Articles by Jerry Theodorou

The R Street Blog on Insurance Journal presents the work and viewpoints of the free market think tank R Street Institute in Washington, D.C. Jerry Theodorou is the director of the Finance, Insurance and Trade Policy Program. He develops and advances effective free market public policy solutions to complex issues where federal and state governments have intervened. Prior to R Street, Theodorou was a Director of insurance research at Conning in Hartford, Conn. In his 12 years at Conning, a leading insurance asset management and research firm, he was highly sought after for his insights and publications on a broad range of matters impacting property and casualty insurers, and was in strong demand as keynote speaker at conferences. Prior to Conning, Theodorou worked for the global insurance giant American International Group (AIG) in a variety of global underwriting, operations and strategy roles, including close to a decade of expatriate managerial assignments in Europe and the Middle East.

A Look Back at 2024: The Year in Insurance

Armchair analysts prognosticating the impending collapse of property & casualty insurance companies were proven wrong by recently released 2024 financial performance results. The overall industry’s underwriting results were profitable. The 2024 combined ratio – losses and expenses divided by premium, …

Florida Tort Reform: Happy Second Birthday

March 24 will mark two years since Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed tort reform measures into law. HB 837 took direct aim at an epidemic of litigation, the factor most responsible for steep increases in homeowners’ insurance rates and …

California Insurance: Intervening, Interfering

In insurance circles Florida and California have the dubious distinction of being perennial problem children for home and auto insurance. In both states insurance markets have been severely disrupted by unique factors unknown in any other state. In Florida, the …

Insurance Fraud – Brazen and Big

Anyone who believes insurance is a dull industry is unfamiliar with recent fraud schemes so macabre they could be turned into gripping adventure movies. One such caper is the staged accident scheme perpetrated by the family of ringleader William Mize. …

California Wildfire Losses: Net or Gross?

The insurance industry admittedly may not be as glamorous as high-tech, investment banking, advertising, or Hollywood. After all, consider that the most influential publication on what’s happening in property & casualty insurance is titled IBNR Weekly (where IBNR means incurred …

New Direction for U.S. Senate Budget Committee

The U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget is a peculiar entity. The committee was established in 1974 in response to President Richard Nixon “impounding” money allocated by Congress to prevent spending on programs he did not favor. This led to …

Legal System Abuse Hammers Truck Insurance

The U.S. trucking industry has been shaken to its foundations. A welter of external challenges catalyzed the failure of approximately 88,000 trucking firms in 2023. That is 10% of the nation’s trucking companies. The chief culprit was a steep rise …

Early Lessons From Helene Show Catastrophes Are Here to Stay, Flood Insurance Vital

Hurricane Helene made landfall late Thursday, Sept. 26, in the Florida Big Bend, a sparsely-populated 150-mile coastal stretch from Apalachee Bay, south of Tallahassee, to Waccasassa Bay in the south. All told, the population of the area amounts to less …

Financial First Responders

In recent months the dynamic markings for voices asserting the insurance industry is not up to challenges posed by climate change have gone from mezzo-piano to mezzo-forte. Endorsing a proposal by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to create a federal reinsurance …

Legal System Abuse Hammers Truck Insurance

The U.S. trucking industry has been shaken to its foundations. A welter of external challenges catalyzed the failure of approximately 88,000 trucking firms in 2023. That is 10 percent of the nation’s trucking companies. The chief culprit was a steep …