Latest Trends Headlines
All the headlines from our Trends Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Insurers Remain Cautious About Marijuana Insurance Market
Mar 14 2019 // The marijuana industry is an opportunity for insurers as more states have legalized the drug. But there are still risks in play that could limit wider carrier participation, A.M. Best said in a new report. One of the key...
Italy’s Generali Beats Targets, Reports 9.4% Rise in Net Profit for 2018
Mar 14 2019 // Italy’s top insurer Assicurazioni Generali raised its dividend for 2018 after beating its business plan targets and posting growth in net and operating profits. In a statement on Thursday, the company said it was...
Earthquake Survey Finds Thousands of Washington Buildings a Concern
Mar 13 2019 // Washington state’s first statewide inventory of buildings prone to crumble or collapse in an earthquake has found there are thousands of unreinforced masonry buildings that could be dangerous. The Northwest News...
North Carolina Insurance Fraud Round-Up: January, February
Mar 13 2019 // The North Carolina Department of Insurance announced multiple fraud enforcement actions during the first two months of 2019. Insurance fraud costs American consumers approximately $80 billion dollars a year. According to...
Florida Regulator to Hold Public Hearing on Citizens Rate Increase
Mar 13 2019 // The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) will conduct a rate hearing to receive public comment on the proposed rate changes from Citizens Property Insurance Corp. for its business in the Coastal Account (CA),...
Missouri’s POWERS Insurance & Risk Management Launches Emerging Risks Unit
Mar 12 2019 // POWERS Insurance and Risk Management, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, has launched an emerging risks division. This new sector will focus on insurance risk strategies that are aligned with cyber, technology, cannabis...
Tropical Cyclone Idai Expected to Hit Mozambique as Strongest Storm in Decade
Mar 12 2019 // The strongest tropical cyclone in at least a decade is expected to make landfall in Mozambique at the end of the week, bringing devastating winds and floods to the central coastline. The storm, named Idai, has already...
Federal Flood Insurance Premiums Could Rise in Flood-Prone Areas Under Trump Plan
Mar 12 2019 // Flood insurance premiums could rise and property values fall in the most deluge-prone areas under a plan the Trump administration intends to roll out in coming weeks to change the way risk is calculated under the National...
U.S. Commercial Insurance Prices Inched Up in Q4
Mar 11 2019 // U.S. commercial insurance carriers again earned price increases in the 2018 fourth quarter, but the growth was slight. Premiums during the quarter grew just under two percent on average compared to the same period in 2017,...
Trump Visits Alabama to Survey Damage from Powerful Tornado
Mar 11 2019 // Standing near the slab that’s all that is left of one family’s garage, President Donald Trump on Friday surveyed the devastation wrought by a powerful tornado that ripped through a rural Alabama town, uprooting...
How to Serve Today’s Nonprofit Insurance Market
Mar 8 2019 // Nonprofits are a lot like most insurance clients. They seek trusted and consultative relationships with their agents, brokers and carriers. They seek partners that understand their mission. But they also seek agents who...
Emerging Markets to Drive Global Insurance Growth over Next Decade: Swiss Re’s Sigma
Mar 8 2019 // Emerging markets will remain the growth engine of the global economy and insurance industry over the next decade, reflecting a continuing shift of economic power from west to east, according to Swiss Re Institute’s...
Report: 11 Minnesotans Died From Medical Mistakes in 2018
Mar 5 2019 // Health officials say 11 people died and 118 were injured in Minnesota hospitals and surgery centers last year from medical mistakes that were preventable. The Minnesota Department of Health’s annual report says the...
Insurance Agencies’ Profitability Fell But Organic Growth Continued in 2018: Reagan
Mar 4 2019 // Independent insurance agencies just closed the books on a year in which profitability fell slightly but they continued to grow organically and each major line of business grew, according to the latest survey from Reagan...
Highway Fatalities Level Off After Years of Increasing Rates: National Safety Council
Mar 4 2019 // For the first time since the Great Recession, the U.S. has experienced three straight years of at least 40,000 automobile-related deaths, according to estimates from the National Safety Council. In 2018, an estimated...
2019 Outlook: Rates, Deductibles Likely to Rise Again in Texas Homeowners Insurance Market
Mar 4 2019 // Texas independent insurance agents might want to warn their homeowner insurance customers that premium hikes and/or increases in deductibles could be on the horizon this year. Homeowners insurers have been filing for rate...
Nevada OKs Workers’ Comp Loss-Cost and Assigned-Risk Rate Decreases
Mar 1 2019 // Nevada Insurance Commissioner Barbara D. Richardson approved a filing from the National Council on Compensation Insurance for an average decrease of 8.1 percent for Nevada workers’ compensation voluntary insurance...
State Agency Shifts Focus as Medical Marijuana Demand in Oklahoma Rises
Mar 1 2019 // The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority has temporarily closed its customer service center to free up more staff to respond to the high volume of applications for medical marijuana cards. The number of applications...
Agents, Brokers and the Future of Insurance Distribution
Feb 26 2019 // A funny thing is happening on the way to the future. As consumers’ and carriers’ behaviors, attitudes and expectations have been changing, independent agents are evolving to better serve both customers and...
‘Sextortion’ Is Emerging Cyber Risk for Businesses, Warns Beazley
Feb 21 2019 // A new form of online bribery is emerging where cyber criminals attempt to extort cryptocurrency by claiming to have potentially embarrassing evidence of people using adult websites on work computers, according to a report...
