Latest Massachusetts Headlines
All the headlines from our Massachusetts Topic Page, ordered by recency.
MASS. TO HEAR HIGH RISK AUTO PLAN:
Jul 19 2004 // Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Julianne Bowler has scheduled a public hearing for July 22 to hear testimony on proposed rule changes to the state’s high risk auto facility. Commonwealth Auto Reinsurers (CAR),...
Trio of Mass. Agencies Agree to Provide Long-Term Care Disclosures to Residents
Jul 13 2004 // Three Massachusetts insurance agencies have agreed to each pay $2,500 in civil penalties and provide legally required information about long-term care insurance, under the terms of three separate assurances of...
At NAMIC, The Door’s Wide Open to Companies of All Sizes
Jul 5 2004 // Chairman Tim Hegarty Explains How His Trade Group Serves Big and Small Alike What happens when you put giants like State Farm, AIG, Nationwide and Liberty Mutual in a room with tiny farm mutuals like Husbandsmans Mutual,...
Passing in the Slow Lane
Jul 5 2004 // A number of years ago, very good friends of mine rallied their neighbors in an effort to improve their elementary school. With two young children of their own, they had a vested interest in a better school. But they and...
Mass. Seeks to Shake Image as Regulatory Outcast
Jul 5 2004 // Massachusetts officials, moving deliberately to change the image of the state as a regulatory nightmare for insurance companies and to re-make its systems to look more like those found elsewhere, are making progress even...
People and Places
Jul 5 2004 // Sidney Ferenc Sidney R. Ferenc and Steven M. Menzies were recently elected to new management positions by the board of directors of Applied Underwriters, headquartered in San Francisco. Ferenc assumes the position of...
Fireman’s Fund Threatens Exit from Mass. Auto Market
Jul 1 2004 // The Fireman’s Fund Insurance Companies has given notice to Massachusetts officials that it intends to withdraw from the state’s personal automobile insurance market on Dec. 31, 2004, because of continuing...
New Mass. Auto Plan On Way to Commissioner; New Safe Driver Plan Questioned
Jun 29 2004 // The board that oversees the Massachusetts auto insurance high risk facility, Commonwealth Auto Reinsurers (CAR), voted 11-2 in favor of final rules to convert the plan to an assigned risk plan on June 29. The CAR governing...
Woronoco Bank to Buy Colton Agency in Mass.
Jun 25 2004 // Woronoco Bancorp, Inc., the holding company for Woronoco Savings Bank, has signed an agreement to acquire The Colton Agency, Inc., an insurance agency located in Westfield, Mass. The bank plans to merge the agency with its...
Banknorth to Buy Drake, Swan & Crocker in Mass.
Jun 21 2004 // Portland, Me.-based Banknorth Group has signed a letter of intent to acquire Drake, Swan & Crocker Insurance Agency, Inc. of Orleans, Mass. The company expects to finalize the acquisition by July 1. Drake, Swan &...
Bikers’ Complaint Over Mass. Rates Nixed
Jun 18 2004 // Motorcycle drivers upset with the way insurance rates are set in Massachusetts lost a court bid to force the state to reconsider the fairness of its rating system. The Supreme Judicial Court dismissed the complaint by the...
R.I. Senate Backs Regional Health Plan
Jun 17 2004 // The Rhode Island Senate has approved legislation introduced by Sen. James C. Sheehan (D-Dist. 36) of Narragansett and North Kingstown to integrate Rhode Island’s insurance rules and regulations with those of...
Mass. May Cut Interest Paid on Med-Mal Awards
Jun 16 2004 // Leaders in the Massachusetts Legislature are mulling changes in the law governing medical malpractice lawsuits that would reduce the amount of money people harmed by malpractice will receive when they successfully sue, a...
Mass. Doesn’t Know What It’s Missing In Insurance, State Official Tells Boston CPCUs
Jun 14 2004 // Massachusetts consumers and lawmakers are often unaware of the insurance advantages enjoyed in other states or the problems within their own system and need to be educated about what they are missing, according to the head...
Mass. Lawmakers Approve Commercial Deregulation
Jun 11 2004 // The Massachusetts House and Senate have both approved legislation to deregulate insurance rates and forms for certain large commercial risks. The measure permits commercial accounts with more than $30,000 in premium that...
Mass. Lawmakers Eye Tougher Teen Driver Laws
Jun 8 2004 // Massachusetts lawmakers are recommending legislation that would place stricter requirements on teenage drivers and their parents or guardians in an effort to reduce car accidents involving young drivers. The bipartisan...
Mass. Grants Extra 30-Days for Assigned Risk Rules
Jun 8 2004 // The board of the high risk auto insurance pool in Massachusetts has been granted an additional 30 days to finalize new rules for implementation of an assigned risk style plan. Commonwealth Auto Reinsurers (CAR), under an...
Malpractice Insurer Exit From Mass. Worries Physicians
Jun 8 2004 // The impending departure of one of the few remaining commercial insurance companies offering liability coverage for physicians in Massachusetts is yet more evidence that the state faces a real crisis in professional...
Proposal to Replace Mass. Safe Driver Plan Unveiled; New Merit Rating System Sought by 2006
Jun 4 2004 // As anticipated in an earlier report by Insurance Journal, an arm of the Massachusetts insurance department has come up with a plan to replace the state’s current safe driver insurance plan with a new one by 2006 and...
Mass. High Risk Rules on Commissioner’s Desk; Safe Driver Plan Next on Reform Agenda
Jun 1 2004 // As expected, last week the governing committee of the high risk auto reinsurance facility in Massachusetts approved rules guiding the pool’s changeover to an assigned risk plan. Commonwealth Auto Reinsurers, known as...
