Latest Texas Headlines

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

Texas Mutual, VFIS of Texas Fund Safety Training for Rural Fire Departments

Jul 10 2013 // Workers’ compensation insurer, Texas Mutual Insurance Co., has partnered with VFIS of Texas, a provider of specialized insurance solutions for the emergency service industry, to create a grant program for rural fire...

Texas AG: State Not on the Hook for TWIA Unfunded Losses

Jul 9 2013 // Texas’ attorney general says the state is under no obligation to pay outstanding claims for the insurer of last resort for coastal properties should that organization not have sufficient funds to pay its bills. In a...

Lockton Opens New Commercial Insurance Office in Ft. Worth, Texas

Jul 9 2013 // Lockton has expanded its commercial insurance operations, opening an office in the central business district of Fort Worth, Texas. The new Lockton office is located at 777 Main Street downtown. Frank Scardino is president...

Texas Mutual Insurance Issues $524K in Dividends

Jul 9 2013 // Texas Mutual Insurance Co. announced that the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers (TAEP) safety group has earned a $398,735 workers’ compensation dividend, and the Lone Star Energy (LSE) safety group earned a $124,962...

Former Texas Insurance Agent Sentenced to 20 Years for Theft from Elderly

Jul 8 2013 // A Harris County District Court has convicted Leon “Randy” Sinclair III, of Houston, of first-degree felony Misapplication of Fiduciary Property, according to the Texas Department of Insurance. Sinclair was...

Mississippi Online System Aims to Catch Uninsured Drivers

Jul 8 2013 // A contractor projects that a system to instantly verify whether Mississippians have auto insurance would lead to fines of more than $150 million a year being collected over the program’s first three years The...

Interest in Storm Shelters Rising in Texas Panhandle

Jul 2 2013 // In a region that frequently sees tornadoes, Texas Panhandle residents are considering storm shelters and other tools to stay safe in a twister as dangerous and deadly as the ones that have recently struck North Texas and...

MHBT’s Henry Named Top Insurance Agent in Texas

Jul 2 2013 // The Independent Insurance Agents of Texas (IIAT) announced that Dallas independent insurance agent Bill Henry, chairman and CEO of MHBT Inc., is the winner of the Drex Foreman Award presented at IIAT’s 116th Annual...

Whitaker Elected Chair of Independent Insurance Agents of Texas

Jul 1 2013 // The Independent Insurance Agents of Texas (IIAT) elected Don Whitaker, president and owner of Whitaker Insurance Associates Inc. in San Antonio, to serve as chair for 2013-2014 during IIAT’s 116th Annual Conference...

Bethesda, Md., Ranked as Most Secure Metro Area in Farmers Insurance Study

Jun 28 2013 // The Bethesda–Gaithersburg–Frederick region in Maryland was ranked as the most secure large U.S. metro area in the latest study published by Farmers Insurance Group of Companies. This annual study defines large...

MHBT Acquires Wells Fargo Insurance Office in Texas

Jun 28 2013 // Dallas, Texas-based MHBT Inc. has acquired Wells Fargo’s insurance brokerage operations in Lubbock, Texas. The deal includes all operating assets and operations of the Lubbock office of Wells Fargo Insurance,...

Deadline for Louisiana Sinkhole Buyout Talks Extended

Jun 28 2013 // Nearly half of the eligible residents and families directly affected by a Bayou Corne, La,-area sinkhole induced by a Texas Brine Co. salt dome failure last summer have agreed to company buyouts, while the rest have more...

Texas Fire Review Panel Flags Work in 2 Cases

Jun 28 2013 // A Texas fire review panel flagged two quarter-century-old arson cases, saying investigators were mistaken in finding that the defendants set intentional fires. The Texas State Fire Marshal’s Office convened the panel...

4 Workers Hurt in Texas A&M Construction Accident

Jun 27 2013 // Four workers were hurt, three critically, after a barn frame collapsed on June 22 at an $80 million Texas A&M University equestrian complex that’s under construction. The collapse happened on university property...

Colleges Could Face Lawsuits Following Supreme Court Affirmative Action Ruling

Jun 26 2013 // The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action may force universities to re-examine their admissions policies and face waves of litigation about race- based admission. In a 7-1 ruling yesterday, the justices...

Social Media Is Here to Stay, Texas P/C Professionals Say

Jun 26 2013 // The value of social media as a tool for marketing and selling property/casualty insurance may be a matter of debate but one thing is for certain: While the nature of social media may be evolving, it’s not going...

Some Louisiana Residents Take Buyouts from Salt Dome Owner

Jun 25 2013 // A third of a group of residents evacuated because of an Assumption Parish sinkhole have accepted buyout offers from Texas Brine Co. Company spokesman Sonny Cranch says that as of noon on June 23, 33 of 91 people had taken...

Texas Town Sues Plant Owner Over Fertilizer Blast

Jun 24 2013 // Officials of the small Texas town devastated by an April 17 fertilizer plant blast that killed 15 people has filed suit against the plant owner and supplier. The lawsuit filed by West officials on June 21 seeks unspecified...

Relationships, Expertise Drive Success in Texas E&S Marketplace

Jun 21 2013 // During the past 20 to 30 years typical business dealings between wholesale insurance brokers and retail agents have evolved from being purely transactional experiences to those that are highly dependent upon relationships...

Bus Company Owner Faces Charges from Fatal 2008 Texas Crash

Jun 21 2013 // The owner of a Houston bus company has been indicted on federal charges stemming from the 2008 Texas crash that killed 17 people on their way to a religious conclave, authorities announced. Angel de la Torre of Houston and...