Latest Massachusetts Headlines
All the headlines from our Massachusetts Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Web Site, Ads to Help Agents Keep Mass. Auto Market Share
Jan 9 2008 // Massachusetts independent insurance agents, who now write more than 80 percent of the auto insurance market in the state, are getting some marketing help to protect that market share as they enter a new competitive rating...
Great American Insurance Fights Mass. AG Bid-Rigging Charge
Jan 7 2008 // The Massachusetts attorney general has accused Great American Insurance Group of bid-rigging for what she says was a fake price quote it submitted in 2004 to a Norwood technology firm. Attorney General Martha Coakley last...
Mass. Bills Would Ban Text Messaging by Drivers
Jan 4 2008 // The death of a 13-year-old Taunton, Mass. boy last month has prompted new calls to ban text messaging while driving. Craig Bigos of New Bedford told police he was sending a text message to a friend when he swerved and...
Travelers Settles with States over Brokers’ Contingent Commissions
Jan 3 2008 // The Travelers Cos. Inc. will pay $6 million to settle investigations in 9 states and the District of Columbia over how it paid brokers. The St. Paul-based company said it had reached agreements with attorneys general in...
Mass. High Court Upholds 2006 Home Insurance Hike for FAIR Plan
Jan 3 2008 // The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has upheld the 2006 rate increases for the state’s homeowners residual market insurer, the FAIR Plan, against a challenge by the attorney general that the increases violated a...
Top Insurance Stories in 2007 in East
Dec 31 2007 // New leaders tackled old issues and the region battled fire and rain. 1. No day at the beach Insurance markets for coastal properties continued to challenge insurers, agents, policymakers and property owners, despite an...
Mass. Fines Safety Insurance over Home Policy Non-renewals
Dec 28 2007 // Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office reports it reached an agreement with Boston-based Safety Insurance Co. over allegations that the company violated the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Law by...
Mass. Attorney General: Cut Workers’ Comp Rates Again
Dec 27 2007 // Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley wants workers’ compensation insurance rates to come down again in 2008. Coakley says small businesses can’t afford to pay too much for the insurance. The rates are...
Mass. Wants Insurers to Notify Consumers When Payments Made
Dec 27 2007 // Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Nonnie S. Burnes has issued a bulletin calling on insurance companies to send written notification to consumers when a settlement payment in any third-party liability claim is made to...
Driving History in Mass.
Dec 23 2007 // Thirty years ago, the last time Massachusetts tried to introduce competitive rating into private passenger auto insurance, Democrat Michael Dukakis was governor. That experiment lasted about seven months before being...
Mass. Court Expands Doctor’s Liability to Nonpatients
Dec 23 2007 // A Massachusetts physician is responsible to all third parties who might possibly be affected by his failure to warn a patient about the side effects of a medication, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled in a...
Mass. Auto Insurers Under Pressure to Lower Rates
Dec 23 2007 // Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley says the state’s new managed competition auto insurance system is not lowering average rates for 2008 below what they would have been under the old system where the state...
Mass. Reports $4M Judgment Against Insurance Broker Wm. Gallagher
Dec 21 2007 // Massachusetts officials say they have won a $4 million judgment against a large Boston-based insurance broker over questionable compensation and reinsurance practices. Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office...
Mass. Accepts 8 Auto Insurers’ Rates; Reviews of Others Continuing
Dec 21 2007 // The 2008 rates for eight auto insurers in Massachusetts have been cleared by state insurance officials, while those of at least 11 others remain subject to further review. Insurance Commissioner Nonnie Burnes has given the...
Arthur J. Gallagher Acquires School Specialist Koster Insurance in Mass.
Dec 20 2007 // Insurance broker Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. reports it has acquired Koster Insurance Agency, Inc. of Quincy, Mass. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 1994, Koster Insurance Agency, Inc. specializes...
FedEx to Appeal Mass. Penalty over Classification of Drivers
Dec 20 2007 // Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has assessed penalties of more than $190,000 against FedEx Ground Package System, Inc. for what her office claims is an intentional misclassification of 13 drivers as...
Mass. Panel Says State Should Create A Catastophe Fund
Dec 19 2007 // The Bay State should create a catastrophe fund as a way to ease skyrocketing coastal insurance costs, a special legislative commission has recommended in a new report. The fund would be used to lower reinsurance costs for...
Mass. Town Seeks Controls, Liability for Tanker Trucks
Dec 19 2007 // Less than two weeks after a devastating gasoline tanker fire in the city, Everett, Mass. officials are introducing a bill that could give local communities more control over dangerous cargo on their streets. State Senator...
Mass. AG Targets 2 More Insurers’ Auto Rates for Hearing
Dec 19 2007 // Mass. Attorney General Martha Coakley has asked for two more auto insurers to defend their proposed 2008 rates at public hearings. Coakley wants Arbella Insurance and Hanover Group to explain their rates for next year when...
Springfield, Mass. Blaze Injures 7, Including 5 Children
Dec 18 2007 // A weekend house fire that injured seven members of a Springfield, Mass. family is being blamed on combustible material that was left too close to an electric heater. One of the victims, 7-year-old Victor Contreras, was...
