Latest Underwriting Headlines
All the headlines from our Underwriting Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Emerging environmental risks pose problems for underwriters
Jan 22 2006 // Anticipating and assessing risk, along with defining and assigning value to units of exposure, are basic components of an insurance underwriter’s job. Challenging as such tasks are when examining well-known...
How to Write: Lawyers Liability
Jan 22 2006 // With more than a quarter million law firms in the United States, the lawyers’ professional liability market represents a huge opportunity for retail agents and wholesale brokers seeking to grow their business. In any...
Earlybird Forecast
Jan 22 2006 // Fortunately for insurers, 2006 will likely feature far fewer screaming headlines announcing investigations into various insurance industry practices such as broker compensation and finite reinsurance. Each year the...
CLOSER LOOK: Excess, Surplus & Specialty
Jan 22 2006 // XL, Rockhill and GMAC RE jockey for market share with established surplus lines writers Katrina-sized catastrophes put added pressure on admitted carriers, which increases the demand for greater capacity in excess and...
Employers Insurance Group Makes Corporate Reorganization
Jan 20 2006 // Nevada-based Employers Insurance Group (EIG) reported a corporate reorganization designed to position the group of companies for expansion in commercial property and casualty insurance beyond its position as the...
Zurich, Hellman & Friedman Call Off Universal Underwriters Sale
Jan 16 2006 // Zurich Financial Services Group (Zurich) and affiliates of Hellman & Friedman LLC (H&F), a leading private equity investment firm, jointly announced that they have agreed not to proceed with the sale of...
Buyout of Universal Underwriters Insurance Canceled;Customers to Receive Large Refunds
Jan 16 2006 // The Kansas City Star reported today that the proposed $1.1 billion sale of Universal Underwriters Insurance Co. has fallen through following a regulatory examination that may mandate refunds to customers in the amount of...
Best Affirms Singapore Re ‘A-‘ Rating
Jan 13 2006 // A.M. Best Co. announced that it has affirmed the financial strength rating of “A-” (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating of “a-” of Singapore Reinsurance Corporation Limited (Singapore Re) with a...
Underwriters Exercise Quanta Capital Over-Allotment Option
Jan 12 2006 // Bermuda-based Quanta Capital Holdings Ltd., which provides specialty insurance, specialty reinsurance, and risk assessment and consulting services through its subsidiaries, announced that the underwriters of its recent...
Best Affirms FSR for Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Company
Jan 11 2006 // A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating of A (Excellent) of Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Company (LAWPRO) (Ontario, Canada). The rating outlook is stable. The rating and outlook reflect...
W. R. Berkley Forms Web-Based Underwriting Company
Jan 9 2006 // W. R. Berkley Corporation has launched Berkley Net Underwriters, LLC, a web-based system that will allow the company’s producers to quote and bind insurance on behalf of W. R. Berkley Corporation’s insurance...
U.K. Experts Warn of Continuing, Evolving Global Terrorist Threats
Jan 5 2006 // A leading U.K. intelligence expert and a specialist in terrorist underwriting at Hiscox Plc have warned that the threat of terrorism will not diminish in the year ahead with the continued potential for attacks around the...
Analysts Predict Faster P/C Premium Growth, Underwriting Profit in 2006
Jan 5 2006 // Record catastrophe losses will weigh heavily on 2005’s underwriting results, pushing what would have been the industry’s largest underwriting profit ever into a loss situation, according to the Insurance...
Alaska Superior Court offers ruling on credit history in underwriting
Jan 2 2006 // An Alaska Superior Court recently ruled that credit history can be used in insurance underwriting. That is a major victory for consumers, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America...
2005 P/C industry in a word: Resilience
Jan 1 2006 // The property/casualty insurance industry reported a statutory rate of return on average surplus of 9.5 percent through the first nine months of 2005, marginally below the 10.5 percent average return recorded during...
People
Jan 1 2006 // Integro has hired three executives to serve in its San Francisco office. Michael J. Korn has accepted the position of managing principal of property practice, and Ted Doolittle has been appointed principal of executive...
Alaska Superior Court offers ruling on credit history in underwriting
Jan 1 2006 // An Alaska Superior Court recently ruled that credit history can be used in insurance underwriting. That is a major victory for consumers, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America...
Insurers’ Income, Surplus Rise Despite Record Catastrophe Losses
Dec 28 2005 // The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry’s net income after taxes rose 4.4 percent, or $1.2 billion, to $28.8 billion in nine-months 2005 from $27.6 billion in nine-months 2004. Reflecting the industry’s...
Best Affirms Syndicate 382 Ratings
Dec 20 2005 // A.M. Best Co. announced that it has affirmed the Best’s Syndicate Rating of A (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating (ICR) of “a+” of Lloyd’s Syndicate 382 with a stable outlook. “Syndicate...
Best Rates U.K.’s Hiscox, Lloyd’s Syndicate, Bermuda Start-Up
Dec 19 2005 // A.M. Best Co. has announced its credit ratings on U.K. specialist and Lloyd’s insurer Hiscox plc. and its operating entities. It affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR) of “A-” (Excellent) and the...
