Latest Market Headlines

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

Editor’s Note:

Feb 5 2006 // The insurance industry is expected to pay out a record $56.8 billion for 2005 insured residential and business property losses. Is this the year Texas will be hit by the “big one?” Last year, Louisiana and...

News Currents

Feb 5 2006 // Bill Bailey, director of the Hurricane Insurance Information Center Windstorm Conference speaker doesn’t think Mississippi wind vs. flood suits will succeed The controversy over litigation about wind vs. flood damage...

E&S Market

Feb 5 2006 // The surplus lines market remains alive, healthy and stable. Few argue with the success of this niche-based market, which has risen from 4 percent in 1984 to almost 15 percent of the insurance market in 2005. The National...

California Insurance Industry

Feb 5 2006 // I nsurers are cultivating California’s economy. In fact, the insurance industry benefits “the economic security of California and its citizens through claims and benefits paid to policyholders; investments in...

Emerging Risks

Feb 5 2006 // Anticipating and assessing risk, along with defining and assigning value to units of exposure, are basic components of an insurance underwriter’s job. Challenging as those tasks are when examining well-known...

New Mexico Considering Commercial Lines File and Use System

Feb 2 2006 // The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) and the insurance industry are working with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission to finalize and implement proposed rate regulations that would convert...

PCI Hosts Del. Legislative Conference to Showcase Industry Issues

Jan 31 2006 // Three dozen insurance industry representatives walked Delaware’s Legislative Hall of the state capitol last week to meet with state legislators and discuss pending bills on the use of credit history, workers’...

Miss. Commissioner Dale: Leader, Follower or Shill?

Jan 30 2006 // George Dale walks a tightrope in his job as Mississippi’s insurance commissioner. He is charged with the responsibility of regulating the industry that provides most of his election support while protecting consumers...

University of Iowa Offers New Classes in Risk Management and Insurance

Jan 30 2006 // The University of Iowa announced that it is now offering a Certificate in Risk Management and Insurance (RMI) through the Emmett J. Vaughan Institute of Risk Management and Insurance, in the Henry B. Tippie College of...

Survey Confirms 4th Quarter Spike in Property Insurance Rates Due to Hurricanes

Jan 30 2006 // Property insurance rates increased sharply in the fourth quarter of 2005, according to the RIMS Benchmark Survey by the Risk and Inurance Management Society Inc. Reversing a two-year trend of steadily falling property...

Mass. Economic Warning: Insurance Market Short on Capital

Jan 27 2006 // Massachusetts is facing a shortage of insurance capital that could jeopardize the state’s entire economy, especially if a major storm hits the metropolitan Boston area, the Commonwealth’s insurance regulator is...

RMS: 500,000 Japanese Dead Possible in Avian Flu Pandemic Outbreak

Jan 26 2006 // Risk Management Solutions Inc. (RMS) released the findings of an in-depth study that provides life and personal accident insurers in Japan with key benchmarks for the potential risk of human casualties from catastrophic...

RI3K Head Warns Lloyd’s of Need to Reform to Survive

Jan 26 2006 // In a speech to the Insurance Institute of London yesterday, Jan. 25, Alex Letts, the Chief Executive of RI3K Ltd. – the London-based provider of platform technology infrastructure for the reinsurance industry,...

Windstorm Conference Speaker Bailey Predicts Wind vs. Flood Suits Won’t Succeed

Jan 25 2006 // The controversy over litigation about wind vs. flood damage and what could happen in the market place and to the industry if Mississippi Attorney General James Hood and attorney Richard ‘Dickie’ Scruggs are...

Surplus Line Market: Speculations for 2006

Jan 23 2006 // AUTHOR: By Susan McKenna Experts agree. The surplus lines market remains alive, healthy and stable. Who can argue with the success of this niche-based market that has risen from 4 percent in 1984 to almost 15 percent of...

Texas Governor to address agents at management seminar

Jan 23 2006 // Texas Gov. Rick Perry will deliver a special luncheon address at the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas’ 43rd Annual Joe Vincent Management Seminar. Nearly 400 of the state’s most progressive and influential...

Insurance Education Association & CPCU Host Forecasting the Future Educational Forum

Jan 23 2006 // The Insurance Educational Association and Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters Society’s (CPCU) Mt. Diablo chapter will be hosting its 7th Annual Educational Forum, “Forecasting the Future,” on...

Analysts predict faster P/C premium growth, underwriting profit

Jan 23 2006 // Each year the Insurance Information Institute invites a panel of Wall Street stock analysts and industry professionals to review the prospects for the industry in the year ahead. This year’s survey results indicate...

Emerging environmental risks pose problems for underwriters

Jan 23 2006 // Anticipating and assessing risk, along with defining and assigning value to units of exposure, are basic components of an insurance underwriter’s job. Challenging as such tasks are when examining well-known...

Surplus Lines Market: Speculation for 2006

Jan 23 2006 // Experts agree. The surplus lines market remains alive, healthy and stable. Who can argue with the success of this niche-based market that has risen from 4 percent in 1984 to almost 15 percent of the insurance market in...