Economy News

Georgia Insurance Commissioner Race: Top Priorities, State Role, Money

One candidate to be Georgia ‘s next insurance commissioner thinks the state should build on its risk management schools to become a national leader in alternative risk transfer innovation. Another wants the state to eliminate its tax on premiums and …

The Power of More

Why the Time is Right for Agency Networks They go by many names — networks, alliances, franchises, clusters and aggregators — but all have similar goals. Aggregator groups have been around the insurance industry for more than three decades but …

Home Insurance Customer Satisfaction Declines But ‘Bundlers’ Happy

Overall customer satisfaction with homeowners insurance companies has declined to the lowest level in five years, primarily due to decreases in satisfaction with policy offerings and customer service, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 U.S. National Homeowners Insurance …

University Study of P/C Insurers Finds Bad CEOs Can Wreck Companies

When companies go out of business, their leaders often blame something other than their own performance for the failure. Lehman Bros.’s CEO Richard Fuld said his compensation package had nothing to do with his firm’s death in 2008. Ken Lay …

Fight the Gloom and Doom

It’s a cat chasing-its-tail scenario. Or maybe a Catch-22. Chicken-and-egg? Whatever it is, it’s a mess. The scenario is this: The economy takes a nose dive, so the government lowers interest rates to nearly zero in order to jump-start the …

Be Fair to CSRs

Insurance customer service and claims representatives may not have realized it but when they fail to do their jobs, they are contributing to the insurance fraud problem. According to a survey by Accenture, more than half (55 percent) of U.S. …

Fight the Gloom and Doom

It’s a cat chasing-its-tail scenario. Or maybe a Catch-22. Chicken-and-egg? Whatever it is, it’s a mess. The scenario is this: The economy takes a nose dive, so the government lowers interest rates to nearly zero to jump-start the economy. Large …

Be Fair to CSRs

Insurance customer service and claims representatives may not have realized it, but when they fail to do their jobs, they are contributing to the insurance fraud problem. According to a survey by Accenture, more than half (55 percent) of U.S. …

100 Number of days past a July deadline the California Legislature took to pass a budget. Legislative action was stalled when Democrats and Republicans couldn’t agree on areas to reduce spending to close the $19 billion budget deficit. Without a …

California’s Commissioner Hopefuls

Unlike many voters, the hundreds and thousands of independent insurance agents and brokers in California know the November 2 election will be a pivotal one. After all, on that day, Californians will select a new insurance commissioner, charged with regulating …