Latest Texas Headlines
All the headlines from our Texas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Jury Awards Texas Woman $1.2M for Fall at Iowa Hotel
Feb 24 2014 // A Texas woman has been awarded more than $1 million for a fall on ice outside a Bettendorf, Iowa, hotel that shattered her right ankle and left her with limp. A Scott County jury awarded 54-year-old Brenda Alcala of Dallas...
Business Moves
Feb 24 2014 // Kemper Corp. Kemper Corp. is realigning its property/casualty business. This realignment will result in one property/casualty segment for financial reporting purposes, beginning with the first quarter 2014. The new Kemper...
Oklahoma, Texas Had Costliest Natural Disasters in 2013: Hartwig
Feb 24 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...
People – South Central
Feb 24 2014 // Hotchkiss Insurance Agency LLC (HIA) promoted Farrah Carlton to vice president of service. Carlton will lead client services initiatives and service management across all HIA offices. She previously held several positions...
Mayor of West, Texas, a Trusted Choice Hometown Hero
Feb 24 2014 // The Independent Insurance Agents of Texas (IIAT) named West Mayor Tommy Muska of Muska Insurance Services as its newest Trusted Choice Hometown Hero. Hometown Hero recognizes Trusted Choice insurance agents who go above...
Administrative Changes Proposed for Texas Workers’ Compensation System
Feb 24 2014 // Adoption of NCCI Manual Would Be Effective June 1 Texas Insurance Commissioner, Julia RathgeberTexas will be privatizing many functions in its workers’ compensation system if a proposal to adopt the National Council...
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...
