February 12, 2024
Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker, Baby Face Nelson and Willie Sutton robbed banks. When asked by a journalist asked why he did, Sutton famously replied “because that’s where the money is.” If banks’ $3.1 trillion in cash and invested assets …
January 16, 2024
On January 12, Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) introduced a bill, the “Incorporating National Support for Unprecedented Risks and Emergencies (INSURE) Act.” The stated goal of the bill is to “stabilize the home insurance market while ensuring vulnerable communities are not …
January 11, 2024
The insurance industry faces an image challenge. Plaintiff attorney highway billboards and websites routinely disparage insurance companies as fat, greedy and collusive. One plaintiff law firm website declares that “at the end of the day, the liars, cheats and the …
September 27, 2023
Property & casualty insurers are remarkably durable. Many of the country’s 2,422 insurers have been in business for over a century. Two – the Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Contributionship–were formed in the 18th century, …
June 7, 2023
The temperature of the debate surrounding environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) is already quite high and continues to rise. Last November, Elon Musk commented, “ESG is the devil.” More recently, in March 2023, Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks pronounced …
February 6, 2023
Last week, a special session of the Louisiana Legislature passed and funded an effort to deter insurance companies from leaving the Pelican State after a raft of hurricanes wreaked havoc on the financials of several insurers, driving some to insolvency. …
January 9, 2023
California’s destructive Christmas Eve and January storms are a grim reminder that the state is perilously exposed to massive flooding. A paltry 215,000 Californians—less than 2 percent of the state’s homeowners—buy flood insurance, which is excluded in conventional homeowners insurance …
December 6, 2022
The Florida Legislature will conduct a special session during the week of December 12 focusing on fixes for a failing, flailing insurance market in the state that has reached crisis levels. Symptoms of the crisis include the financial collapse of …
October 18, 2022
Judge William Blackstone’s 18th century Commentaries on the Laws of Englandhas been deemed among the most significant influences on the development of U.S. law, second only to the Bible. Blackstone continues to be cited regularly in Supreme Court decisions. In …
September 12, 2022
A September 8 U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on current issues in insurance included useful discussion on some of the industry’s most pressing concerns. Comments from the committee’s members and from one witness, Maryland Insurance Commissioner …