Latest Texas Headlines

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

Texas Security Company Convicted of $51K Workers’ Compensation Fraud

Jan 29 2020 // HHDP Security, a Houston-based security company, has been convicted of premium fraud and ordered by a Travis County District Court judge to pay $51,131 in restitution, the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of...

South Texas Lawmaker Appointed to Windstorm Insurance Oversight Board

Jan 27 2020 // Texas state Rep. J.M. Lozano has been appointed to the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) Legislative Oversight Board, a group of four State Representatives and four State Senators that will closely monitor TWIA...

People & Places

Jan 27 2020 // National Philadelphia Insurance Companies, a commercial property/casualty and professional liability insurer, has promoted Michael Cundiff from vice president to senior vice president of Surety. Cundiff will succeed Ed...

Texas E&S Premium Up 14.3% in 2019, Stamping Office Says

Jan 27 2020 // Excess and surplus lines insurance premium (E&S) in Texas reached $6.95 billion in 2019, a 14.36% increase over 2018’s premium total of $6.08 billion, according to the Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas...

Policy Changes Now in Effect at Texas Windstorm Insurer

Jan 27 2020 // The new year brought some changes to residential and commercial policies provided by Texas’ insurer of last resort for wind and hail along the coast. New coverages, terms and conditions now apply to Texas Windstorm...

Study: Petrochemicals Boom Would Boost Greenhouse Gases

Jan 27 2020 // A multi-billion dollar boom in petrochemical plants proposed along the U.S. Gulf Coast could pump as much greenhouse gas into the air as 131 coal-fired power plants by 2030, according to a study released by University of...

SLTX: Surplus Lines Flood Insurance Premium Up in Texas over 5 Years

Jan 24 2020 // Surplus lines flood insurance premium filed with the Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLTX) has increased annually over the past five years, according to SLTX. Additionally, while NFIP premium dipped in 2017, it...

Texas’ Galiot Insurance Services, Higginbotham Join Forces

Jan 24 2020 // Houston-based Galiot Insurance Services, with a specialty in the life sciences sector, and insurance broker Higginbotham, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, have merged operations. Galiot President and CEO Brian Toglia,...

Owner of Norwegian Tanker Denies Fault in Fatal Texas Collision

Jan 23 2020 // The owner of a chemical tanker ship has denied any liability for a collision with a fishing boat off the coast of Texas that killed one crew member and left two more missing and presumed dead. Norway-based Odfjell SE filed...

Mace Appointed Deputy Commissioner of Legal Services at Texas DWC

Jan 22 2020 // Kara Mace has been tapped as deputy commissioner for the newly created Legal Services program at the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation. Legal Services will handle rule development, open...

Texas Mutual: Massachusetts Firm Pleads Guilty to Workers’ Comp Fraud

Jan 21 2020 // A Massachusetts company has pleaded guilty in a Travis County, Texas, district court to workers’ compensation fraud, according to Texas Mutual Insurance Co. Texas Mutual says EME International Inc. (EME) of...

IMA Texas Expands to Fort Worth; Adds Schuler, Wallace

Jan 21 2020 // IMA Inc., a national insurance brokerage firm with offices in Dallas, is expanding to Fort Worth with the addition of two insurance veterans, Trey Schuler and Gavin Wallace. Schuler and Wallace will work in tandem. The...

Texas Insurance Department: Board, Committee Slots Open at SLTX, TWIA

Jan 21 2020 // The Texas Department of Insurance is accepting applications for a number of boards and committees, including for the Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLTX) board of directors and the Texas Windstorm Insurance...

Brown & Brown Acquires Assets of Texas All Risk

Jan 17 2020 // Brown & Brown Inc. through its subsidiary, Hull & Company LLC, has acquired substantially all of the assets of Dallas-based Texas All Risk, a managing general agent (MGA) placing a wide range of property/ casualty...

Catapult Insurance Promotes King, Adds Fisher to Executive Team in Dallas

Jan 17 2020 // Catapult Insurance Solutions, a privately held managing general insurance agency and wholesale brokerage based in Dallas, has promoted Becky King to vice president of Underwriting and product manager, and added Steve...

Meat Loaf Sues Texas Hotel, Blames Negligence for Disabling Fall

Jan 16 2020 // Singer and actor Meat Loaf has filed a lawsuit against a hotel at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and organizers of a horror convention held there, blaming them for negligence when he fell from a stage while...

HCI to Acquire Policies of Florida’s Anchor P&C; Weston to Acquire Anchor Specialty

Jan 15 2020 // Two Florida-based homeowners insurers, Anchor Property & Casualty and Anchor Specialty Insurance, have succumbed to market pressures in the state and will be acquired by other companies. Tampa, Fla.-based HCI Group has...

Risk Strategies Acquires Academic HealthPlans in Texas

Jan 14 2020 // National insurance brokerage and risk management firm, Risk Strategies, has acquired Academic HealthPlans Inc. (AHP), a Grapevine, Texas-based provider of health insurance plans that colleges and universities make...

UT-Austin Acknowledges 17 Cases of Employee Sexual Misconduct

Jan 13 2020 // Seventeen employees at the University of Texas at Austin, including three faculty members and one research fellow, were found to have violated the flagship’s sexual misconduct policies between November 2017 and...

11 Dead After Storms Sweep Southern U.S., Midwest

Jan 13 2020 // Severe storms sweeping across southern portions of the U.S. and up into the Midwest were blamed Saturday in the deaths of at least 11 people, including two first responders, as high winds, tornadoes and unrelenting rain...