or break a company. In San Diego-based Barney & Barney’s case, it’s clearly made it; the company has been in business for nearly a century, thanks to people who have invested their...

Power shift in the political landscape

Nov 19 2006 // Although it took a little time for all the votes to be counted, the 2006 midterm elections saw a wave of Democratic candidates wrest control of both houses of Congress, gain a majority of the governorships and take control...

Democratic Congress OK for industry traditionally tied to Republicans

Nov 19 2006 // News Currents The new Congress may be blue on Capitol Hill, but insiders say that’s not necessarily a bad color for the insurance industry. “The more things change, the more they may remain pretty much the...

Commercial premiums, except coastal property, continue to fall

Nov 19 2006 // Commercial insurance premiums fell slightly in the third quarter of this year, representing a continuation of the trends that occurred in the past two quarters, according to the RIMS Benchmark Survey, which surveys current...

The Locomotive That Drive the Insurance Train

Nov 19 2006 // The insurance industry’s excess and surplus lines (E&S) sector has experienced a pronounced reversal of position in the last 20 years. Once considered a mere adjunct, a safety valve for risks that were too hard...

Where are all the young guns?

Nov 19 2006 // Look around you. Take a long look at the folks in your agency or company. And then break out your calculator. What is the average age of your employees or colleagues? What percent of your firm’s workforce were...

Democratic Congress Not Necessarily Bad for Industry, Says PIA

Nov 9 2006 // The new Congress will alter the insurance agenda on Capitol Hill, but losses for the industry are not a foregone conclusion. That’s the after-the-election take by the National Association of Professional Insurance...

Lloyd’s James Tells PCI Threats to Industry Still Exist

Nov 7 2006 // Julian James, Lloyd’s Director Worldwide Markets, told delegates at the PCI Conference in Seattle that, despite the industry’s “current good fortune, I could make a strong case that we are still standing...

Commercial Premiums, Except Coastal Property, Continued Falling in 3Q

Nov 7 2006 // Commercial insurance premiums fell slightly in the third quarter of this year, representing a continuation of the trends that occurred in the past two quarters, according to the RIMS Benchmark Survey, which surveys current...

Under Construction: The Green Property Insurance Market

Nov 7 2006 // Douglas G. Hotchkiss, owner of the Dallas, Texas-based Hotchkiss Insurance Agency, hadn’t thought much about building “green” or environmentally-friendly structures. But he now says, “it’s a...

Flying solo now, former Zurich executive ‘gooses ‘ agents

Nov 6 2006 // A retired insurance industry executive turned turbo-charged motivational speaker told a group of independent insurance agents that they are the greediest people he has ever met. Ray Thomas, a former Zurich North America...

Declarations

Nov 6 2006 // Time for changes “When your CEOs are making $26 billion a year, we need to make some changes.” Ginny Stevans, president of Homeowners Against Citizens, a group protesting Florida’s skyrocketing insurance...

Consumer group says property-casualty rates drop ‘irrespective’ of tort reform enactment

Nov 6 2006 // There is continuing evidence that the skyrocketing insurance rates of 2000 to 2003 have led to record industry profits, but commercial insurance rates have stabilized or dropped in almost every sector, including medical...

Insurance credit scoring plagued with fundamental problems

Nov 6 2006 // A fundamental problem exists with insurance scoring. The problem is that insurance scores and credit scores reflect correlation, but correlation does not necessarily indicate dependency upon which effective decisions can...