July 16, 2020
Even though accelerating hard market conditions may seem ideal for a growing crop of professionals with designs on starting up insurance and reinsurance companies, garnering AM Best ratings still won’t be easy for newbies. Capital is coming into the industry …
July 9, 2020
Chubb unveiled a proposal for the insurance industry and federal government to partner on covering future pandemic-related business interruptions—and to get money to small businesses quickly—following through on an earlier promise from CEO Evan Greenberg. Documents shared with Carrier Management …
July 9, 2020
A U.S. lawmaker has introduced a bill that would allow insurers to voluntarily pay certain COVID-related business interruption claims and get reimbursed by the federal government, but insurance groups have rejected the idea. Although the text of H.R. 7412, the …
July 8, 2020
How reinsurers will respond when cedents pay their insureds for COVID-related business interruptions remains an open question, legal and insurance professionals suggested recently, adding more wrinkles to an already complex claims situation. Illustrating some of the specific reinsurance coverage questions …
June 22, 2020
With an industry overall combined ratio for 2019 hovering just below 100, and individual lines like long-tail liability moving 10 points over breakeven, the U.S. commercial lines market has “plenty of room for improvement,” Fitch Ratings reports. But improvement isn’t …
June 15, 2020
Defense attorney Ellen Greiper reported receiving more than the usual number of phone calls from plaintiffs attorneys last month, suggesting that the call dynamics could be signaling a COVID-driven change in social inflation trends. “I have had a flurry of …
June 10, 2020
Good faith coverage disputes over pandemic-related business interruption coverage don’t have to be fought out in courts, and retroactive rewrites of business interruption coverage language are unfair, according to a plaintiffs lawyer who represents restaurants. John Houghtaling, II, a lawyer …
June 9, 2020
Analysts for Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings shared a view that U.S. underwriting losses from COVID-19 would fall in the $15-$30 billion range. However, risk officers speaking at a rating agency conference last week said the estimate is light. S&P …
June 5, 2020
While reinsurers are “open for business” and insurers and reinsurers are reporting the impacts of COVID-19 as a one-off catastrophe impacting earnings rather than capital, equity markets are viewing the situation differently, a financial analyst reported earlier this month. Speaking …
June 2, 2020
Defense attorney Ellen Greiper reported receiving more than the usual number of phone calls from plaintiffs attorneys earlier this month, suggesting that the call dynamics could be signaling a COVID-driven change in social inflation trends. “I have had a flurry …