Latest Market Headlines
All the headlines from our Market Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Another Go-Round for Surplus Lines Regulation Reform
Jun 1 2009 // Federal lawmakers once again are preparing to tackle the issue of how states can more effectively regulate the surplus lines insurance market. It’s been tried before, but legislation was recently reintroduced in the...
Economy Forcing Changes in Carrier Investment Philosophy
Jun 1 2009 // Ratings Agencies May Need to Rethink Their Methodologies as Well The current economic environment has produced several influences that in combination are negatively affecting, or at least stressing, property casualty...
Direct Writers Continue Battle for Massachusetts Auto Market
Jun 1 2009 // Allstate Announces Plan to Begin Writing After Generation-Long Hiatus Direct writers continue to target the Massachusetts personal auto insurance market, as one major national carrier announced it has written its first...
Oregon Warns Insurance Industry About Arbitration Clauses
Jun 1 2009 // The Oregon Insurance Division is warning the insurance industry to be careful about arbitration clauses. According to a recently posted bulletin, “It has recently come to [OID’s] attention that policy forms,...
How to Re-ignite Producers – and Other Employees – Who Have Lost Their Spark
Jun 1 2009 // Al Diamond is one of the country’s best known and respected agency management consultants. His firm, the Agency Consulting Group, is based in Cherry Hill, N.J. He deals with agencies across the country on issues...
Growth Beneath the Radar
Jun 1 2009 // Don’t be fooled by the AIG headlines: Not all of the insurance industry is in retreat mode. In some pockets of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, carriers are continuing to pursue downright aggressive growth strategies...
Revisiting Surplus Lines Regulation Reform
Jun 1 2009 // Federal lawmakers once again are preparing to tackle the issue of how states can more effectively regulate the surplus lines insurance market. It’s been tried before, but legislation was recently reintroduced in the...
ASI Enters South Carolina Homeowners Insurance Market
May 22 2009 // Florida-based American Strategic Insurance Corp. (ASI) has entered the South Carolina marketplace and is offering homeowners’ insurance coverage for coastal property owners through independent agents. “As the...
Insurance Industry Plays Significant Role in California’s Economy
May 20 2009 // The insurance industry plays a significant role in California’s economy, employing hundreds of thousands of workers, investing billions of dollars in state and local governments and paying the fourth largest amount...
Fitch Advises Florida Insurance Market Remains ‘Fragile’
May 20 2009 // Fitch Ratings agency is advising that the Florida property insurance market is “fragile” and remains a “peak risk zone.” The Florida assessment is included in a Fitch report for investors right...
Cunningham Lindsey U.S. CEO: Market Conditions Not Slowing Growth
May 20 2009 // With its acquisition in early 2009 of the international business of GAB Robins (excluding its UK operations) and the U.S. forensic engineering firm, EFI Global, Cunningham Lindsey became the second largest property...
Economy Forcing Changes in Carrier Investments
May 19 2009 // The current economic environment has produced several influences that in combination are negatively affecting, or at least stressing, property casualty insurance carriers in unique ways, according to one experienced...
Reinvention in Insurance: Is it Possible?
May 18 2009 // Despite what you may think, the insurance industry has not changed much in the past century. The insurance industry was regulated in 1945 with the passage of the McCarran-Ferguson Act that allows insurance to be regulated...
AAMGA Meeting <em>LIVE</em>: Dealing With Ups and Downs; <em>IJ</em> Reports on Twitter, Facebook
May 18 2009 // Managing general agents have a positive attitude about the soft market and recession, figuring what went down must come up again, according to Curtis Anderson, incoming president of the Association of Managing General...
Best Analyzes Economic Issues Facing Europe’s Insurance Industry
May 18 2009 // In a recently published special report from BestWeek, A.M. Best analyzes the relative economic strength Europe’s 10 largest insurance groupsand the top five European reinsurers. “Ever since American...
Declarations
May 18 2009 // ‘We are lucky.’ —Warren Buffett, as he addressed thousands of shareholders at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in his hometown of Omaha, Neb., on May 2. He said insurance, along with utilities,...
Outside the Beltway-Big ‘I’ CEO on Carrier Relations, AIG and Agent Grassroots
May 18 2009 // Bob Rusbuldt, president and CEO of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (Big “I”), sat down with Insurance Journal‘s Andrew Simpson at the association’s recent legislative...
Capital, Capital, or Where Did All the Money Go?
May 18 2009 // At least the global depression has focused people’s minds on some important issues. The Group of 20 (G20) meeting in London acknowledged the need for more capital to shore-up the world’s financial system...
6 Steps For Agents to Take Before Soft Market Hardens
May 11 2009 // Most insurance professionals detest a soft market due to the increase in competition, unreasonably low pricing and increased market vulnerability. Some, however, may appreciate a softening precisely because of the change...
Conning Study Examines P/C Insurance Industry Outsourcing
May 5 2009 // A new study by Conning Research and Consulting notes that the “property-casualty industry has been offshoring business processes since the Y2K fixes of the late 1990s, and a combination of continuing expense...
