Latest USA Headlines

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

BB&T to Buy Swett & Crawford for $500M

Feb 24 2016 // Three months after it announced it would sell its North American operations, U.K.-based wholesale and reinsurance broker Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford (CGSC) has a buyer. North Carolina-based BB&T Corp. has agreed to...

Insurance Industry Analyzes Google’s Failed Online Insurance Experiment

Feb 23 2016 // The insurance industry had a lot to say about what Google did wrong a day after the search engine giant said it would be pulling the plug on its year-long Google Compare experiment selling auto insurance online. Many...

Widow of El Faro Crew Member Calls for More Oversight of Shipping in Bad Weather

Feb 23 2016 // The widow of one of the 33 crew members killed when the El Faro sank in a hurricane last fall called on Friday for stricter oversight of decisions by shipping companies and their captains to sail in adverse...

Exclusive: Google to Shut Down Online Insurance Site, Partners Say

Feb 22 2016 // It appears Google Compare’s grand experiment in online comparison shopping for auto insurance is dead – for now at least. Insurance Journal has learned that two of Google Compare’s major partners were told...

Louisiana Court Rules Flood Board Can Hire Outside Lawyers for Oil Suit

Feb 22 2016 // A south Louisiana flood board has won a legal round in its fight against oil and gas companies over coastal wetland damage. A state appeal court ruled last week that the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East...

Capital Adequacy Is Key Strength of Reinsurers in Difficult Market: S&P

Feb 22 2016 // Strength of capital and good enterprise risk management are two of the main reasons the global reinsurance industry will be able to maintain a stable outlook during 2016 from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services,...

Gig Economy Now 6.5% of U.S. Workforce; Provides Extra Income for 10 Million

Feb 22 2016 // It’s a job market revolution: an estimated 10.3 million Americans earned income through web-based platforms like Uber and Airbnb between 2012 and 2015. That’s more people than reside in the entire state of...

Texas Economist: U.S. in a ‘Pretty Good Place Right Now’

Feb 22 2016 // The world economy may seem like a mess right now but that doesn’t necessarily mean the United States is headed for a recession, according to an internationally recognized Texas-based economist. While the dive in the...

Carfax: 1 in 5 Vehicles Needs Recall Repair; Texas Has the Most

Feb 22 2016 // Nearly one-in-five vehicles on U.S. roads is in need of repair of a safety issue serious enough to be involved in a federal government recall, according to used-car history provider Carfax. There are more than 47 million...

U.S. Safety Agency to Google: Software Qualifies as a Driver

Feb 22 2016 // U.S. vehicle safety regulators have said the artificial intelligence system piloting a self-driving Google car could be considered the driver under federal law, a major step toward ultimately winning approval for...

Merger and Acquisition Activity Sets New High-Water Mark

Feb 22 2016 // Merger and acquisition activity for 2015 set a new record with 456 deals, sailing past the previous high-water mark of 325 deals set in 2012, according to recent data. The fourth quarter closed with 104 announced...

Agency Compensation: Unequal Pay For Women?

Feb 22 2016 // Prev Next 20160218_salary_survey_01 2016 Salary Survey 20160218_salary_survey_02 2016 Salary Survey 20160218_salary_survey_03 2016 Salary Survey 20160218_salary_survey_04 2016 Salary Survey 20160218_salary_survey_05 2016...

Oklahoma Gun Range Sued for Refusing Muslim Man Service

Feb 19 2016 // A U.S. Army reservist from Tulsa asked to leave a gun range in eastern Oklahoma after identifying himself as a Muslim sued the owners Wednesday, the latest in a series of cases across the nation alleging anti-Islamic...

Update: Aegon Reports Q4 Pretax Profit of $534.9M, Down 14% on U.S. Income

Feb 19 2016 // Aegon NV, the Dutch owner of U.S. insurer Transamerica Corp., fell in Amsterdam trading after decline in U.S. income pushed down fourth-quarter pre-tax earnings. The stock dropped as much as 4.5 percent and was down 3.2...

How Employer Joint Liability Is Changing

Feb 18 2016 // Businesses known for their uniforms are worried about lawyers in business suits in the wake of a change in the nation’s labor laws affecting their liability for employment practices. The change could unravel the...

Law Enforcement, Private Firms Look to Evolving Drone Defense Industry for Protection

Feb 18 2016 // The drone intruder was roaming around the Rose Bowl Stadium as 94,000 fans cheered, oblivious to the threat. But scientists testing a new security device at the game knew: they detected its radio signals and seized control...

Allianz Transfers $1.1B of Policy Obligations to Reinsurer Enstar, Limiting US Risks

Feb 18 2016 // Allianz SE, Europe’s biggest insurer, struck a deal to limit risks in the U.S. by transferring policy obligations to reinsurer Enstar Group Ltd. Enstar will assume net reinsurance reserves of about $1.1 billion and...

Aon Loss Model Offers Insurers 7.5 Million U.S. Thunderstorm Scenarios

Feb 17 2016 // Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development team, Impact Forecasting, has launched a U.S. severe thunderstorm (STS) scenario model that it says can help insurers more accurately estimate annual losses based on...

Coast Guard Panel Questions If Captain Responsible for El Faro’s Sinking

Feb 16 2016 // The captain of the U.S. cargo ship that sank off the Bahamas in a hurricane last fall, killing all 33 people on board, was responsible for decisions that put the vessel in the path of the storm, the company that operated...

U.S. Risk Hires Guadagno as EVP of Binding Operations in New York

Feb 16 2016 // John L. Guadagno U.S. Risk Insurance Group Inc. has hired John L. Guadagno as executive vice president of Binding Operations for its affiliate company, U.S. Risk Underwriters. At U.S. Risk, Guadagno’s focus will...