Latest Trends Headlines

All the headlines from our Trends Topic Page, ordered by recency.

S&P Revises Outlook on U.S. Personal Lines P/C Industry to Negative

Jul 11 2001 // Standard & Poor’s revised its outlook on the personal lines property/casualty sector (i.e., home and auto insurance) of the U.S. insurance industry to negative from stable. In conjunction with this rating...

Application Development Trends Honors Fireman’s Fund for WebSphere

Jul 6 2001 // IBM announced that Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company was recognized at the Application Development Trends 2001 Innovator Awards for its AgriWare Application, running on IBM’s WebSphere e-infrastructure software....

A.M. Best Study Reports P/C Premiums Show Strong Growth, Earnings Remain Depressed During 1Q 2001 J

Jul 5 2001 // According to an A.M. Best Co. special-report excerpt published in the July 2 issue of BestWeek, property/casualty net premiums written showed the strongest growth since the tail end of the last hard market in the second...

S&P Affirms AMP ‘AA’ Ratings, Outlook Negative

Jul 3 2001 // Standard & Poor’s affirmed the double-‘A’ counterparty credit ratings and insurer financial strength ratings on the principle operating entities of Australian insurer AMP, but changed the outlook...

The Weather Risk Management Association Releases Results of Industrywide Survey

Jul 2 2001 // The Weather Risk Management Association (WRMA), an international trade organization of the weather risk management industry, recently completed in conjunction with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, a comprehensive survey of the...

Auto Experiment Impacted by Healthy Insurance Market, Household Priorities

Jun 29 2001 // According to the Insurance Information Network of California, when California unveiled an experimental, fixed-rate auto insurance policy for the poor last year, there was hope that it might encourage motorists who drive...

Q1 Results: P/C Industry Premiums Up; Net Income, Surplus Down

Jun 27 2001 // The U.S. property/casualty industry’s net income after taxes dropped 5.4 percent to $5.6 billion in first-quarter 2001 from $5.9 billion in first-quarter 2000, according to Insurance Services Office Inc. (ISO) and...

Independent Investigation Heats Up as PwC Finds $87.8 Million in Unrecorded Claims

Jun 22 2001 // PricewaterhouseCoopers, the provisional liquidators appointed last Monday to sort out the financial mess at the U.K.’s Independent Insurance, have so far uncovered £62 million ($87.8 million) worth of insurance...

Auto Club Says Calif. Teen Driving Law Could Prevent Nearly 100,000 Crashes in Next Decade

Jun 22 2001 // According to the Automobile Club of California California’s Graduated Driver Licensing Law (GDL), one of the toughest teen driving laws in the nation, will have a major impact on the number one killer of teens...

Zurich U.S. CEO Sees a Bright Future in Financial Services

Jun 18 2001 // John Amore, president and CEO of Zurich U.S., has a vision not just for his company but for the industry. “I think the industry needs to rebrand itself,” Amore told IJ in an exclusive interview in...

PROPERTY CATASTROPHE RATES UP

Jun 18 2001 // U.S. property catastrophe rates increased at January 2001 renewals for the first time since 1994, according to Paragon Reinsurance Risk Management Services, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Benfield Blanch Holdings, Inc....

Nevada Legislature Wraps Up 2001 Session on Positive Note

Jun 12 2001 // The Nevada State Legislature adjourned last week following several important victories for the insurance industry, according to lobbying groups. Passage of measures benefiting insurers and the defeat of several trial...

Zurich U.S. CEO Sees a Bright Future in Financial Services

Jun 11 2001 // John Amore, president and CEO of Zurich U.S., has a vision not just for his company but for the industry. “I think the industry needs to rebrand itself,” Amore told IJ in an exclusive interview in...

The Middleton Group Releases its Biannual Compensation Survey: How Does Your Agency Compare’

Jun 11 2001 // Not surprisingly, compensation continues to be the single largest agency expense. The average independent agency in the U.S. spent between 62.2 percent and 66.3 percent on compensation in 2000, according to The Middleton...

NAMIC Survey Shows Most States Will Not Meet GLBA Deadline

Jun 11 2001 // Less than half of the states are likely to have their own privacy rules in place by the July 1 deadline imposed by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), a survey conducted by the National Association of Mutual Insurance...

RATES ON THE RISE

Jun 11 2001 // A recent Conning & Company survey of insurance agents and brokers across the U.S. indicates that price increases have continued to accelerate and are in double-digit territory for most commercial lines. In addition,...

U.K. Commercial Premiums Will Continue to Rise

Jun 7 2001 // Delegates at the annual meeting of the U.K.’s Association of Insurance and Risk Managers in Birmingham were told by insurance industry representatives that commercial insurance rates would continue to rise, with...

NAII Notes Build in Momentum as 25 States Sign Producer Licensing Bills

Jun 7 2001 // With over a year remaining on the November 2002 deadline, 25 state legislatures have enacted reciprocal producer licensing laws while bills in another 11 states are awaiting the governors’ signatures. The producer...

Progressive Survey Reveals Americans Careless about Vehicle Security

Jun 6 2001 // According to a survey released today by Progressive Insurance, in the U.S., more than one million vehicles were stolen in 2000; that’s 2,740 a day, 114 an hour and more than one vehicle stolen every minute. Yet, when...

The Changing Face of the London Insurance Market: Lloyd’s Admits ‘Foreign’ Brokers-Ins-sure Takes Ov

Jun 4 2001 // The London insurance market achieved two significant milestones recently with the admission to Lloyd’s membership of three non-U.K.-based brokers, and the launch of Ins-sure Services, Ltd., which will assume the...