Latest Market Headlines
All the headlines from our Market Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Have Insurers Lost the Capacity to Run an Underwriting Profit?
Feb 9 2012 // We frequently hear people ask, “When is the next hard market going to come?” And by that they typically mean double-digit increases in premium growth for a sustained period of time. Of course, no one knows. But...
TomTom Sees Potential in Europe’s Auto Insurance Market; Motaquote Signs On
Feb 8 2012 // TomTom satnavs will in future help insurers tell the difference between a good driver and a bad one under a scheme designed to revive the Dutch navigation device maker’s flagging fortunes. The company, which made its...
Numbers Don’t Lie – Studying the Stats Behind a Virtual Insurance Tradeshow
Feb 7 2012 // San Diego, CA, 02/06/12 – For decades, companies that sponsor and/or exhibit at traditional insurance tradeshows have followed the same routine: Shell out exorbitant attendance or booth fees and travel...
Global Mining Insurance Market Capacity Down 30% After Losses: Willis
Feb 6 2012 // In 2011, the mining insurance market was not only hit by $2.7 billion in natural catastrophe losses, but over 60 operational losses totaling $835 million. The $3.5 billion total estimate of losses facing mining insurers...
Five Startup Businesses Agents Should Watch
Feb 6 2012 // It hasn’t been the best of times for America’s Main Street businesses. Often facing overwhelming competition from big box stores, many small businesses face an uphill battle from the outset and more than a few...
Have Insurers Lost the Capacity to Run an Underwriting Profit?
Feb 6 2012 // We frequently hear people ask, “When is the next hard market going to come?” And by that they typically mean double-digit increases in premium growth for a sustained period of time. Of course, no one knows. But...
Willis Exec Touts Captives As Key Tool in World of Changing Risks
Feb 1 2012 // In an environment of rapidly evolving risks, purely anticipating risk is not enough. Organizations also need to focus on building resilience to effectively manage risk and position themselves for long-term sustainability,...
Media Firms Could Face Insurance Hikes in 2012
Jan 31 2012 // U.S. communications, media, and technology (CMT) companies can expect their insurance market conditions to further deteriorate in 2012, continuing a trend that began in the second half of 2011, according to a report...
Insurance Marketing New Basics: Go Mobile
Jan 27 2012 // Be careful if you ask Michael Jans, president of Bend, Ore.-based Agency Revolution, about marketing. He may throw the Yellow Pages at you. Jans isn’t a temperamental thug, he’s just passionate about talking...
S&P: Excess Capital, Strong ERM Give Reinsurers 2011 Cat Loss Cushion
Jan 26 2012 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services announced that it is “maintaining its stable outlook on the global reinsurance sector despite the near-record level of catastrophe losses in 2011,” as it...
Insurance Exchanges: The World Small to Rule the Big
Jan 26 2012 // A pair of industry experts espoused the benefits of insurance exchanges and small agencies today and in the future during the recent Insurance Industry Roundtable run by the WIAA Education & Research Foundation in...
California Legislator: Feds Will Step Up Involvement in Insurance Industry
Jan 25 2012 // “Listen to me now, understand me later.” State Sen. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, gave a well-received Arnold Schwarzenegger impression, chest heaving and heavy on the former California governor’s thick...
Tougher U.S. Commercial Market Conditions in 2012: Marsh
Jan 25 2012 // U.S. commercial insurance rates are expected to climb across many lines of business in 2012, continuing a trend that began in the second half of 2011, according to a report by insurance broker Marsh. Substantial...
Cruise Liners Need Tighter Safety Rules Say Marine Insurers
Jan 24 2012 // Passenger ship operators should tighten up safety procedures and crew training standards to prevent a repeat of the Costa Concordia shipwreck, potentially the costliest marine insurance loss on record, shipping insurers...
Agents Creating At-Home Insurance Jobs for Disabled Veterans
Jan 23 2012 // For insurance agents Gary Trippe and Jim Pender, the idea for DVIC, or Disabled Veterans Insurance Careers, which aims to provide disabled veterans with employment in insurance, evolved in part from their own personal...
Western Insurance Agents Roundtable: In Uncertain Economy, Change Is Certain
Jan 23 2012 // The economy, the promised-land of a hard insurance market and the need to master technologies dominated discussion at the first annual Insurance Industry Roundtable in Irvine, Calif. The daylong event was attended by 23...
Insurance Buyers’ Choice: Bigger Premium or Bigger Risk
Jan 23 2012 // Property/casualty insurers may be poised to raise prices but buyers may not be in a position to pay more, advises a veteran of insurance cycles. “It’s not an issue of willingness. It’s an issue of...
Beyond Golf: P-U-T-T-E-R’s the Name of the Game in E&S World
Jan 23 2012 // Golf could be called the go-to sport of the insurance industry, so it’s safe to assume that most insurance professionals know what a putter is – a tool for cursing and hurling to the ground after a missed shot,...
I.I.I.’s P/C Joint Industry Forum
Jan 23 2012 // Insurance industry conferences are usually serious and dry affairs. And they are probably even more so in the current environment where insurers have been grappling with huge catastrophe losses. But Dr. Robert Hartwig,...
Oklahoma Commissioner Disappointed in MLR Waiver Denial
Jan 23 2012 // But State Lawmaker Thinks It’s a Good Thing for Consumers Oklahoma’s top insurance regulator believes the medical insurance market is headed for “disruption” as a result of the medical loss ratio...