Latest Market Headlines
All the headlines from our Market Topic Page, ordered by recency.
P/C Insurance Industry’s Net Underwriting Income Up 24% in Q1, Reports A.M. Best
May 21 2019 // The U.S. property/casualty industry posted net underwriting income of $4.2 billion in first-quarter 2019, a 24.0% increase from the same period in the previous year, according to preliminary financial results. According to...
China’s Ant Financial Provides Health Coverage to 65 Million Clients for Pennies a Month
May 21 2019 // Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. employed about 1.4 million people to peddle policies last year. Yet it’s Jack Ma’s newest online disruptor that is stealing the show — with 50 workers and visions of serving...
Billionaire Paying Off College Students’ $40 Million Debt Has Ties to Insurance Industry
May 20 2019 // The billionaire technology investor and philanthropist who has promised to assume the $40 million student debt of the entire graduating class at Morehouse College has ties to the insurance industry. Robert F. Smith, who...
Why Agencies Should Ramp Up Value-Added Services
May 20 2019 // Let’s face it, insurance is a commodity. The insurance consumer will not see any significant value difference between insurance companies and insurance agencies. Products, price and service are roughly the...
People
May 20 2019 // National Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) announced that Baptiste Ossena, global product leader of Hull and Marine Liabilities (HML), is assuming additional responsibility as the North American regional head...
The Impact Of State-Level Legalization of Marijuana on the Insurance Industry
May 20 2019 // The changing legal status of marijuana in the U.S. is prompting insurers to begin offering coverages, despite having extremely limited loss data to inform them. While marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, action...
London Marine Insurers Expand Middle East Threat Zone After Saudi Ship Attacks
May 17 2019 // London’s marine insurance market has extended the list of waters deemed high risk to include Oman, the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf after ship attacks off Fujairah, officials said on Friday, in a move that could...
California’s New Climate and Sustainability Chief in Talks with Insurers
May 16 2019 // Powered by InsuranceJournal.tv Michael Peterson has had about five months to come in and tackle what promises to be unique job. Peterson is California’s deputy commissioner for climate and sustainability. After...
Michigan Senate Passes Plan to Cut Car Insurance Rates
May 8 2019 // Michigan’s Senate has passed legislation aimed at cutting the country’s highest average auto insurance premiums by eliminating a requirement that drivers buy unlimited medical benefits to cover crash...
RLI Announces Bryant to Replace Retiring CFO Brown, Other Changes
May 7 2019 // Specialty insurer RLI Corp. announced that its chief financial officer is retiring and it has made other executive changes. CFO Thomas Brown, who is also a senior vice president, will retire on July 1, 2019 after eight...
Swiss Re: Insurance Industry Must Wake Up to Costs of ‘Secondary’ Catastrophe Perils
May 6 2019 // The insurance industry must wake up to the growing cost of “secondary” catastrophe perils, which amounted to more than 60 percent of the $76 billion price tag for insured natural catastrophe losses during 2018,...
Industry Veterans Catlin and Brand Launch Specialty Bermuda Re/Insurer Convex Group
Apr 30 2019 // Insurance industry veterans Stephen Catlin and Paul Brand announced they have launched an international specialty insurer and reinsurer, Convex Group Ltd. Convex launches with $1.8 billion of initial committed capital and...
Direct-to-Consumer Auto Insurers Grabbing Market Share
Apr 25 2019 // Direct-to-consumer auto insurers appear to be gaining serious market traction, according to a report from J.D. Power. The firm reports that auto insurance revenue hit $245 billion in 2018, reflecting industrywide growth of...
Total Reinsurance Capital Drops in 2018, but Alternative Capital Keeps Rising: Willis Re
Apr 24 2019 // While total dedicated reinsurance capital dropped in 2018, alternative capital continued its steady rise, according to a report published by Willis Re. Total dedicated reinsurance capital – which includes traditional and...
California Insurance Commissioner Rejects Petition to Require Fossil Fuel Underwriting Disclosure
Apr 23 2019 // California’s new insurance commissioner wasn’t getting along so well on Earth Day with groups of climate change and consumer activists. California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who put battling climate...
North Dakota Governor Signs Health Reinsurance Bill
Apr 22 2019 // North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has signed a bill that allows for establishing a reinsurance pool for the individual health insurance market in that state. House Bill 1106, backed by the North Dakota Department of Insurance,...
Fitch Keeps Stable Outlook for P/C Insurers After Underwriting Profit in 2018
Apr 22 2019 // After two consecutive years of combined ratios above 100, the U.S. property/casualty industry returned to a modest statutory underwriting profit in 2018 as catastrophe losses slowed, premium growth accelerated and several...
Report: Insurance Industry Contributes $38B-Plus to Michigan’s Economy
Apr 17 2019 // A new report shows that in 2017, Michigan’s insurance industry made an economic contribution of more than $38 billion to the state’s economy. The report released by Insuring More for Michigan also shows that...
Pennsylvania Insurance Department to Hold NextGen Academy for College Students
Apr 17 2019 // Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Jessica Altman has announced that her department, along with a working group of stakeholders, will this summer hold the Pennsylvania NextGen Insurance Academy to provide college students...
P/C Direct Premium Written Up 4% in 2018
Apr 15 2019 // Direct premium written (DPW) for property/casualty insurance companies continues to increase, albeit gradually. At year-end 2018, nearly $670 billion of DPW was reported, a record high for the industry. For 2018, total DPW...
