“You always find out who’s been swimming naked when the tide goes out. We found out that Wall Street has been kind of a nudist beach.” —Warren Buffett on the credit crisis “As a strong supporter of free enterprise, I …
2008 can be described as a year like no other in the property/casualty insurance world. This year, the industry witnessed the near death of the world’s largest and most successful insurance company, AIG. The soft market continued to hamper revenues …
Insurers Can Weather Global Financial Crisis Buyers that aren’t buying; houses that aren’t selling, banks that aren’t lending — sound familiar? But in this case it’s the United Kingdom that we’re talking about, not the United States. However, one thing …
The Ohio Senate has signed off on preserving a workers’ compensation rate system that many businesses say is unfair and detrimental to the economy. The Senate voted 31-1 on Dec. 15 to preserve the current group rating system, which enables …
A.M. Best Co. has downgraded the financial strength rating (FSR) to ‘B+’ (Good) from ‘A-‘ (Excellent) and issuer credit rating (ICR) to “bbb-” from “a-” for the Barbados-based Imagine Insurance Company Limited, both with stable outlooks. Best then withdrew the …
According to initial estimates from the forthcoming Swiss Re sigma study on catastrophes, more than 238,000 people lost their lives to natural catastrophes and man-made disasters in 2008 – the fourth largest number of deaths since 1970. While the total …
The American Tort Reform Foundation’s (ATRF) annual Judicial Hellholes report, released on Dec. 16, sheds a spotlight on some of the worst judicial environments in the country and highlights the importance of fighting for a balanced civil justice system in …
A Michigan man is challenging the government’s bailout of American International Group Inc., claiming the move is illegal because the insurer has financial products that promote Islam and are anti-Christian. The lawsuit was filed on Monday, Dec. 15 in federal …
After opposing higher taxes for months as counterproductive, New York Gov. David Paterson reportedly plans to increase taxes on insurance policies, on non-diet sodas under an “obesity tax,” reviving the state sales tax on clothing, and changes in funding of …
Privately held insurance broker Lockton Cos. said it has combined its Manhattan and Connecticut offices into a single team that will focus its efforts on the entire Northeast region. Lockton said its newly combined Northeast team would offer clients access …
