Latest Market Headlines

Which cars are safest? Insurance industry picks

Jan 1 2006 // Ten 2006 passenger cars won praise from the insurance industry for offering protection to passengers in front, side and rear crashes. Winners of the institute’s gold award included the Ford 500 and Mercury Montego...

2005 P/C industry in a word: Resilience

Jan 1 2006 // The property/casualty insurance industry reported a statutory rate of return on average surplus of 9.5 percent through the first nine months of 2005, marginally below the 10.5 percent average return recorded during...

2006: The year when changes take hold

Jan 1 2006 // This coming 2006 New Year seems like it will be the start of a year of big changes for the industry. It is not that the industry will be pulled out by its roots and shaken. Rather, many of the slow and even subtle changes...

Meeting Today’s Challenges and Preparing for Tomorrow’s

Jan 1 2006 // Several pressing public policy issues remain to be debated in the Gulf region and across the country. At the forefront is the question of how we, as a nation, will finance losses from future mega- catastrophes. Weather...

Mississippi Coast faces the storm after the storms: wind or water damage?

Jan 1 2006 // The wind came first. It pried off boards and shot debris into windows at Ron Peresich’s home on Biloxi’s (Mississippi) Back Bay. It tore off rooftops and buckled walls in Bud Ray’s Long Beach...

Jan 1 2006 // Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation, a Boston-based auto insurer, has appointed Matthew H. Cronin as senior marketing representative and Sean P. Farrelly as marketing representative, both in Connecticut. Cronin will...

Ill. Agents,Companies Plan Annual Insurance Industry Legislative Day

Dec 27 2005 // The Professional Independent Insurance Agents of Illinois, in conjunction with the Illinois Insurance Association, Illinois Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, Illinois State Association of Health Underwriters...

Independent Agents Feel Hurricane Katrina’s Full Force

Dec 19 2005 // Residents in many areas of the Gulf Coast watched their lives change forever on Aug. 29, 2005. When all was said and done, Hurricane Katrina went in the record books as the country’s worst natural disaster, leaving a...

Meeting Today’s Challenges and Preparing for Tomorrow’s

Dec 19 2005 // Several pressing public policy issues remain to be debated in the Gulf region and across the country. At the forefront is the question of how we, as a nation, will finance losses from future mega-catastrophes. Weather...

Alternative Products Changing P/C Landscape

Dec 19 2005 // “Convergence products,” or alternative insurance products such as catastrophe bonds and finite reinsurance products, will play a critical part in the competitive landscape of the P/C industry in coming years,...

Congress Passes TRIA Renewal; Legislation Sent to President’s Desk

Dec 18 2005 // Congress approved the Terrorism Risk Insurance Revision Act of 2005 late last week after reconciling differing versions passed in both the House and the Senate. The legislation now moves to the President’s desk for...

Meeting Today’s Challenges and Preparing for Tomorrow’s

Dec 18 2005 // Several pressing public policy issues remain to be debated in the Gulf region and across the country. At the forefront is the question of how we, as a nation, will finance losses from future mega- catastrophes. Weather...

Meeting Today’s Challenges and Preparing for Tomorrow’s

Dec 18 2005 // Weather forecasters predicted that the 2005 hurricane season could be more active than normal, but no one thought it would produce 26 named storms and the most destructive storm on record-Hurricane Katrina. Katrina tested...

By Dave Thomas

Dec 18 2005 // Residents in many areas of the Gulf Coast watched their lives change forever on Aug. 29, 2005. When all was said and done, Hurricane Katrina went in the record books as the country’s worst natural disaster, leaving a...

Calif. Governor Picks Insurance Industry Lobbyist for Deputy Chief of Staff

Dec 15 2005 // California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has chosen an insurance industry lobbyist to be his deputy chief of staff and senior advisor for policy development, a new position.Starting at the new year, Dan Dunmoyer will...

Katrina & Rita Opened a “Pandora’s Box” for P/C Industry, Says S&P

Dec 15 2005 // A new report from Standard & Poor’s notes that “Hurricane Katrina, followed closely on its heels by Hurricane Rita, wound up revealing the flaws in many insurance-industry assumptions.” The article,...

Hurricane Katrina: The Long Road to Recovery <em>An Insurance Journal Exclusive Video Report from the Gulf States</em>

Dec 14 2005 // With Gulf Coast residents and the insurance industry trying to recover from the country’s worst natural disaster ever, two Insurance Journal reporters set out to see for themselves the effects of Hurricane...

Fitch Reviews U.S. Insurance Industry in 2005; Looks Ahead to 2006

Dec 8 2005 // The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry encountered deja vu in this past year, reported Fitch Ratings in its annual 2005 Review and 2006 Outlook for the U.S. insurance industry. The ratings agency says 2005 mirrored...

New Report Outlines Answers for Challenges in Atlantic Provinces

Dec 7 2005 // The Atlantic Task Force on Insurance Availability and Affordability released its final report at a media conference recently in Halifax, Canada. The report, which makes a number of concrete recommendations intended to help...

Insurance Industry Ranks Safest Cars

Dec 5 2005 // Ten 2006 passenger cars won praise from the insurance industry for offering top-of-the-line protection to passengers in front, side and rear crashes. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced a new designation,...