Latest Trends Headlines
All the headlines from our Trends Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Early Bird Survey Shows Slowing of 2005 P/C Premium Growth
Jan 3 2005 // Each year the Insurance Information Institute invites a panel of Wall Street stock analysts and industry professionals to review the prospects for the industry in the current and coming year. This year, III invited experts...
Focus on the Future: Come 2014, Industry Should Look Very Familiar
Jan 3 2005 // Ten years from now, some of the players within the property/casualty insurance industry will have changed but the industry itself will not look dramatically different from what it is today: Smaller companies and...
Melting Snow, Ice Increase Claims in Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina
Dec 30 2004 // The Kentucky Insurance Commission estimates damages of from $400,000 to $500,000 in losses due to last week’s winter storms and warmer temperatures this week. An unusual amount of snow and ice, high winds and...
Ill. DOI Advises 0.1% Comp Rate Increase
Dec 29 2004 // The Illinois Division of Insurance has approved a 0.1% increase in the advisory rate for workers’ compensation insurance in Illinois for 2005—that’s one-tenth of 1 percent. For comparison’s sake, the...
Fitch Sees Tsunami Repercussions Varying Across Insurance Sector
Dec 29 2004 // Fitch Ratings has issued a bulletin indicating that it “expects insured losses stemming from the recent Southeast Asian earthquake and tsunami to affect the Asian primary insurance market and the worldwide...
AXA New Year’s Eve Survey: Most People Stay Home
Dec 29 2004 // According to a recent survey, sponsored by international insurer and financial services provider AXA, 62 percent of respondents plan to welcome 2005 in the comfort of their own homes. Another 17 percent will celebrate the...
MetLife Requests 17 Percent Increase in Fla. Rates
Dec 28 2004 // MetLife Auto and Home Insurance is the latest company in Florida to request permission to raise its rates, citing non-hurricane-related losses and asking to increase policyholder’s premiums by an average of 17...
Esurance Sales Center Plan Heats Up East Coast Auto Policy Competition
Dec 28 2004 // Esurance, a direct-to-consumer auto insurance company, has announced plans to open a new Tampa Sales Center and to hire 25 sales representatives. The new sales center will supplement activities at the company’s Tampa...
Best Affirms American Re Ratings; Assigns ICR; Outlook Changed to Negative
Dec 28 2004 // A.M. Best Co. announced that it has affirmed the financial strength ratings of “A+” (Superior) of American Re Corporation Group’s member companies, which include American Re-Insurance Company, American...
Spitzer Denies Report of Plan to Cede Probes to Feds; Vows New Action in Early Part of New Year
Dec 27 2004 // Despite reports suggesting otherwise, there was no Christmas present for the business targets of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer after all. Spitzer, criticizing a New York Times story of Dec. 25, affirmed that he...
S&P Revises Lindsey Morden Outlook to Stable from Negative; Affirms ‘B’ Rating
Dec 23 2004 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services announced that it has revised its outlook on Canada’s Lindsey Morden Group Inc. (LMG) to stable from negative. S&P also said that it has affirmed...
HRH Releases D&O Snapshot and Forecast for 2005
Dec 23 2004 // Hilb Rogal & Hobbs has released its Directors and Officers Liability Snapshot and Insurance Market Forecast for 2005. Legislation, regulatory activity, litigation and corporate governance requirements continue to...
S&P Raises Eureko Group Core Subsidiaries Outlook to Stable; Affirms Ratings
Dec 22 2004 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services announced that it has revised its outlook on all entities of the Netherlands-based Eureko insurance group to stable from negative. At the same time, S&P said it has...
S&P Affirms Hiscox ‘A-‘ Ratings; Outlook Stable
Dec 22 2004 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services announced that it has affirmed its “A-” long-term counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings on U.K.-based P/C insurer Hiscox Insurance Co. Ltd....
Fitch Affirms Ohio Casualty’s Financial Strength and Debt Ratings; Outlook Stable
Dec 22 2004 // Fitch Ratings has affirmed the “A-” insurer financial strength ratings of Ohio Casualty Group’s intercompany pool members as the parent company’s “BBB-” long-term issuer rating and...
AXA Christmas Shopping Survey Shows Brits Spending More than Yanks
Dec 22 2004 // According to a new global survey conducted by France’s AXA Group American consumers are budgeting more for Christmas gifts this year than anyone else in the world — except the British. AXA said that the...
Best Affirms Hannover Re, Subs Ratings; Revises Outlook to Stable
Dec 22 2004 // A.M. Best Co. announced that it has affirmed the “A” (Excellent) financial strength rating of German reinsurer Hannover Rückversicherung AG (Hannover Re) and its core subsidiaries. At the same time Best also...
IIAT SAYS HOMEOWNERS RATES DOWN:
Dec 20 2004 // Homeowners who buy insurance from independent insurance agents in Texas should be seeing lower premiums and better coverages, according to a survey conducted by the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas of its 1,800-member...
New York Agents See Hard P/C Insurance Market Lingering
Dec 20 2004 // Independent agents and brokers in New York see premium rates continuing to increase and coverage choices failing to improve for most lines of property casualty insurance in the state despite industry and press reports to...
Industry Sees First 9-Month Net Gain on Underwriting in Nearly Two Decades
Dec 20 2004 // Benefiting from profits on underwriting, the U.S. property/casualty insurance industry’s net income after taxes rose 28.3 percent to $26.7 billion in the first nine months of 2004 from $20.8 billion in the first nine...
