Latest Texas Headlines

Business Moves

Apr 21 2008 // Towerstone Towerstone Inc., a wholesale insurance broker and managing general agency with extensive experience in a broad spectrum of industries, has been formed via the merger of Energy Risk Associates Inc. (ERA) with the...

Case Watch

Apr 21 2008 // Additional Insured Evanston Insurance Co. v. Atofina Petrochemicals Inc., Texas Feb. 15, 2008. Contract provision requiring that refinery “shall be named as additional insured” sufficient to trigger additional...

Apr 21 2008 // People Mullis Newby Hurst L.P., an Addison, Texas-based provider of construction insurance and surety bonds in Texas, promoted Jan Johnson to senior vice president and director of insurance. Johnson, a 26-year veteran of...

WKF&C Agency Expands to Texas

Apr 18 2008 // Melville, New York-based managing general agent, WKF&C Agency Inc., announced it is expanding its nationwide casualty underwriting platform with the opening of a new office in Dallas, Texas. Industry veteran and...

Man Who Fled to Georgia Sentenced for Workers’ Comp Fraud in Texas

Apr 18 2008 // Texas Mutual Insurance Company reported that a Travis County district court has sentenced a Los Fresnos, Texas, man on workers’ compensation fraud-related charges. The court sentenced Frank Tisdale to five...

Amick Named Director of M.J. Hall’s New Texas Location

Apr 18 2008 // M.J. Hall and Company Inc., a managing general agent and surplus lines wholesaler based in Stockton, Calif., has opened an office in Plano, Texas. The company said with the opening of the Plano office it now has eight...

California Judge Approves Ford Explorer Settlement

Apr 17 2008 // A California judge on Tuesday approved the settlement of a class-action lawsuit that will compensate about 800,000 Ford Explorer owners whose vehicles lost value because of a perceived rollover danger. The settlement ends...

Texas Windstorm Pool Seeks to Increase Reinsurance Level for 2008

Apr 17 2008 // Citing increased exposure along the Texas coast, the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association has requested Commissioner of Insurance Mike Geeslin to authorize the purchase of $1.5 billion in reinsurance for the windstorm...

Texas Workers’ Comp Division Assesses $63K in Penalties

Apr 17 2008 // Disciplinary actions taken by Commissioner of Workers’ Compensation Albert Betts in February and March 2008 totaled $63,800 for violations of the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act, the Texas Department of...

Texas Regulators Explain State Farm Homeowners Rate Hike

Apr 14 2008 // In its “Straight Talk About Insurance” column on its Web site, the Texas Department of Insurance has updated information on the decision to approve an increase in State Farm Insurance Company’s homeowners...

Excess Workers’ Comp Program for Non-subscribers Launched in Texas

Apr 11 2008 // Safety National Casualty Corp., a Missouri-based provider of excess workers’ compensation insurance, has launched a new program for non-subscriber employers in Texas. This new program, TExcess, provides excess...

Texas Attorney General Acts to Halt Sale of Fake Driver’s Licenses

Apr 11 2008 // Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has charged a Houston company with selling fake driver’s licenses to immigrants. An enforcement action filed by the Attorney General asked the court to stop the defendants, Centro...

Ark., Okla., Texas Hammered with Storms; Damage Estimates Mount

Apr 10 2008 // An insurance industry trade organization estimates that preliminary damage from an April 8 Oklahoma hail storm has risen to $15 million and cautioned losses could increase significantly. Meanwhile, Northern Texas, Oklahoma...

Merger of Energy Risk Associates and PWIB Texas Creates Towerstone

Apr 9 2008 // IMA Financial Group Inc. announced the recent formation of Towerstone Inc., a wholesale insurance broker and managing general agency with extensive experience in a broad spectrum of industries, with expertise in energy and...

Lee Joins Higginbotham & Associates’ Risk Management Team

Apr 8 2008 // Vance Lee has joined the Dallas office of Fort Worth-based Higginbotham & Associates as a vice president in its Risk Management Department. Lee will complement the agency’s loss control and claims customer...

Texas Insurance Agent Accused of Bribery in Rio Grande Valley

Apr 7 2008 // A Harlingen, Texas, insurance agent is accused in a federal indictment of providing cash, plane tickets and condo rentals to some Edcouch-Elsa school district officials in exchange for public contracts. Arnulfo Olivarez...

Texas Supreme Court to Rehear Entergy Workers’ Comp Case

Apr 7 2008 // The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to rehear a case from Jefferson County dealing with the scope of the state workers’ compensation law. The court has not yet set the date for new arguments but said April 5 it will...

Fraud Fighting Texas Prosecutor Honored for Successes

Apr 7 2008 // Kyson Johnson, a special assistant in the specialized crime division of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, has been named Prosecutor of the Year by A Texas Advisory Council on Arson (ATAC). Johnson was...

A Passion for Protecting Directors of Companies

Apr 7 2008 // Process involves more than simply procuring insurance, NIP founder says Bill Pollock is passionate about protecting directors of companies. The Dartmouth College and University of Virginia law school graduate has been a...

It Figures

Apr 7 2008 // 39 Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe in late March declared 39 counties disaster areas due to damage from heavy rains and floods. The counties declared disaster areas are: Baxter, Benton, Boone, Carroll, Clay, Conway, Crawford,...