Latest Property Casualty Headlines

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

2013 P/C Insurers’ Results Show Net Gain on Underwriting– First Since 2007

Apr 21 2014 // U.S. property/casualty insurers’ net income after taxes grew to $63.8 billion in 2013 from $35.1 billion in 2012, with insurers’ overall profitability as measured by their rate of return on average...

Best Upgrades Ratings for Most ACE Limited Subsidiaries; Outlooks Stable

Apr 15 2014 // A.M. Best has upgraded the financial strength rating (FSR) to ‘A++’ (Superior) from ‘A+’ (Superior) and the issuer credit ratings (ICR) to “aa+” from “aa” of the North...

Chile Quake, Tsunami Losses Unlikely to Affect Local Insurers’ Ratings: Fitch

Apr 11 2014 // A bulletin from Fitch Ratings indicates that, based on preliminary analysis, Chile’s insurance industry solvency “will not be affected by the recent Iquique earthquake and tsunami. Chilean property/casualty...

NAPCO Report: Prices Decreasing, Competition Increasing in P&C Space

Apr 10 2014 // Insurers have become increasingly competitive and are reducing rates for most accounts as a result of low global insured catastrophe losses and added capacity from non-traditional market sources, according to wholesale...

P/C Reinsurance Market Softer Due to Alternative Capital: Execs

Apr 7 2014 // A new survey from Towers Watson confirms that more than half (55 percent) of property/casualty insurance chief financial officers believe the property reinsurance market is softer than the primary market, while about...

Agency M&A in 2013 Reverted to Norm After Busy 2012: OPTIS Partners

Apr 7 2014 // Mergers and acquisitions of insurance agencies fell in 2013, with 248 reported transactions in the United States and Canada, according to a new semi-annual survey by OPTIS Partners, an investment banking and financial...

A.M. Best Revises Hartford Financial, P/C Units’ Outlook to Positive

Apr 4 2014 // Rating agency A.M. Best changed the outlook associated with the “A” financial strength rating of the members of the Hartford Insurance Pool to positive from stable Thursday, citing a reduced risk from variable...

Reinsurance Price Drop Seen Triggering Lower P/C Rates

Apr 2 2014 // A downward slide in reinsurance prices showed clear signs of accelerating in April contract renewals and is likely to feed through to property/casualty insurance prices before long, broker Willis said this week. Reinsurers...

ACE Names Charlton President of P/C and Micro-Business Division

Apr 1 2014 // ACE Group today announced that David Charlton has been appointed president of the Property and Casualty and Micro-business Division for ACE Commercial Risk Services. He will lead ACE’s expansion efforts into the...

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Exec on Acquisitions, Expansion Plans

Mar 31 2014 // Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI), part of Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway, has its eyes on overseas expansion, according to BHSI’s top executive. BHSI’s...

Top U.S. P/C Agency and Brokerage Acquirers in 2013

Mar 24 2014 // Insurance Journal‘s review of property/casualty agency and brokerage mergers and acquisitions occurring in 2013 found that Arthur J. Gallagher was the most active agency acquirer – as was the case in 2012. Hub...

Top 10 HOT Markets to Watch

Mar 24 2014 // Insurance Journal examined industries experiencing changes and expansions in the past year. Here are the top 10 market sectors that just might deliver hot opportunities for agents and brokers in the property/casualty...

Flashback: Key P/C Insurance Mergers and Acquisitions of 2013

Mar 24 2014 // Compared to some previous years, there were not a lot of mergers in the property/casualty carrier space in 2013 but there were some interesting ones. Major carrier transactions included specialty insurer Markel’s...

Allianz to Acquire P&C Business, Distribution Capacity from Italy’s UnipolSai

Mar 18 2014 // Allianz announced that it has agreed to acquire a part of the Property and Casualty insurance business of the Italian insurer UnipolSai with premiums of €1.1 billion [$1.53 billion] (2013). “The business includes...

P/C Reinsurance Market Softer Due to Alternative Capital: Execs

Mar 14 2014 // A new survey from Towers Watson confirms that more than half (55 percent) of property/casualty insurance chief financial officers believe the property reinsurance market is softer than the primary market, while about...

Agency M&A in 2013 Reverted to Norm After Busy 2012: OPTIS Partners

Mar 13 2014 // Mergers and acquisitions of insurance agencies fell in 2013, with 248 reported transactions in the United States and Canada, according to a new semi-annual survey by OPTIS Partners, an investment banking and financial...

Alternative Capital Softening P&C Reinsurance Market: Towers Watson CFO Survey

Mar 12 2014 // A new survey from Towers Watson confirms that “over half (55 percent) of property & casualty (P&C) insurance chief financial officers (CFOs) believe the property reinsurance market is softer than the primary...

Barney & Barney in Southern California Names Five New Principals

Mar 11 2014 // San Diego, Calif.-based Barney & Barney has promoted five senior executives to principals of the firm. The new principals, all of whom are based in California, are: Sara Bennett, an executive in the property/casualty...

Labor Study Shows P/C Insurers Plan to Hire, Grow Significantly

Mar 10 2014 // More than half of all insurance companies say they plan to increase staff in 2014, although hiring for the most-in-demand positions may prove difficult. That’s according to the latest Semi-Annual U.S. Insurance Labor...

Florida’s United Insurance Holdings Nets $54M from Public Offering

Mar 6 2014 // United Insurance Holdings Corp., a property and casualty insurance holding company know as UPC Insurance, reported the closing of its previously disclosed $57.5 million underwritten public offering of 4,600,000 shares of...