Insurance Journal

Duffy Agency Acquires Neighboring Cowan Agency in Massachusetts

Duffy Insurance Agency, based in Lynn, Massachusetts, has acquired The Cowan Insurance Agency of Haverhill, also in Essex County. The Cowan agency, founded in 1938, is a fourth generation family business now led by Stefanie (Cowan) Guillemette. The i...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

Carlyle’s Sedgwick Valued at $13.2 Billion in Investment Deal With Altas

Carlyle-owned claims management company Sedgwick said on Thursday it had secured an investment from private equity firm Altas Partners via a deal that valued it at $13.2 billion. The valuation is much higher than the $6.7 billion Sedgwick was worth &...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

Tokio Marine Kiln Launches Specialty Reinsurance Division

Tokio Marine Kiln (TMK), the international specialist insurer, announced the formation of a new Specialty Reinsurance division to support the company’s growth ambitions in the sector. The new division will be led by Phil Taylor who will be appo...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

UK Retailer Tesco Loses Legal Battle Over ‘Fire and Rehire’ of Staff

Tesco was not entitled to terminate some employees’ contracts and offer to rehire them on less favorable terms, the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday. Shopworkers’ union Usdaw took legal action against Britain’s...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

A Continent Ablaze: South America Surpasses Record for Fires

South America is being ravaged by fire from Brazil’s Amazon rainforest through the world’s largest wetlands to dry forests in Bolivia, breaking a previous record for the number of blazes seen in a year up to Sept. 11. Satellite data &#823...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

As Storm Bebinca Approaches, Taiwan Uses AI to Predict Typhoon Paths

As tropical storm Bebinca barrels towards waters off northern Taiwan gathering strength into a possible typhoon, weather forecasters in Taipei are using a new and so far successful method to help track its path – artificial intelligence (AI). A...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

OpenAI, Nvidia Executives Discuss AI Infrastructure Needs With Biden Officials

OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman and Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang met with senior Biden administration officials and other industry leaders at the White House on Thursday to discuss how to fill the massive infrastructure needs for artificia...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

Venture Capital Fund Ends Grant Program for Black Women After Lawsuit

An Atlanta-based venture capital fund on Wednesday agreed to stop operating a program that awarded grants to small businesses run by Black women to settle a lawsuit by an anti-affirmative action group that claimed it discriminated based on race. Fear...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

How Big Was the Cat? Investigator Warns About Claims of Clogged Toilets

Did you hear the one about cat poop clogging a toilet, resulting in thousands of gallons of sewage water in the home and a big insurance claim? Lin Werkheiser, an insurance fraud investigator, has heard that one and many more …

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

Buffett’s Insurance Leader Ajit Jain Sells Large Part of Berkshire Stake

Ajit Jain, the longtime top insurance executive at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway BRKa.N, sold more than half of his Class A shares in the conglomerate this week. According to a Wednesday night regulatory filing, the 73-year-old Jain sold...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

Plumbing Supply Firm Loses Appeal Over Sales Reps’ Overtime Pay

A federal appeals court has upheld a district court ruling that a wholesale distributor of plumbing supplies has wrongly exempted its inside sales representatives from overtime pay for years. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals denied F.W. Webb’s...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

$1 Billion San Francisco Tower’s Revival Clouded by Lawsuit

One of San Francisco’s most iconic buildings is celebrating its reopening after a four-year, $250 million makeover meant to symbolize the city’s renewal. It’s doing so under the shadow of a lawsuit from one of its key tenants. The T...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

Oregon Workers’ Comp Pure Premium Rate to Drop 3.2%

Oregon employers will pay on average less for workers’ compensation coverage in 2025. The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services the decline in workers’ comp rate, which marks 12 years of average decreases in the pure premium...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

TD to Pay $28 Million for Sharing Inaccurate US Consumer Data

Toronto-Dominion Bank will pay almost $28 million in fines and restitution after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said the lender shared inaccurate information about tens of thousands of US customers with consumer reporting companies. A CFPB...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

Maryland Supreme Court Hears Child Sex Abuse Lawsuit Arguments

The Supreme Court of Maryland heard arguments on Tuesday about the constitutionality of a 2023 law that ended the state’s statute of limitations for child sexual abuse lawsuits following a report that exposed widespread wrongdoing within the Ar...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

Justin Timberlake Reaches Plea Deal to Resolve Drunken Driving Case

Justin Timberlake is scheduled to enter a new plea Friday in his drunken driving case in New York’s Hamptons, prosecutors said. Details of the plea weren’t disclosed, but a person with knowledge of the deal said Timberlake has agreed to &...

Posted: Sep 13, 2024

Supreme Court’s Zeal to Curb Agency Power Looms in New Term

Fresh off a blockbuster US Supreme Court decision that rolled back the power of federal agencies to regulate business, big-government foes are pressing an even bolder agenda. As the court prepares to start its new term next month, conservatives are &...

Posted: Sep 12, 2024

Francine Estimated to Cause $9B in Damage With $1.5B in Insured Losses

A preliminary estimate shows total damage and economic loss from Hurricane Francine in the U.S. is expected to be $9 billion. The storm effects are continuing to be felt, and some areas have yet to report complete information about damage, …

Posted: Sep 12, 2024

People Moves: Lockton Names Young SVP

Lockton, based in Kansas City, Missouri, hired benefits consultant Chad Young as senior vice president based in its Houston office. Young previously served as an account executive at Aetna and held senior account executive roles at Assurant and The H...

Posted: Sep 12, 2024

People Moves: JM Wilson Hires Musolf and Hudson as Assistant Property & Casualty Underwriters; Group...

JM Wilson, headquartered in Portage, Michigan, hired Savana Musolf and Lisa Hudson as assistant property and casualty underwriters. Musolf works with independent insurance agents and company underwriters in Michigan and Texas. Before joining JM Wilso...

Posted: Sep 12, 2024

Sentry Buys Nonstandard Auto Insurer The General From American Family for $1.7B

Sentry Insurance said it is buying nonstandard auto insurer The General from American Family Insurance for about $1.7 billion to mark the largest acquisition in the company’s 120-year history. Sentry will pay $1.1 billion in cash and assume lia...

Posted: Sep 12, 2024

Florida Home Inspector Used Stock Photos 200 Times, Defrauding Citizens, DFS Says

A Florida home inspector allegedly used the same stock photographs in more than 200 home and wind-mitigation inspections, costing Citizens Property Insurance Corp. more than $88,000, the state Department of Financial Services said after the man was a...

Posted: Sep 12, 2024

Francine Knocks Out Power to Hundreds of Thousands in US South

Francine knocked out power to nearly half a million homes and businesses and canceled hundreds of flights across the US South after coming ashore as a hurricane. The storm has weakened to a tropical depression with winds of 35 miles …

Posted: Sep 12, 2024

Francine Knocks Out Power to Hundreds of Thousands in South

Francine knocked out power to nearly half a million homes and businesses and canceled hundreds of flights across the US South after coming ashore as a hurricane. The storm has weakened to a tropical depression with winds of 35 miles …

Posted: Sep 12, 2024

Top EU Privacy Regulator Opens Probe Into Google’s AI Compliance

The top EU privacy regulator opened an inquiry on Thursday into whether search engine giant Google adequately protected European Union users’ personal data before using it to help develop its foundational AI Model. Ireland’s Data Protecti...

Posted: Sep 12, 2024