Latest Trends Headlines
All the headlines from our Trends Topic Page, ordered by recency.
P/C Direct Premium Written Up 4.7 Percent
Feb 19 2018 // Direct premium written (DPW) for property/casualty insurance companies continues to increase, albeit gradually. At year-end 2016, approximately $606 billion of DPW was reported, a record high for the industry. For 2016,...
Surplus Line Premium Increased by 6.4% Nationwide in 2017
Feb 19 2018 // All 15 surplus lines service offices across the United States experienced increases in excess and surplus (E&S) lines insurance premium in 2017, the Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLTX) reports. U.S. surplus...
Insurance Industry Trends for 2018: A Top 5 Countdown
Feb 19 2018 // Bring up the insurance industry as fodder for cocktail party conversation, and the universal response is oftentimes a collective yawn. But for those in the know, the insurance sector — with a domestic surplus...
Cyber Risk Management Fails to Measure Up to Escalating Cyber Risks: Marsh, Microsoft
Feb 16 2018 // Few organizations are highly confident in their ability to manage the risk of a cyber attack, despite viewing cyber security as a top risk management priority, according to a new global survey conducted by Marsh and...
Fire at Decades-Old Maryland Tavern Caused $500K in Damage
Feb 15 2018 // Firefighters say a blaze at a decades-old Maryland tavern in a Washington, D.C. suburb has caused damage costing roughly $500,000. Pete Piringer with Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service tells WTTG-TV it appears the...
Widespread Market Firming Unlikely Even as Property Rates Rise: WTW
Feb 15 2018 // Commercial property insurers are seeking double-digit rate hikes on catastrophe-exposed insurance programs following 2017’s record catastrophes; however, abundant capacity in the form of traditional and alternative...
Tennessee Insurance Consumer Complaints Down Slightly in 2017
Feb 15 2018 // Insurance complaints decreased again in 2017 and remained last of the top 10 consumer complaint categories, according to the Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance’s (TDCI) Division of Consumer Affairs. The...
Texas Sees Increase in Auto Fatalities in 2017
Feb 13 2018 // More than 3,700 people were killed on Texas roadways last year marking a 10 percent increase in traffic deaths from 2016, according to data from the Texas Department of Transportation. The Insurance Council of Texas...
Liberty Specialty Markets’ French Operation to Expand Product Range, Increase Team
Feb 12 2018 // Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM), part of Liberty Mutual Insurance, is to broaden the range of product lines underwritten by its French operation and increase the size of its team. It will also make a series of investments...
State Forestry: New Mexico Could See Worst Fire Season in Decade
Feb 12 2018 // New Mexico State Forestry officials say they already are anticipating an aggressive fire season, as 70 percent of the state is facing severe drought. KRQE-TV reports Forestry Division Official Greg Hesch says conditions...
Software Firm Sapiens to Grow U.S. Market with Acquisition of Adaptik
Feb 9 2018 // Global insurance software firm Sapiens International Corp. has agreed to buy Adaptik, a rival insurance software company focused on policy administration and billing. The move is expected to help the Israeli company boost...
A.M. Outlook Revised to Positive for Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance, Subsidiary
Feb 8 2018 // A.M. Best has revised the outlook to positive from stable for the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of “a”...
Study: Urbanization Contributed to Deadly 2015 Wimberley, Texas Flood
Feb 8 2018 // The 40-foot wall of water that gushed down Texas’ Blanco River in May 2015, wiping out parts of Wimberley and killing more than a dozen people, was largely a natural phenomenon. But a new study shows that development...
UK Supermarket Group Tesco Faces Potential Equal Pay Claims of Up to $5.6B
Feb 7 2018 // Supermarket group Tesco is facing a potential bill of up to 4 billion pounds ($5.6 billion) in a record equal pay claim involving mainly women workers at its British stores, according to the law firm pursuing the case. If...
Report: Lawsuit Settlements Cost Missouri Taxpayers $23M in 2017
Feb 7 2018 // Lawsuits against the state of Missouri cost taxpayers at least $23 million last year, according to a new report from Attorney General Josh Hawley. A year-end report from Hawley, a Republican, showed that 16 of the 45 major...
Louisiana Work-Related Fatalities Decreased in 2016
Feb 6 2018 // The number of work-related fatalities in Louisiana decreased in 2016, despite an uptick in work-related deaths nationally that year, according to the Louisiana Workforce Commission. Citing the latest Bureau of Labor...
Mercury General in California Posts 4Q Profit, Rise in Premiums Written
Feb 6 2018 // Mercury General Corp. has reported fourth-quarter net income of $19.8 million, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier. The Los Angeles-based company said it had net income of 36 cents per share. Earnings,...
Why Workplace Sexual Harassment Is Under-Reported: SHRM Survey
Feb 5 2018 // Sexual harassment in the workplace is under-reported by employees partly because some employees are unaware that their employers have anti-harassment policies or that there are ways to report without bringing harm to...
Cyber Insurance Claims from Fraudulent Instruction Scams Rise: Beazley
Feb 5 2018 // Organizations are being forced to deal with an increased threat to their operations from fraudulent instruction scams, according to specialist insurer Beazley’s most recent Breach Report. According to the insurer,...
Report Calls out California Wildfires Among 2017 U.S. Hazards
Feb 5 2018 // CoreLogic’s annual Natural Hazard Risk Summary and Analysis released in late January shows that 2017 was a year of relatively average activity for most U.S. natural hazards with the exception of wildfires in...
