Trending News & Highlights |
Reinsurance capital remained plentiful at Jan. 1 renewals as rates continue to moderate despite major loss events such as hurricanes Helene and Milton and the still-unfolding California wildfires.
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California's ongoing wildfire disaster exposes an unsustainable risk strategy that puts pressure on the state's insurer of last resort as private insurers flee the market, said Chubb Ltd.'s chief executive officer.
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Marsh McLennan's chief executive officer sees more acquisitions on the way as the broker completed a record year including the fourth-quarter close of its $7.75 billion McGriff Insurance Services buy, a middle-market move.
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Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. reported a $130 million dollar reserving charge due to economic and social inflation in the fourth quarter, even as it had an 11% rise in net income available to common stockholders to $848 million.
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Allstate Corp. agreed to sell its group health business to Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. for $1.25 billion in cash. The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year.
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David Blades, associate director of industry research and analytics, AM Best, discusses how rates and pricing segmentation in personal automobile and homeowners insurance initiatives have propelled the property/casualty industry to significant gains through the third quarter of 2024.
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David Blades, associate director, and Christopher Graham, senior industry analyst, AM Best, discuss the latest inland marine Insurance trends, including pet insurance profitability and travel insurance recovery.
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Mangrove Property Insurance Co. has received approval to start writing home insurance in Florida from Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky, who also approved the company’s request to take out 81,040 personal residential multiperil policies from the state’s insurer of last resort.
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State Farm, the biggest writer of homeowners and automobile coverage in California, has paid almost $500 million and taken in 10,100 total home and auto claims as of Jan. 27 following the fires that have devastated the Los Angeles area.
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Dan Preston's California-based startup managing general agent Stand began operating in mid-December. The idea was clear: Use technology in order to pinpoint exposures to catastrophe risks including wildfires and ameliorate them.
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Liberty Mutual outlined its property catastrophe reinsurance in place as the insurer noted "recent and ongoing events."
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| Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images |
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Cigna Group reported a 38% rise in fourth-quarter shareholders' net income to $1.42 billion, despite higher-than-expected medical costs in stop-loss products, Cigna Group Chief Executive Officer David Cordani said.
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Progressive Corp. reported its fourth-quarter net income jumped 19% from a year earlier to $2.36 billion.
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Selective Insurance Group Inc. reported net income available to common stockholders during the fourth quarter dropped 24% to $93.2 million, as its top executive said "broad-based" social inflation has hurt the company.
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As the California wildfire events unfold, RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd.'s chief executive officer said reinsurance demand should get a boost, but the market will have to address rising natural catastrophe frequency and severity.
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Arthur J. Gallagher Co.’s acquisition of AssuredPartners Inc. will deepen the combined company’s reach, strengthen its niche practice group and build on a commercial middle-market focus, AJG Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Pat Gallagher said during a conference call.
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The timing of extinguishing the wildfires in California will be critical to rate changes in the first half of 2025, said broker Brown & Brown's chief executive officer.
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Aon Ltd.'s 2024 acquisition of NFP Corp. in 2024 expands the broker's presence in the fast-growing middle market and confirms an active mergers and acquisitions strategy, said the group's chief financial officer.
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Another round of winter storms in the southern United States from Jan. 21-22 was "once in a generation" and could bring tens of millions in additional insured losses, according to Aon.
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Liability lines are continuing to be hammered by social inflation and third-party litigation funding is the “jet fuel” emboldening the plaintiffs bar and launching verdicts into the stratosphere, W.R. Berkley Corp. Chief Executive Officer W. Robert “Rob” Berkley Jr. said during a fourth-quarter earnings call.
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Everest Group Ltd. announced $1.7 billion of unfavorable casualty prior-year loss development as part of preliminary financial results ahead of its earnings statement to be released Feb. 3.
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The U.S. district court overseeing the case against former insurance executive Greg Lindberg has named Joseph Grier as special master, according to a court order, which indicated Grier was needed due to the complex nature of the case and burden unwinding it would place on court resources.
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UnitedHealth Group Inc. named Tim Noel as chief executive officer of its UnitedHealthcare unit, replacing slain CEO Brian Thompson.
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Total U.S. annuity sales of $432.4 billion in 2024 rose 12% from the prior year, reaching a new record for the third consecutive year, according to LIMRA's U.S. Individual Annuity Sales Survey.
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Strong results in the fourth quarter propelled new annualized life insurance premium up 4% to $16.2 billion for the full-year 2024, the fourth-consecutive year of record premium, LIMRA said.
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp revealed a sweeping tort reform package that would bring transparency to third-party litigation funding agreements, eliminate double recovery of attorney fees and ensure liability is established before evidence on damages is presented.
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The Oklahoma Department of Insurance released eligibility rules and income tier brackets for the OKReady home hardening program, which will provide grants for homeowners that upgrade roofing and undertake other mitigation projects.
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From the governor’s office to the state house, lawmakers across New Mexico are searching for ways to tame the state’s property insurance market, which has been agitated by wildfires in recent years.
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| Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images |
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Generali Group's commercial lines unit entered India, citing rising demand for commercial insurance solutions in the country's growing corporate and commercial segment.
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TD Insurance said it sponsored a new C$150 million ($104.3 million) catastrophe bond to give it reinsurance capacity through a multi-year risk transfer for protection against earthquakes and severe convective storms in Canada.
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Research |
Ten insurance company impairments were identified in the U.S. life/health industry for 2023, following none in 2022, according to a new AM Best report.
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Bolstered by less severe than expected hurricane losses and strong investment income, reinsurers improved their capital positions in 2024 and were able to supply the market with additional property capacity to the point that it affected pricing heading into 2025, according to a new AM Best report.
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Despite growing pains, there are early indications that insuring family pets is evolving into a meaningful niche business line for the U.S. inland marine insurance segment, according to a new AM Best report.
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Through the third quarter of 2024, the direct incurred loss ratios for the homeowners/farmowners and private passenger auto lines of business improved significantly year over year, with the homeowners’ line experiencing a 13.8-percentage point improvement, according to a new AM Best report.
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AM Best is maintaining its market segment outlook on Germany’s life insurance segment at negative.
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