Latest Trends Headlines
All the headlines from our Trends Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Agencies of the Future
Jul 22 2013 // A report from McKinsey & Co., titled “Agents of the Future: The Evolution of Property and Casualty Insurance Distribution,” warns that the division of labor between carrier and agent is blurring....
Florida’s Citizens Seeks Rate Hike, Sinkhole Increase Cap
Jul 22 2013 // Florida’s state-backed property insurer requested a statewide average 6.6 percent increase in homeowners’ rates along with a cap on sinkhole rate increases in three high-risk counties at between 20 percent and...
West Virginia Property Insurance Market Stable
Jul 22 2013 // West Virginia property owners in general didn’t see a huge uptick in insurance premiums after making claims from last summer’s massive windstorm, state data shows. Figures compiled by the state insurance...
Minnesota Participating in Insurance Climate Change Survey
Jul 18 2013 // Minnesota has joined California, New York, Connecticut and Washington state in requiring insurers to respond to the Climate Risk Survey adopted in 2009 by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners...
Devastated Texas Town Ponders Schools’ Future
Jul 18 2013 // After a massive fertilizer plant explosion devastated the rural town of West in April, local teachers and administrators did what they could to help the community cope with a disaster that killed 15 people and wrecked...
Number of Hail Damage Insurance Claims Up 84% Since 2010
Jul 18 2013 // Insurance claims resulting from hail storm damage increased 84 percent in 2012 from their 2010 level, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. In 2010, there were 467,602 hail damage claims filed. That number...
Administration Says Obamacare to Lower Insurance Premiums More Than Forecast
Jul 18 2013 // Hoping to gain the high ground in an escalating war of words over Obamacare, the U.S. administration on Thursday forecast sharply lower than expected insurance costs for consumers and small businesses in new online state...
Conn.-Based Insurers Now Required to Participate in NAIC Climate Risk Surveys
Jul 17 2013 // Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Thomas Leonardi today announced that Connecticut-based insurance companies will now be required to complete the annual Climate Risk Survey that was initially adopted in 2009 as a...
BP Sets up Anti-Fraud Hotline for Spill Claims
Jul 17 2013 // BP has set up a hotline for people to report alleged fraud involving claims arising from the company’s massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The July 15 launch of the hotline comes a week after a federal...
How Casualty Actuaries Help Insurers Manage Nanotech, Other Emerging Risks
Jul 16 2013 // Casualty actuaries can help insurers meet the demand for new products by identifying, analyzing and pricing new risks, according to two speakers at the srping meeting of the Casualty Actuarial Society. Since the mid-1980s,...
Willis Sees Continued ‘Downward’ Trend for Airline Premiums
Jul 15 2013 // Insurance premiums for airlines continued to go down during the first half of this year in what remains a buyers’ market, according to a report by Willis Group Holdings. The loss of an Asiana B777 aircraft in a...
Total Cost of Risk Up As Market Firms: RIMS
Jul 15 2013 // Businesses paid about five percent more in 2012 than they did in 2011 to cover the total cost of risk. That compares to a rise of only 1.7 percent in 2011, according to the 2013 Risk & Insurance Management Society...
Rhode Island Approves 7.4% Workers’ Comp Loss Cost Increase
Jul 10 2013 // The Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation approved this month a 7.4 percent overall voluntary loss cost increase for new and renewal workers’ compensation policies. The change will take effect in August. The...
As Political Risks Proliferate, Insurers Increase Coverage Options
Jul 10 2013 // Could it happen to us? Tourism, manufacturing and resources companies surveying an unpredictable world are increasingly having to consider insurance against political risks, and the insurance industry is gearing up to...
Commercial Insurance Rates Up 5% Again in June: MarketScout
Jul 8 2013 // Increases for commercial property/casualty insurance rates in the United States were again about 5 percent during June, the fourth straight month at that pace. According to the latest composite index from MarketScout, all...
In Past Decade, World Experienced Unprecedented Climate Extremes: WMO
Jul 3 2013 // The world suffered unprecedented climate extremes in the decade to 2010, from heatwaves in Europe and droughts in Australia to floods in Pakistan, against a backdrop of global warming, a United Nations report said on...
U.S. Fights Growing Wildfire Threat with Shrinking Budget
Jul 2 2013 // The tragedy came without warning. Wind split the Arizona wildfire in two, trapping 19 firefighters from the Granite Mountain Hotshots between twin walls of flame that would take their lives. The erosion of U.S....
U.S. Property Cat Re Prices Down, Casualty Softening: Willis Re
Jul 2 2013 // Reinsurers are taking “robust defensive measures to maintain market positions recently eroded by new capital markets entrants,” with prices down 25 percent on some Florida property accounts, according to a new...
Study: 290,000 Idaho Jobs to Be Available By 2020
Jul 1 2013 // Nearly 290,000 jobs will become available in Idaho by 2020, a new study says. Georgetown University’s Center for Education and the Workforce in a study finds the fastest-growing occupations will be health care...
Survey Explores How Carriers Support Agency Growth Strategies
Jul 1 2013 // Carriers can be instrumental in helping agencies grow through referrals, expanded coverages, and clear business line or geographic expansion planning. And despite the challenges facing the industry and the broader economy,...
