Latest Trends Headlines
All the headlines from our Trends Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Missouri DOI Recommends Workers’ Comp Rate Decrease
Dec 15 2014 // The Missouri Department of Insurance is recommending a 4.4 percent decrease in workers’ compensation insurance loss costs for 2015. The key driver of the decrease is the favorable loss experience in 2012, according...
Survey: Michigan Business Owners Optimistic About Future
Dec 15 2014 // Michigan Business owners remain optimistic about their future and expect continued profit improvement, according to the latest Michigan Future Business Index, published in partnership with Accident Fund Insurance Company...
Drunk-Driving Deaths Down 47% Since 2003 in Wisconsin
Dec 15 2014 // Fewer Wisconsinites are being hurt or killed in drunken-driving accidents. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation says 185 people died in alcohol-related crashes last year — down 47 percent since 2003. Injuries from...
Willis Sees No Impact on Coverage from UK’s Pool Re Rate Increases
Dec 15 2014 // The announcement by the UK government that it planned to raise premium rates for its ultimate backup reinsurer Pool Re initially raised fears that coverage through the system could be diminished. Willis noted, however,...
North Carolina Approves Decreases in Voluntary, Residual Market Workers’ Comp Loss Costs for 2015
Dec 15 2014 // North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin has approved workers’ compensation rates as filed that will go into effect April 1, 2015. There will be a 3.4 percent average decrease to loss costs for the...
P/C Direct Premium Written Up 4.6 Percent
Dec 15 2014 // Direct premium written (DPW) for property/casualty insurance companies continues to increase gradually. At year-end 2013, nearly $545 billion of DPW was reported, a record-high for the industry. For 2013, total DPW for all...
Survey Shows 8-in-10 Americans Believe in Climate Change
Dec 15 2014 // More than eight-in-10 Americans now believe the climate is changing – although they place that concern beneath issues like global political instability, economic crisis or a pandemic. Munich Re America’s inaugural...
Peru’s Melting Glaciers Pose Deadly Threat as Temperatures Rise
Dec 12 2014 // High in the Peruvian Andes, the glacier-fed lake Laguna 513 brims with meltwater atop a populated valley in a region prone to earthquakes. Scientists warn that if a giant chunk of ice from the Hualcan glacier breaks off it...
Hackers Increasingly Target Banks, Corporations Instead of Consumers
Dec 10 2014 // Hackers are increasingly stealing directly from banks and other companies and helping organized crime to operate more efficiently, according to the chief of cyber-security firm Kaspersky Lab. Examples range from infecting...
Climate Researchers Lower Global Warming Forecast on Plans to Cut Emissions
Dec 8 2014 // Climate researchers lowered their forecast for global warming for the first time since 2009 after the greenhouse gas polluters agreed to limit their emissions over the next 15 years, a group of European academics...
Speed Limit Rises to 70 MPH On Some Urban Utah Freeways
Dec 8 2014 // Motorists can drive a little faster on most urban interstates along Utah’s Wasatch Range. With a few exceptions, the speed limit was raised from 65 mph to 70 mph beginning today. The Utah Department of Transportation...
NCCI Proposes Decrease for Workers’ Comp Loss Costs in Vermont
Dec 5 2014 // The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) recently delivered a workers’ compensation loss cost filing to the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation. Based upon its review of the most recently...
Chubb Survey: Attic Storage Can Cause Homeowner Grief, Hazards
Dec 4 2014 // Homeowners who don’t pay attention to what’s going on in their attics can face costly damage that can spread throughout their entire home, warns a new survey sponsored by the Chubb Group of Insurance...
UN’s Weather Agency Warns 2014 May Be Warmest on Record
Dec 3 2014 // Record high ocean temperatures will make 2014 the hottest year on record, or at least among the very warmest, in evidence of a long-term trend of global warming, the U.N.’s weather agency said on Wednesday. Including...
Climate Change Report: Philippines Hardest Hit by Extreme Weather in 2013
Dec 3 2014 // The Philippines, Cambodia and India were the countries hardest hit by extreme weather events in 2013, according to a study unveiled on Tuesday at U.N. talks in Lima on a global deal to limit climate change. The report by...
Survey Shows 8-in-10 Americans Believe in Climate Change
Dec 2 2014 // More than eight-in-10 Americans now believe the climate is changing – although they place that concern beneath issues like global political instability, economic crisis or a pandemic. Munich Re America’s inaugural...
End Near, Future Uncertain for New Jersey’s Red-Light Cameras
Dec 2 2014 // A bane of motorists and a boon to municipal coffers, New Jersey’s red light cameras are a get-rich-quick scheme by towns or a worthwhile safety improvement that is saving lives, depending on where you sit. The...
Small Business Insurance Market Primed for Consolidation
Dec 1 2014 // If heavy competition breeds consolidation, then the property/casualty small business insurance market is ripe for it in the coming years. Both large and small insurers devote lots of attention to the space, but no single...
Kansas Agents See Increased Demand for Earthquake Insurance
Dec 1 2014 // Kansas insurance agencies say they’ve been flooded with queries about earthquake coverage after a 4.8 magnitude temblor struck near Conway Springs on Nov. 12. “We have been getting calls all day,” said...
Swiss Re Economists Forecast ‘Modest’ Global Growth
Nov 26 2014 // Swiss Re’s Chief economist, Kurt Karl and his colleague, Senior Economist Roman Lechner, presented a somewhat cautious scenario for the global economy over the next two years. As detailed in Swiss Re’s...
