Latest Texas Headlines
All the headlines from our Texas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Texas Likely to Become an ‘NCCI State’ for Workers’ Comp; Question Is – When?
Feb 20 2014 // Texas will be privatizing many functions in its workers’ compensation system if a staff petition to adopt the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) Basic Manual, with Texas exceptions, and the national...
Traffic Deaths Decline as Wrecks Rise in South Texas Drilling Area
Feb 19 2014 // Traffic fatalities are down but the number of wrecks has risen in a 23-county area of South Texas where oil drilling has boomed in recent years. The San Antonio Express News reports there were 236 fatalities in 2013, a...
Allstate Seeking to Expand Agency Count in Texas
Feb 19 2014 // Allstate Insurance Co. is launching a recruitment campaign to appoint 120 new agency owners in Texas this year. Allstate agency owners are also actively searching for qualified candidates to fill more than 800 sales...
York Acquires Texas, Louisiana-Based American Claims Services
Feb 19 2014 // York Risk Services Group, a provider of claims administration and risk management services, has acquired American Claims Services Inc. (ACSI) based in Houston, Texas, and Destrehan, La. John Bannon and Bill Johnson of ACSI...
Texas Cities Find Loophole in Health Insurance Exchange Training Rule
Feb 19 2014 // The Houston Health Department likely won’t have to pay for additional training for most of the “navigators” who are helping city residents enroll in the new federal health insurance marketplace. All it...
Study Looks at Options to Depopulate Texas Coastal Wind Insurer
Feb 13 2014 // Loss exposure for Texas’ wind and hail insurer of last resort along the coast increased by around 319 percent between 2005 and 2012 – from $23.26 billion to $74.17 billion, and its policy count grew by...
State Fire Marshal Pushes Texas Arson Hotline
Feb 13 2014 // Texas State Fire Marshal Chris Connealy is urging all fire chiefs, fire marshals and local law enforcement officers to take advantage of the Texas Arson Hotline, which is supported by A Texas Advisory Council on Arson...
R-T Specialty Acquires Blais Excess & Surplus Agency of Texas
Feb 13 2014 // Ryan Specialty Group’s wholesale brokerage R-T Specialty LLC (RT) has acquired Blais Excess & Surplus Agency of Texas Ltd. (Blais), an independent, specialty wholesale broker with offices in Dallas and...
West, Texas Schools Receive $20M for Fertilizer Blast Recovery
Feb 13 2014 // A federal agency is granting $20 million to a rural Central Texas town to help rebuild two schools destroyed in last year’s deadly fertilizer plant explosion, town and federal officials said. The Federal Emergency...
Texas Lowers Workers’ Compensation Maintenance Tax Rate
Feb 12 2014 // The Texas Department of Insurance announced that the Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) has lowered the maintenance tax rate to 1.543 percent of gross premiums collected by workers’ compensation insurance...
Oklahoma, Texas Had Costliest Natural Disasters in 2013: Hartwig
Feb 11 2014 // The Oklahoma tornadoes of May 2013 not only caused significant loss of life but also contributed to its designation last year as the costliest state for natural disaster related insurance payouts, according to the...
Insured Property Losses for Central Texas Halloween Floods Top $30M
Feb 11 2014 // Final figures released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) show that insured losses to residential and commercial property from flood waters which swamped Central Texas on Halloween night 2013 totaled...
Scottsdale’s Miller: E&S Market Stable with Moderate Growth in 2013
Feb 10 2014 // The excess and surplus lines insurance industry was in a good place last year, characterized by a stable market and moderate growth, according to one executive who is bullish on the sector. “I think the E&S...
Guarantee Insurance Co. Entering Texas Workers’ Comp Market
Feb 10 2014 // Guarantee Insurance Co., a monoline workers’ compensation insurance subsidiary of Florida-based Patriot National Insurance Group Inc., is expanding into Texas. Patriot National said the addition of Texas increases...
Declarations
Feb 10 2014 // The Cost “You can talk to anyone who’s lost a friend or family member to a drunk driver and they’ll tell you about the cost.” –Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist told a Washington state...
Texas Troopers Make Hundreds of DWI Arrests over Holidays
Feb 10 2014 // Texas troopers made nearly 1,500 drunken driving arrests during the recent holidays. The Texas Department of Public Safety announced the numbers for the increased enforcement from Dec. 13 through Jan. 21. A Texas...
Texas Adopts Rules for Health Insurance Exchange Navigators
Feb 10 2014 // The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) issued final rules that it says will strengthen protections for consumers who seek assistance from federal health benefit exchange navigators. The rules do not apply to licensed...
Obituary
Feb 10 2014 // Lyle Ashley Lyle Ashley, decorated Navy veteran, insurance agency founder, and well-respected Texas insurance professional, passed away Jan. 24. Ashley, 69, received The Vietnam Service Medal with two bronze stars for his...
Insurer Group: Texas Auto, Homeowner Complaints at a Record Low
Feb 10 2014 // In 2013, Texas drivers and homeowners filed the fewest number of complaints against their insurance companies since the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) began keeping records, the Insurance Council of Texas...
Study Looks at Options to Depopulate Texas Coastal Wind Insurer
Feb 10 2014 // Loss exposure for Texas’ wind and hail insurer of last resort along the coast increased by around 319 percent between 2005 and 2012 – from $23.26 billion to $74.17 billion, and its policy count grew by...
