Insurance Journal

Heat Draws Visitors to Death Valley, Where It’s Tough to Communicate Risk

Ray Estrada’s 11-year-old grandson is used to Las Vegas’ scorching summers, but he’d always wanted to experience the heat in one of the Earth’s hottest places. So Estrada recently drove him to Death Valley National Park, with...

Posted: Aug 25, 2025

Tour Bus Rollover Kills 5 on Highway in Western New York

A tour bus returning to New York City from Niagara Falls with 54 people aboard crashed and rolled on its side Friday on an interstate highway, killing five passengers and injuring many others, authorities said. The driver apparently became distracted...

Posted: Aug 24, 2025

Missouri’s Mutual Insurance Companies Report Stronger Results in 2024

The Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance (DCI) announced the state’s mutual insurance companies reported a considerable reduction in net losses from $17.7 million in 2023 to just $4.8 million in 2024. In 2024, mutuals managed 205,000 p...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

AM Best Revises Outlooks to Stable for Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Group

AM Best has revised the outlooks to stable from negative and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) of “a” (Excellent) of Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insuran...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Be Recognized as a Best Agency to Work For: Submit Now

Is your agency a great place to work? Would you call your agency a “Best Place to Work?” Then it’s time to nominate your agency for Insurance Journal’s “Best Agency to Work For” award. To nominate your agency, you...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Rural California Wine Country Fire Burning Out of Control

Firefighters will battle intense heat and dry weather Friday as they work to control a fast-moving blaze in the heart of California’s wine country. The Pickett Fire exploded in the hills above the tourist town of Calistoga in the Napa …

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

People Moves: Aon Commercial Risk Promotes Smaje as Specialty Leader, Transportation & Logistics; MG...

This edition of International People Moves details appointments at the broker Aon and the MGA Optio Group. A summary of these new hires follows here. Aon’s Commercial Risk Business Promotes Smaje to Lead Transportation & Logistics Insurance...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

New Jersey Compensation Bureau Back Online After Cyber Incident

The New Jersey Compensation Rating & Inspection Bureau is mostly back online following a cybersecurity event that caused it to shut down its network more than two weeks ago. The workers’ compensation agency said it “experienced suspic...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Gymnastics Coach at Renowned Iowa Gym Accused of Sexual Abuse

The U.S. gymnastics world was only just recovering from a devastating sexual abuse scandal when a promising young coach moved from Mississippi to Iowa to take a job in 2018 at an elite academy known for training Olympic champions. Liang …

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Postal Services Across Globe Pause US Deliveries as Tariff Shift Sows Confusion

Postal services across the world are suspending parcel deliveries to the US, citing confusion about how to process millions of low-value packages that will lose their duty-free treatment next week. As of Aug. 29, President Donald Trump is ending the...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Texas Lawmakers Advance Flood Bills With Grieving Parents in Attendance

Nearly seven weeks ago on July 4, the Guadalupe River raged out of its banks and killed more than 130 people, including two teenage counselors and 25 young girls at Camp Mystic who had been asleep in their cabins before …

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

US Halts Visas for Truck Drivers After Fatal Florida Crash

The US will stop issuing worker visas for commercial truck drivers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday, the latest in a series of Trump administration moves to clamp down on foreign workers. “Effective immediately we are pausing all i...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

People Moves: Marsh Names Global, US Aviation and Space Leaders; Ryan Appoints Ferguson CEO of US As...

Marsh Appoints Glod as Global Head of Aviation and Space; Ambrose as Global Chairman; Kline to Lead US Aviation and Space Business Marsh appointed Brian Glod as global head of aviation and space and Tony Ambrose as global chairman of …

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Two More Beach Homes Near Collapse as Erin’s Waves Pound NC Outer Banks

Two homes on the North Carolina Outer Banks sit precariously in the high waves with their days seemingly numbered. Since 2020, 11 neighboring homes have fallen into the Atlantic Ocean. While the swells from storms like Hurricane Erin make things &#82...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Reinsurers Have Made Major Structural Changes to Improve Profits. Will Discipline Last?

Reinsurance underwriting remains disciplined, with terms and conditions and attachment points largely intact, despite signs of rate moderation, according to an AM Best market segment report. During the January 2023 renewals, the global reinsurance ma...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Two Workers Sue Over New York City Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak

Two construction workers who contracted Legionnaires’ disease while working at a site in New York City have filed lawsuits against two construction management firms they allege should be held responsible for the workplace conditions that caused...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

‘Urgent Action’ Needed to Protect Workers From Heat Stress in Warming World: UN

Governments and employers should take urgent action to help protect the health of workers who are increasingly exposed to extreme heat, the United Nations said on Friday. Climate change is making heatwaves more common and intense, and workers worldwi...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Hurricane Erin Is Disrupting Both Europe’s Weather and Forecasts

Hurricane Erin is muddling computer models and making forecasters, analysts and traders question the accuracy of the outlook for heat, wind and storms across Europe next week. Erin, which churned through the Atlantic 330 kilometers (205 miles) off th...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Yet Another HO Insurer, Viceroy, Approved for Florida Market, Regulators Say

Yet another property insurance carrier has been approved to do business in Florida, this one a sister company to Monarch National Insurance, based in Tallahassee. Viceroy Preferred Insurance Co. is at least the 15th new insurer to enter the Florida &...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Another HO Insurer, Viceroy, Approved for Florida Market, Regulators Say

Yet another property insurance carrier has been approved to do business in Florida, this one a sister company to Monarch National Insurance, based in Tallahassee. Viceroy Preferred Insurance Co. is at least the 15th new insurer to enter the Florida &...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Oregon Division of Financial Regulation Earns NAIC Accreditation

The Oregon Division of Financial Regulation (DFR) recently received its five-year accreditation from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The purpose of NAIC accreditation is to ensure that state insurance departments meet base...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Markets/Coverages: Arden’s Parametric Wildfire Risk Program Backed by SiriusPoint

Brokers in western states take note: there is new help for wildfire risks. Specialty re/insurer SiriusPoint Ltd. is offering capacity to managing general underwriter Arden Insurance Services LLC for a wildfire exposed risks program that includes embe...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Markets/Coverages: Volvo Launches Independent Agency; Arden’s Wildfire Program Backed by SiriusPoint

Volvo Launches Independent Agency Auto manufacturer Volvo has launched an independent insurance agency offering not just car insurance for Volvos but also home and umbrella insurance. The Mahwah, New Jersey-based Volvo Car Insurance Services represen...

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

How Hurricanes, Fires and Floods Put Drugs and Medical Supplies at Risk

When Hurricane Helene barreled across several southern states last fall, it destroyed homes and killed more than 150 people. The storm also took out one of the country’s main factories producing intravenous fluid bags widely used in hospitals....

Posted: Aug 22, 2025

Hundreds May Have Been Exposed to Rabies in Grand Teton National Park Cabins

Health officials are working to alert hundreds of people in dozens of states and several countries who may have been exposed to rabies in bat-infested cabins in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park over the past few months. As of Friday, …

Posted: Aug 22, 2025