Latest Underwriting Headlines

Catlin Names Burrows to Board

Oct 29 2007 // The Bermuda-based Catlin Group Limited announced from its London office that Tim Burrows, a Catlin underwriting director, will retire at the end of 2007 after more than 36 years in the London insurance market. He will...

Chicago Specialty Underwriters’ Alliance Loder Resigns Effective Jan. 1

Oct 29 2007 // Specialty Underwriters’ Alliance, Inc. recently announced that William Loder, the company’s chief underwriting officer, has resigned effective Jan. 1, 2008. President and Chief Executive Officer Courtney Smith...

Trans Cal Promotes Two in Commercial Transportation and P/C Divisions

Oct 29 2007 // Managing general agent and surplus line boker Trans Cal Associates announced the expansion of it underwriting staff. Sarah Lemons was promoted to commercial lines underwriter in Trans Cal’s Commercial Transportation...

Harry W. Gorst Promotes Taylor to Commercial Lines Underwriter

Oct 29 2007 // The Harry W. Gorst Co. of Chatsworth, Calif., has promoted LaTanya Taylor to commercial lines underwriter. Taylor began her career in insurance in 1989 at a large California wholesaler, in which she specialized as a tech...

People

Oct 27 2007 // The California State Compensation Insurance Fund’s Glendale Legal Unit B appointed Katherine Harvey-Edwards to attorney-in-charge. Harvey-Edwards brings 16 years of legal experience to her new post. She was hired as...

Liberty International Underwriters Expands Dallas Office

Oct 23 2007 // Liberty International Underwriters (LIU), a division of Liberty Mutual Group, has expanded the lines of insurance available in Texas and the Southwest region by offering primary general liability products and...

Commonwealth Underwriters Names V.P. for North Carolina

Oct 19 2007 // Commonwealth Underwriters Ltd., a regional Excess & Surplus Lines Broker based in Richmond, Va., has appointed G. Stephen Allen as vice president of North Carolina operations, based in Raleigh. Prior to joining...

The Harry W. Gorst Co. Promotes Babic to Commercial Lines Underwriter

Oct 19 2007 // The Harry W. Gorst Co. based in Chatsworth, Calif., has promoted Sharon Babic to commercial lines underwriter. Babic began her career in insurance in 2003 as an account technician at a retail agency in Woodland Hills,...

R.E. Chaix Napa Hires Pettipas-Ross as Underwriter

Oct 18 2007 // R.E.Chaix & Associates announced that Jeannemarie Pettipas-Ross has joined the Northern California office in Napa as assistant vice president, underwriting. Pettipas-Ross began her insurance career in 1990 at a...

Tapco Underwriters Adds Specialty Contractors Program in Texas

Oct 16 2007 // Burlington, N.C.-based TAPCO Underwriters Inc. (TAPCO) has introduced a specialty contractors program, offering monoline general liability coverages to agents in Texas, the company announced. TAPCO opened its Texas...

Appalachian Underwriters Launches Contractors GL Program in Calif.

Oct 16 2007 // San Diego-based Appalachian Underwriters Inc. has a contractors general liability market available in California through independent agents. This program is backed by an admitted,A.M. Best Co. “A”-rated...

Flagstone Re in ‘Technical Underwriting Agreement’ with Imperial Re

Oct 10 2007 // Flagstone Reassurance Suisse SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bermuda-based Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings Limited, announced it has entered into a Technical Underwriting Agreement with Imperial Reinsurance Company...

Mass. Bans Credit Scores in Both Rating, Underwriting in New Auto Plan

Oct 9 2007 // Auto insurers in Massachusetts will not be able to use credit scores to price or underwrite risks when the state enters its managed competition market next April. Insurance Commissioner Nonnie Burnes sided with consumer...

Ascot Underwriting Ltd. Opens Energy-Focused Office in Houston

Oct 9 2007 // London-based Ascot Underwriting Ltd. has created new subsidiary in Houston, Texas – Ascot Underwriting Inc. The company said the move is part of Ascot’s plan to establish local underwriting platforms, and...

Oct 8 2007 // People The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America has named Deputy Secretary of Commerce David A. Sampson to serve as the association’s president and chief executive officer. Sampson takes over the reins...

Harleysville Looks to Boost Benefits Sales Through Commercial P/C Agents

Oct 5 2007 // Pennsylvania-based Harleysville Life Insurance Co. says it sees great opportunity—and a natural market connection—for developing employee benefits programs through the commercial lines business generated by the...

P/C Insurers’ Underwriting Results, Profitability Slip in First-Half 2007

Sep 25 2007 // The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry’s overall profitability as measured by its annualized rate of return on average policyholders’ surplus (or statutory net worth) slipped to 13.1 percent in...

U.S. excess and surplus lines market attracts international attention

Sep 24 2007 // The United States excess and surplus lines market presents opportunities that are not lost on the rest of the world. Lloyd’s is the second largest U.S. surplus lines writer with a 14 percent market share. Direct...

The subprime mortgage mess and the professional liability insurance industry

Sep 24 2007 // According to the Bank of America, more than $1.3 trillion in adjustable rate mortgages — 70 percent of them subprime — will reset before the end of 2008. The collapse of the subprime mortgage lending industry...

The subprime mortgage mess and the professional liability market

Sep 24 2007 // The collapse of the subprime mortgage lending industry has dominated the headlines, led to turmoil in the credit and financial markets, and left the residential real estate marketplace in disarray. It has already generated...