Oregonians should expect a long slow recovery from the recession, and it will be years before the economy returns to pre-recession levels, John Mitchel, an economist and former Western Regional Economist for U.S. Bank, warned insurance agents and brokers in …
Soft market conditions with unabated price competition and a slow economy with reduced payrolls continued to affect commercial liens including the the workers’ compensation industry in 2010, as they did in 2009. Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute, …
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives plan to pass a bill next week to repeal President Barack Obama’s overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system, a senior party aide said Monday, but the effort is widely expected to fail in …
The outcome of U.N. climate talks in Mexico this month should boost steps in Asia to curb greenhouse gas emissions, with China a likely bright spot in 2011, a senior analyst at a leading U.S. think tank said. The talks …
A quick, and as yet incomplete, survey of re/insurance industry leaders indicates that the main concern they will have to deal with in the coming year isn’t climate change, or Solvency II, but the insurance industry’s ancient bugaboo, the soft …
Calif. Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced he has sent a letter to Gov.-Elect Jerry Brown to urge him to preserve the workers’ compensation insurance reforms that have reduced the Workers’ Compensation Cost Claims Benchmark by more than 60 percent since …
As California’s third elected insurance commissioner, Steve Poizner has had a wealth of accomplishments. Among other things, he: reduced the Department of Insurance’s operating budget by 13 percent, which allowed him to reduce fees for agents, brokers and insurers and …
It has been a challenging few years for those in the excess and surplus (E&S) lines insurance market. An endless soft market, extreme competition from the standard markets, and a bad economy left wholesale and retail agents scrambling to retain …
Allstate Corp. has sued Bank of America Corp., its Countrywide lending unit and 17 other defendants for allegedly misrepresenting the risks on more than $700 million of mortgage securities it bought from Countrywide. Allstate, the largest publicly traded U.S. home …
In 2009, independent insurance agents and brokers faced a “perfect storm” with the economic downturn, premiums at a fraction of what they used to be, and unemployment and home foreclosure rates up, said Kevin Baker of San Jose, Calif.-based Suhr …
