It Figures

22%

The percentage of agents responding to an Insurance Journal survey who said they have cut unnecessary spending in response to the current financial crisis. Another 22 percent have taken steps to communicate more with their customers. About 15 percent have instituted a hiring or salary freeze.

14.1%

The rate decrease the National Council on Compensation Insurance submitted for workers’ compensation in Florida. Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty disapproved the rate filing and ordered NCCI to make an amended filing to reduce the rates by 18.6 percent. The further reduction in rates will save Florida employers more than $610 million, McCarty said.

45,000

The number of Florida homeowners’ policies that insurer Homeowners Choice Inc. assumed from state -backed insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. The policies are assumable under the state’s “take-out” program, designed to reduce the state’s risk exposure by encouraging private insurance companies to assume policies from Citizens.

12

The number of Alabama schools involved in a pilot study on using seat belts to increase school bus safety. The study seeks to develop guidance on new seat belt requirements for the 25 million students who ride buses nationally.

$6.49 Million

The liabilities cited by a millionaire philanthropist and insurance entrepreneur Tim Shelnut Sr. from Augusta, Ga. as he filed for bankruptcy. He listed $9.18 million in assets. Shelnut raised himself from a high school dropout to a millionaire insurance executive who ran his own agency with 7,000 agents across the country.

$11.5 Billion

The estimated amount that U.S. property/casualty insurers are expected to pay homeowners and businesses for third-quarter property losses resulting from a total of 11 catastrophes in 22 states, according to ISO. Thus far, the five states with the greatest insured losses are Texas ($6.4 billion), Louisiana ($1.9 billion), Ohio ($1.2 billion), Kentucky ($0.4 billion), and Illinois ($0.37 billion).

Topics Florida