Latest Trends Headlines
All the headlines from our Trends Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Drugs in U.S. Workplace at Highest Level in Decade
Sep 16 2016 // Following years of declines, the percentage of employees in the combined U.S. workforce testing positive for drugs has steadily increased over the last three years to a 10-year high. An analysis of nearly 11 million...
Employees Picking Up More of Health Costs
Sep 16 2016 // A growing number of U.S. workers are covered by health insurance that sticks them with a bigger share of the medical bill but also softens that blow by providing a special account to help with the expense. Companies are...
Arch Coal Ends Self-Bonding, Agrees to Fund Future Mine Cleanups to Exit Bankruptcy
Sep 13 2016 // U.S. coal miner Arch Coal has agreed to set aside collateral to cover future mine cleanup costs as part of its bankruptcy reorganization plan, according to a court filing, ending its controversial use of...
Casualty Losses and Cyber, Crop, Property Demand Driving Reinsurance Growth: Aon
Sep 12 2016 // Reinsurance demand has increased over the past 18 months, with the cession ratio across the global property/casualty insurance industry registering a small rise for the first time in several years, and the trend expected...
Kentucky Workers’ Comp Loss Costs to Decrease 5 % on Oct. 1
Sep 9 2016 // The Kentucky Department of Insurance has approved the annual workers’ compensation loss costs filing from the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc. (NCCI) with a rate decrease of five percent on average. It...
Chinese Firms Enter Private Health Insurance Market for Growth Opportunities
Sep 8 2016 // Gaming firms, real-estate companies and drugmakers in China are chasing what they hope will be the country’s next hot commodity: private health insurance. At least 29 publicly traded Chinese companies have announced...
More Businesses Fear Losing Data than Getting Hacked, Survey Shows
Sep 7 2016 // Powered by InsuranceJournal.tv Losing data strikes more fear in businesses than getting hacked. A survey released today by San Francisco, Calif.-based Wells Fargo Insurance shows 47 percent of mid-sized companies were...
SCOR Targets 7% Annual Rise in Gross Premiums During Next 3 Years
Sep 7 2016 // SCOR SE, France’s largest reinsurer, expects gross premiums to rise as much as 7 percent annually over the next three years on increased demand in Asia. SCOR has “significant growth potential” despite a...
Negative Reinsurance Sector Outlook Not Changing Anytime Soon: A.M. Best
Sep 7 2016 // A.M. Best said its outlook for the reinsurance sector remains negative due to a multitude of factors, and it will likely stay that way for quite some time. “Our rating outlook remains longer-term than our typical...
Connecticut’s 2017 Health Insurance Rates Expected to Rise
Sep 6 2016 // Tens of thousands of Connecticut health insurance consumers will still see double-digit increases in their 2017 rates, even though the state’s Department of Insurance has denied some rate requests filed by health...
XL Catlin Names Tennant Pollock as VP, Emerging Markets
Sep 6 2016 // XL Catlin has named Lauren Tennant Pollock as vice president, Emerging Markets, based in New York. She will work with XL Catlin’s Emerging Markets team providing reinsurance and insurance to developing regions across...
Demotech on Workers’ Comp: Premiums Up 2.3% in First Half of 2016
Sep 6 2016 // Demotech’s review of second quarter 2016 data, as recently reported by insurers to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, shows that workers’ compensation insurers reported a 2.3 percent increase...
The Future of Climate Change Modeling
Sep 6 2016 // For the last few years there’s been a common response from catastrophe modelers who advise the property/casualty industry when asked about including the effects of climate change in modeling. It went something like:...
Consumers Rely Too Much on Homeowners Insurance: Survey
Sep 6 2016 // Too few Americans take steps to prepare for disasters, and too many assume their home insurance policies will bail them out if one strikes. As disaster season peaks, a new national consumer survey commissioned by Trusted...
AIG, Chubb, XL Lead in $1 Billion U.S. Cyber Insurance Market: Fitch
Aug 29 2016 // About 120 U.S. insurance groups wrote an estimated $1 billion in cyber insurance direct written premiums in 2015, according to Fitch. Fitch aggregated the cybersecurity statutory supplement data for the U.S....
Outlooks for Wisconsin Mutual Insurance Revised to Positive: A.M. Best
Aug 26 2016 // A.M. Besthas revised the outlooks to positive from stable and affirmed the financial strength rating of A- (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating of “a-” of Wisconsin Mutual Insurance Co. (WMIC) in Madison,...
A.M. Best Revises Outlook to Positive for Texas-Based State National Group
Aug 25 2016 // A.M. Best revised the issuer credit rating (ICR) outlook to positive from stable, and affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and the ICRs of “a” of State National Insurance Co. Inc. and...
Traffic Fatalities Continue to Rise; Up 9% in First Half of Year
Aug 24 2016 // Preliminary estimates from the National Safety Council indicate motor vehicle deaths were 9 percent higher through the first six months of 2016 than in 2015, and 18 percent higher than two years ago at the six month...
66% of Insurers Plan Increased Hiring Over Next Year: Study
Aug 22 2016 // More than 66 percent of insurance companies intend to increase staff during the next 12 months, according to a new midyear labor study. That rate is the highest in the history of the study, The U.S. Insurance Labor Outlook...
North Carolina Court Upholds Commissioner’s 25% Rate Increase Rejection
Aug 22 2016 // North Carolina’s insurance commissioner had plenty of justification to reject a 2014 request by insurers to raise homeowners’ premiums by an average of 25 percent, the state Court of Appeals ruled Aug....
