Latest Market Headlines

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

Insurance Industry Hiring Stabilizes; Key Jobs Remain Difficult to Fill: Study

Feb 20 2018 // Fifty-eight percent of insurance companies plan to increase staff during the next 12 months in part due to expected increase in business and new markets, according to the Semi-Annual U.S. Insurance Labor Outlook Study...

P/C Direct Premium Written Up 4.7 Percent

Feb 19 2018 // Direct premium written (DPW) for property/casualty insurance companies continues to increase, albeit gradually. At year-end 2016, approximately $606 billion of DPW was reported, a record high for the industry. For 2016,...

Insurance Industry Trends for 2018: A Top 5 Countdown

Feb 19 2018 // Bring up the insurance industry as fodder for cocktail party conversation, and the universal response is oftentimes a collective yawn. But for those in the know, the insurance sector — with a domestic surplus...

Drone Insurance Webinar Tackles the Basics and Beyond

Feb 15 2018 // The live webinar on InsuranceJournal.com on Feb. 21, 2018 at 11 a.m. PST offers an insiders look at the drone insurance business. San Diego, CA, February 15, 2018– The future is here. Drones are buzzing about the skies...

Insurers Express Support for Wisconsin Governor’s Reinsurance Plan

Feb 14 2018 // Gov. Scott Walker’s $200 million plan to reduce health care costs for people purchasing insurance through the private marketplace won support from Wisconsin’s health insurance providers, doctors and medical...

Kemper to Acquire Nonstandard Auto Insurer Infinity in $1.4 Billion Deal

Feb 13 2018 // Chicago-based insurer Kemper Corp. has agreed to acquire Birmingham-based Infinity Property and Casualty Corp. in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $1.4 billion, or $129.00 per share, creating an insurer...

First-Hand Knowledge of Industry’s Problems Led to Idea for InsurePal’s Social Proofing

Feb 12 2018 // After spending 15-plus years in and around the insurance industry, Matt Peterman and Tom Volk had first-hand experience of the industry’s systemic problems with fraud and rising premiums. They decided to do something...

IICF Raises Over $900K for Nonprofits in Texas and the Region

Feb 9 2018 // The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF), a nonprofit organization working with the insurance industry to help communities and enrich lives, announced that 650 insurance professionals and industry supporters...

How Disasters Expose Challenges and Opportunities for Insurance

Feb 7 2018 // Although clear challenges can come with the increasing cost and frequency of global natural disasters, there could also be untapped opportunity for insurers to tackle coverage gaps, according to panelists at the Insurance...

Technology Partnerships Key to Insurance Industry’s Exit from `Stone Age:’ Aviva CEO

Feb 6 2018 // The insurance industry is “generally in the stone age,” and partnerships with technology companies are the way forward, according to Aviva Plc’s chief executive officer. His company, the U.K.’s...

Willis Towers Watson Makes Staff Changes in Florida, Taps Zutel to Lead CRB Business

Feb 2 2018 // Willis Towers Watson has appointed Fred Zutel as Corporate Risk and Broking (CRB) market leader for Florida, where he will focus on delivering the company’s property & casualty insurance broking services to...

Insurance Industry Making ‘Significant Contributions’ in Climate Change Battle, Report Shows

Jan 25 2018 // The insurance industry is making significant contributions to building socio-economic resilience to climate change and supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy in their role as risk management experts and...

California-based Law Firm Representing Insurers Takes ‘Solution-Oriented’ Approach

Jan 25 2018 // It’s no coincidence that the word “solutions” is included in the name of a new law firm representing insurers that recently launched in California. Woods Group Solutions, headquartered in Sonoma, Calif.,...

Startup Neptune Offering Digital Private Flood Product to Agents, Carriers in Nationwide Expansion

Jan 25 2018 // A digital startup private flood insurance provider, Neptune Flood, has secured $2 million in seed round funding and has plans to “aggressively expand” nationwide by offering its platform to carriers, agencies...

ACORD Names Maine’s The MEMIC Group Top Workers’ Comp Company in U.S.

Jan 25 2018 // The MEMIC Group, a Portland, Maine-headquartered workers’ compensation carrier, has been ranked the top workers’ compensation company in the U.S. by the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and...

Keeping Flood Insurance Above Water: Commentary

Jan 25 2018 // With the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) currently set to expire on February 8, and many communities still recovering from this summer’s hurricanes, it’s no surprise that the 21st Century Flood Reform...

Northern California Agency Owner Answers Christmas Wishes of Single Mothers in Need

Jan 25 2018 // Hundreds of rolls of donated wrapping paper and volunteers ready for the Sparkle Foundation’s annual wrap-a-thon held on Dec. 9, 2017. More than 150 volunteers turned out to wrap Christmas gifts for 28 families in...

$19 Billion in Potential Losses from Cloud Services Failure Mostly Uninsured: Lloyd’s, AIR

Jan 23 2018 // A cyber problem that temporary shuts down a top U.S. cloud computing provider could trigger as much as $19 billion in business losses, only a fraction of which would be insured, Lloyd’s of London said in a report on...

In Turnabout, Wisconsin Governor Moves to Stabilize Insurance Market

Jan 23 2018 // In a tack to the left in an election year, Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker announced Sunday that he wants a state law that would bar insurers from denying a person health coverage due to a pre-existing condition. He...

What Government Shutdown Means for P/C Insurance Industry

Jan 22 2018 // The property/casualty insurance industry is not immune to any economic effects the federal government shutdown may bring but since the industry is largely regulated by the states, not Washington, the impact on the industry...