Insurance Journal

What’s So Great About a Career in an Insurance Agency

What’s so great about a career in an insurance agency? Lots, actually. Like opportunity, flexibility, training, challenges, good pay, helping others, and job security. What’s more, it’s an opportunity available to those who have a c...

Posted: Apr 14, 2024

Cyber Risk Strategies to Minimize Business Disruption, Control Liability and Litigation Exposure

Security threats are getting more sophisticated – and expensive – and this trajectory will continue. Digital footprints and technology usage will only keep expanding, adding to vulnerability and presenting more opportunities for compromis...

Posted: Apr 14, 2024

Weathering the Storm: The Impact of Climate-Driven Risk Reassessments on the Housing Market

One of the most pressing challenges facing insurance professionals today is the escalating impact of extreme weather events in traditionally disaster-prone areas. Last year alone, the U.S. witnessed a staggering $92.9 billion in weather-related damag...

Posted: Apr 14, 2024

Designated Premises, Operations and Projects Endorsements

In 2017, I developed a webinar called “Raiders of the Lost Coverage: Insurance Jones and the Temple of Exclusions.” It evolved from an earlier seminar I did with the late John Eubank, CPCU, ARM, called “Horrible Commercial Lines Pol...

Posted: Apr 14, 2024

Insurance Agency Trust Accounting — More Important than Ever

My articles regarding insurance agency accounting seem to elicit some of the most positive feedback of any subject I discuss. Trust accounting is the bedrock, the most essential aspect of insurance agency accounting – bar none. Insurance agency...

Posted: Apr 14, 2024

What Industry Executives Are Saying About Loss Reserves, Social Inflation

Executives at carriers and reinsurers that announced reserve loss charges taken during fourth-quarter 2023, and even at some that did not, discussed the “problematic accident years” and lines of business, drawing their own comparisons to...

Posted: Apr 14, 2024

Munich Re Specialty Launches FAIR Plan Commercial Wrap Product in California

Munich Re Specialty Insurance is launching a FAIR Plan Commercial Wrap, available to commercial insureds in California who seek comprehensive coverage in tandem with their FAIR Plan coverage. MRSI’s FAIR Plan Commercial Wrap is designed to enab...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

People Moves: RT Specialty Promotes Murrey to President of Commercial Lines Binding Authority

RT Specialty, the wholesale distribution division of Ryan Specialty, headquartered in Chicago, promoted Jason Murrey to president of commercial lines binding authority. Murrey joined RT Specialty in 2017 through the acquisition of N-Surance Outlets w...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

Lawyers Want Ohio Residents to Wait for Details of $600M Derailment Settlement

The lawyers who negotiated a $600 million settlement with Norfolk Southern over that railroad’s disastrous 2023 derailment in Ohio want residents to talk with them before deciding the historic deal isn’t enough. They said Wednesday that t...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

R&Q to Sell Stake in Obra Joint Venture for $30M, Expects “Significant Pre-Tax Loss”

R&Q Insurance Holdings, (R&Q) the Bermuda-based non-life speciality insurer that focuses on program management and legacy insurance business, announced it has agreed to sell its stake in a joint venture with Obra Capital for $30 million. At t...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

Storms Bring Floods and Damaging Wind Across the South

SLIDELL, La. (AP) — Severe storms blamed for a death in Mississippi spawned a tornado that demolished buildings in one Louisiana city Wednesday while inundating streets in low-lying New Orleans with hours of steady rain that snarled traffic and strai...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

DeSantis Signs Bill Barring Local Worker Heat Protection Measures

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week signed into law a prohibition on local governments requiring worker protections from heat exposure, a law that could potentially lead to more workers’ compensation claims from stricken laborers. At the same t...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

Oklahoma Sues Natural Gas Companies Over Price Spikes During Winter Storm Uri

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Two Texas-based natural gas companies are being sued by Oklahoma, which alleges they fraudulently reduced gas supplies to send prices soaring during Winter Storm Uri, making huge profits while thousands shivered across the state....

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

Georgia Regulator Bars Home Warranty Company for Failing to Secure Bond

A home warranty firm is now prohibited from doing business in Georgia after a cease-and-desist order was issued, the state insurance commissioner announced. Choice Home Warranty did not secure a $100,000 surety bond as required by law, despite warnin...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

USAA to Lay Off 220 Employees

USAA is laying off 220 employees in an effort to reprioritize positions amid changing business needs, the San Antonio-based insurer announced this week. This is the latest round of layoffs at USAA, which let go of nearly 1,000 employees in …

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

Travelers Survey: Distracted Drivers Making US Roads More Dangerous

Nearly 80% of respondents to a recent Travelers survey said inattentive driving is more of a problem now than it has been in past years. Travelers noted the pandemic triggered a new wave of dangerous habits. The 2024 Travelers Risk …

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

SC’s Top Officer: No Details on 2012 Hack That Forced $12M in Cyber Insurance

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Twelve years after a hacker stole personal data from more than 3.6 million people in South Carolina by obtaining Social Security numbers and credit card information from tax returns, the state’s top police officer said Wed...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

US Senate Committee to Hold Hearing on Boeing Safety Culture Report

The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee said it would hold a hearing next week with members of an expert panel that released a report in February criticizing Boeing’s safety culture and calling for significant improvements. The hearing next Wednesda...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

Progress Reported in Salvage Operations at Baltimore Bridge Site

Salvors continue to remove containers from the cargo ship Dali and clear wreckage at the Francis Scott Key Bridge incident site, according to the Unified Command, the group of U.S. Army, Coast Guard and federal, state and local transportation, energy...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

Progressive Records Five-Fold Increase in Q1 Net Income

Progressive Corp. today reported strong first quarter 2024 results with net income of $2.3 billion and a combined ratio of 86.1 Last year, net income for the first three months at the Mayfield Village, Ohio-based insurer was $447.9 million and &#8230...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

Investigators Focus on Electrical System of Ship That Hit Baltimore Bridge

During the initial stages of a federal probe into the deadly collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, investigators are focusing on the electrical power system of the massive container ship that veered off course. Jennifer Homendy, cha...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

NHTSA Opens Investigation Into Recall of Certain Ford SUVs Over Fuel Leaks

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Friday it was opening an investigation into the recall of 42,652 Ford SUVs over concerns of a fuel leak that could lead to fire hazards. The NHTSA’s recall query, or a …

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

People Moves: Rosensaft Joins Alliant M&A; McDougald Is President of Victor Specialty

Rosensaft Joins Alliant Insurance Services as Managing Director Jodi Rosensaft joined Alliant Insurance Services, headquartered in Irvine, California, as managing director, advisory leader – representation and warranties insurance, Alliant Specialty,...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

Kenya and Nigeria Recall J&J Children’s Cough Syrup Over Suspected Toxicity

Kenya’s drug regulator is recalling a batch of Johnson & Johnson children’s cough syrup, it said on Thursday, a day after Nigeria recalled the same batch of medication under the Benylin Paediatric brand. Nigeria’s health regulat...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024

Ukraine Nuclear-Plant Attacks Prompt Emergency Watchdog Meet

The United Nations atomic watchdog held an emergency meeting in Vienna to discuss the increasing risk of an accident at a Russian-occupied atomic power plant in Ukraine. International Atomic Energy Agency diplomats convened on Thursday to discuss saf...

Posted: Apr 12, 2024