Latest Trends Headlines
All the headlines from our Trends Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Maine Governor Forecasts Increased Competition for Health Plans
Sep 11 2007 // The Baldacci administration is anticipating heightened competition in Maine’s health insurance market as Harvard Pilgrim Health Care becomes the state’s partner in administering Dirigo policies, saying...
U.S. Fire Report: More Fires; Fewer Deaths and Injuries; Rise in Property Loss
Sep 11 2007 // Fire departments in the United States responded to an estimated 1.6 million fires during 2006. These fires caused 3,245 civilian deaths and 16,400 injuries, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). The...
Wash. Proposes Workers’ Comp Rate Increase
Sep 10 2007 // Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries has proposed raising workers’ compensation rates 3.2 percent in 2008, with the average premium increasing by just more than 2 cents per hour worked. L&I...
Best Affirms Munich Re ‘A+’ Ratings; Outlook Raised to Stable
Sep 10 2007 // A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of “A+” (Superior) and the issuer credit rating (ICR) of “aa-” of Germany’s Munich Reinsurance Company and its rated...
Guy Carp Issues Annual Cat Report; Rates Down by 6%
Sep 6 2007 // Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC has published its annual, comprehensive study of the global property catastrophe reinsurance market – “The World Catastrophe Reinsurance Market: New Capital Stabilizes...
La. Insurance Market Outlook Brighter Some Predict
Sep 5 2007 // Two years after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the insurance market in Louisiana may have hit bottom and could be ready for a rebound as levees are strengthened and the state undertakes regulatory changes, the state’s...
Ala. Coast Condo Industry Pushes for Action on Rising Insurance Rates
Sep 4 2007 // As Labor Day tourists take an end-of-summer beach trip, owners of thousands of condominiums that line the Alabama Gulf Coast say they’re getting burned by soaring insurance premiums. Insurance legislation aimed at...
Nation’s workers’ comp benefits, costs down
Sep 3 2007 // U.S. workers’ compensation payments for medical care and cash benefits for workers disabled by workplace injuries or diseases declined in 2005, according to a study by the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI)....
WEST VIRGINIA FIRE DEATHS UP IN 2007
Sep 3 2007 // More people died in fires in West Virginia last fiscal year than ever before and this year is already off to a bad start. A record 79 people died in fires between July 1, 2006, and June 30, assistant State Fire Marshal...
N.Y. Names Task Force to Study Rising Medical Malpractice Costs
Aug 31 2007 // New York Insurance Superintendent Eric R. Dinallo and Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines, M.D. announced today the members of the Medical Malpractice Liability Task Force, charged by Governor Eliot Spitzer with...
Trial Bar Report: Insurers Still Denying Claims 2 Years After Katrina
Aug 30 2007 // Two years after Hurricane Katrina decimated the homes of thousands of Gulf Coast residents insurance companies are still systematically denying policyholders fair and just claims payments following this and other natural...
S&P Revises Congregational & General Outlook on Capital Woes
Aug 30 2007 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has revised its outlook on U.K.-based P/C insurer Congregational & General Insurance PLC to negative from stable, “due to a swift and significant deterioration in...
UK Insurance Market Worth $352 Billion Says R&M Report
Aug 30 2007 // According to its recently released “Insurance Industry Market Review 2007,” Dublin-based Research and Markets examination of the UK insurance market and the industry that provides it with insurance products,...
Alabama to Conduct Three-Year Study of School Bus Seat Belts
Aug 22 2007 // Students now starting kindergarten will be in the third grade when a state task force created after a deadly school bus wreck in Huntsville wraps up a study on whether Alabama school buses should have seat belts. The panel...
S&P Forecasts a ‘Challenging Environment’ for Global P/C Insurers
Aug 22 2007 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has issued a report entitled “Global Multiline Insurers Brace For A Testing Second-Half 2007 As Property/Casualty Market Languishes,” on its RatingsDirect service....
SCOR’s 1H Gross Written Premiums up 55% to $2.86 Billion
Aug 22 2007 // France’s SCOR Group has turned in a good first half performance, even before absorbing Swiss reinsurer Converium AG. The reinsurer announced that gross written premiums for the first half of 2007 rose to €2.124...
Wineries’ risks rise when events move beyond tastings
Aug 20 2007 // Wineries are drinking to their good fortune, with 13 consecutive years of sales growth and each acre of grapes producing between $15,000 and $75,000 in gross sales value, according to wine industry consultant Jon...
Wineries’ risks rise when events move beyond tastings
Aug 20 2007 // Wineries are drinking to their good fortune, with 13 consecutive years of sales growth and each acre of grapes producing between $15,000 and $75,000 in gross sales value, according to wine industry consultant Jon...
Best Downgrades Nationwide (Florida) Ratings to ‘B’ – Negative Outlook
Aug 15 2007 // A.M. Best Co. has downgraded the financial strength rating (FSR) to “B-” (Fair) from “B” (Fair) and the issuer credit rating (ICR) to “bb-” from “bb” of Nationwide Insurance...
Fla. Cancels Two Insurers’ ‘True-Up’ Rate Filing Requests
Aug 13 2007 // The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation disapproved Metropolitan Casualty Insurance Co.’s and Metropolitan Property & Casualty Insurance Co.’s rate filings because they lacked the legally required...
