Latest Texas Headlines

Montemayor Cuts TAIPA Rates 6.1 Percent

Sep 25 2000 // For the second straight time, the Texas Department of Insurance has ordered an overall rate reduction for the Texas Automobile Insurance Plan Association, the state’s assigned risk plan. Earlier this month,...

Tennessee Agent Spoofs Online CE Companies With LearnNothing.com

Aug 25 2000 // “LearnNothing.com, CEScam.com, and CECertificateMill.com Create Partnership For Online Continuing Education Courses to Insurance Industry.” That was the bogus headline that made its way across the country...

Personal Auto Profits Plummet

Aug 14 2000 // As Losses Top 66 Percent Will Texas Soon Bench the Benchmark System? Personal auto losses increased last year in 35 of 51 markets across the country, making for an average pure loss ratio of 65.6 percent, the highest level...

It’s a Dog’s Life… And an Agent’s Lot

Aug 14 2000 // What is the most authoritative source of truthful information in the whole universe? No question about it. It’s Southwest Airlines’ Spirit magazine. You know. The magazine found in the seat pocket right in...

Roundabouts: A Way Around Costly Accidents’

Aug 14 2000 // The Insurance Industry’s Increased Interest in Auto Safety Has Produced Research that Provides Compelling Reasons to Send Our Traffic in Circles Each year in the United States more than 800 people die and an...

Mercury General Releases Second Quarter Results, President to Step Down

Jul 31 2000 // Mercury General Corp. has reported net operating earnings for the second quarter of 2000 were $25.6 million, or $.47 per diluted share, compared with $33.9 million, or $.62 per diluted share in 1999. For the full six...

Workers’ Comp Benefit Costs Vary Widely Across Texas

Jul 24 2000 // Workers’ compensation benefits and claim costs in Texas differ by nearly 50 percent within the state, even when adjusted for regional differences in industry composition and wages, according to a recent study by the...

Lying, Cheating and Stealing

Jul 24 2000 // There are a number of sins to which those providing services for money are susceptible: product ignorance, market ignorance, administrative incompetence, disloyalty and betrayal, slothfulness, untruthfulness, and stealing....

Surplus Lines Agents in The New Millennium

Jul 10 2000 // 2001 Legislative session to bring changes to agent licencing In an effort to comply with the uniformity and reciprocity requirements of financial services reform, the Texas Department of Insurance will likely soon change...

And Then There Were Two…

Jul 10 2000 // As nursing home liability coverage costs continue to climb, admitted carriers are pulling out of markets across the county. In Texas—considered, along with Florida, to be one of the most challenged states in this...

Jul 10 2000 // The fall of California Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush was painful to watch. There was no quick, quiet exit. It was a drawn-out, three-month ordeal documented and driven day by day by the Los Angeles Times and the...

Wokers Comp Claim Costs Higher in Texas

Jun 26 2000 // Workers’ compensation payments for medical care and indemnity (wage-replacement) benefits in Texas are higher than most states analyzed in a new study by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute. The study...

Liquor Liability

Jun 26 2000 // “It’s nice work if you can get it,” goes the familiar saying. And nowhere does it apply better hant the liquor liability maket, where premiums are good and paid losses are about as low as they can...

School Rules For the New Millennium

Jun 26 2000 // Today, there are roughly 51.5 million public and private school students and 3 million teachers in the United States, according to the NationalSchool Boards Association. And although these schools are scattered across the...

INSURERS AGREE TO REFUNDS

Jun 26 2000 // GEICO and Liberty Mutual Insurance companies have agreed with Texas Attorney General John Cornyn to return nearly $600,000 deducted from Texas policyholder claims when damaged auto parts were replaced by newer parts. Under...

TDI Launches Probe Into Race-Based Pricing of Small Life Policies

Jun 26 2000 // The Texas Department of Insurance is surveying insurers selling “industrial life” and similar small life insurance policies to determine if any are charging African-Americans higher premiums than others. TDI...

Texas Holds Its Own in Insurance Rates

Jun 26 2000 // A closer inspection of NAIC auto premium data reveals something much different than what the consumer media reported When the National Association of Insurance Commissioners released its 2000 report, State Average...

High-Stakes Hurricane Season Arrives

Jun 12 2000 // Residents along the East and Gulf Coasts and in the Caribbean Islands should brace for an above-average 2000 Atlantic hurricane season on par with last year’s season. Forecasters with both the National Oceanic and...

Agent Associations Bridge the GAP BetweenTradition and Technology

Jun 5 2000 // The IIAT and IIAA have the arduous task of integrating a century of traditional service with a new evolution of business and technology. And while many things are changing, much remains the same. For over 100 years, small...

Agent Indemnification: How Not to Get Burned

Jun 5 2000 // Once in a blue moon, the Supreme Court of Texas decides a case that squarely pertains to insurance agents. On April 20, 2000, Justice Alberto Gonzales, writing for a unanimous court, decided an odd one, with potential...