Latest Trends Headlines
All the headlines from our Trends Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Allianz Aims to Increase Premiums by $6.9 Billion Annually
Nov 24 2015 // Allianz SE, Europe’s largest insurer, aims to generate an additional 6.5 billion euros ($6.9 billion) in annual premiums as the company focuses on its most profitable businesses. Allianz wants to achieve annual...
Weather-Related Disasters Occurred Almost Daily in Past Decade: U.N. Report
Nov 24 2015 // Weather related disasters such as floods and heatwaves have occurred almost daily in the past decade, almost twice as often as two decades ago, with Asia being the hardest hit region, a U.N. report said on Monday. While...
U.K. MGAs Seek Greater Role in Claims Process: MGAA Matters Survey
Nov 23 2015 // Managing general agents are keen to be more involved in the claims process because they view claims as a core competence with an intrinsic link to underwriting, according to the latest MGAA Matters Survey.* The fourth...
London Insurance Market Vulnerable to Major Cyber Attack: Xchanging Survey
Nov 23 2015 // Only one-third of insurers in the London market believes their firm could withstand a major cyber attack, and almost half felt they were underprepared, according to a survey conducted by Xchanging plc, the U.K. business...
ACE Names Future Leadership Team for Overseas General Insurance Operations
Nov 23 2015 // ACE Ltd. announced the senior leadership team it intends to appoint for the new Chubb Group’s Overseas General Insurance division. This division comprises two major businesses: one with distribution through retail...
ACE Makes Future Leadership Appointments for APAC Region
Nov 23 2015 // ACE Ltd. announced key leaders it intends to appoint for the Asia Pacific region of the new Chubb Group’s Overseas General Insurance division, which includes Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Macao,...
A.M. Best Revises Outlook to Positive for Aspen and Its Subsidiaries
Nov 19 2015 // A.M. Besthas revised the outlook for the issuer credit ratings (ICR) to positive from stable and affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of “A” (Excellent) and the ICRs of “a” of Aspen...
Delaware OKs 7.2% Increase in Workers’ Comp Voluntary Market Loss Costs
Nov 17 2015 // Delaware Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart today announced the approval of Delaware Compensation Rating Bureau (DCRB)’s workers’ compensation amended rate filing, resulting in an overall average...
El Niño Expected to Become One of Strongest on Record: UN’s Weather Agency
Nov 17 2015 // The El Niño weather pattern, a phenomenon associated with extreme droughts, storms and floods, is expected to strengthen before the end of the year and become one of the strongest on record, the U.N. weather agency said...
P/C Direct Premium Written Up Nearly 4.7 Percent
Nov 16 2015 // Direct premium written (DPW) for property/casualty insurance companies continues to increase, albeit gradually. At year-end 2014, more than $570 billion of DPW was reported, a record high for the industry. For 2014, total...
The Rebound Continues as Contractors & Builders Expect to Grow Again in 2016
Nov 16 2015 // The Rebound Continues as Contractors & Builders Expect to Grow Again in 2016 Builders and contractors can expect another year of steady growth in 2016 and so can the insurance specialists that serve this rebounding...
Michigan’s Consumers Mutual to Exit Health Insurance Market
Nov 16 2015 // Consumers Mutual Co-Op, in consultation with the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS), has decided to enter into a run off of its health insurance business, the DIFS announced. Consumers Mutual...
Survey: Insurers Spent $1.52B with Diverse California Suppliers Last Year
Nov 16 2015 // Diverse California businesses supplied $1.52 billion in goods and services to insurance companies last year, according to a survey by the California Department of Insurance. The 2014 tally was a $587 million increase since...
Florida Issues Final Order for NCCI to Decrease Workers’ Comp Rates by 4.7%
Nov 13 2015 // The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has approved an overall decrease of 4.7 percent in workers’ compensation insurance rates in Florida. Following the disapproval of its original rate filing request, the...
U.S. Health Care Cost Increases at Lowest Rate in Nearly 20 years: Aon
Nov 12 2015 // After plan design changes and vendor negotiations, the average health care rate increase for mid-size and large companies was 3.2 percent in 2015, marking the lowest rate increase since 1996, according to a new analysis by...
New Storm Forecast Center Pairs UConn, Electric Utility Company
Nov 10 2015 // Two days before Superstorm Sandy struck Connecticut in 2012, UConn scientists fed measurements from the storm and historical data from others into a computer model they developed and forecast where the most damage and...
RMS: Cat Bond Analysis Reveals Market Predictions of Price Bottom Are Optimistic
Nov 10 2015 // Return relative to risk values for catastrophe bonds at current prices are actually higher in 2015 than they were last year, even though recent market commentary suggests that market prices have stabilized, according to...
Global Temperature Rise on Track to Hit Half-Way Point of ‘Tolerable Threshold’
Nov 10 2015 // The world is on track to reach 1 degree Celsius of global warming this year since the industrial revolution, the half-way point toward the maximum tolerable threshold identified by scientists. That’s the conclusion...
A Conversation on Innovation and the Industry’s Future with ACORD’s Hartnett
Nov 9 2015 // There are not many insurance executives who will quote inventor Thomas Edison, Microsoft’s Steve Baumer, futurist Alvin Toffler, Moore’s Law and philosophers Aristotle and Plato. There are also not many people...
N.H. Insurance Department Hearing Examines Health Care Costs Trends
Nov 9 2015 // Health insurance premiums in New Hampshire increased relatively little for small and large businesses in 2014, while rates in the individual market went up significantly more, according to state-hired consultants. New...
