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 …
During a rainstorm in Washington in early 2009, amid the furor over Wall Street’s post-bailout bonuses, an American International Group employee pulled out an umbrella that had the insurer’s name on it. “Somebody came by, grabbed the umbrella and broke …
Coastal Alabama should seize the BP Gulf oil disaster as an opportunity for “resiliency planning” that will not only help the region recover from the oil damage but also put it in a position to better recover from any future …
There are a lot of performance benchmarks to focus on to become a top performing insurance agency and to achieve high profitability. One of the areas agencies need to focus on is compensation expenses. With a struggling national economy, it’s …
Have you ever wondered what big events helped shape regulation of the current U.S. insurance industry? Or if drivers of certain cars have more risk? What about the most attractive insurance job in the industry? These are just a few …
