Insurance Journal

People: McCosh, Sumrall Take New Posts at McGriff

McGriff, a Charlotte-based insurance broker and subsidiary of Truist Insurance Holdings, said it has named two people to help lead its risk services division. Brandon McCosh was promoted to be national director, risk control; and Shane Sumrall was na...

Posted: Nov 20, 2023

Skanska Ordered to Pay $1.7M to Florida Oyster Farm for Barges Loosed in Storm

Skanska USA, part of one of the world’s largest construction firms, was ordered to pay almost $1.7 million to a Florida oyster farmer, three years after the firm’s barges broke loose in Hurricane Sally. The state-court jury verdict last w...

Posted: Nov 20, 2023

Atlantic City Investigates Boardwalk Fire That Damaged Facade of Resorts Casino

Investigators were trying Thursday to determine what touched off a fire on the Atlantic City Boardwalk a day earlier that burned a section of the historic walkway and damaged part of the facade of Resorts casino. Although the fire damaged …

Posted: Nov 20, 2023

‘I Am Guilty.’ Murdaugh Pleads to 22 State Financial Crimes for 27 Year Sentence

Alex Murdaugh pleaded guilty Friday to stealing millions of dollars from vulnerable legal clients in schemes lasting over a decade under an agreement that all but ensures more prison time for the longtime lawyer who was convicted of killing his &#823...

Posted: Nov 20, 2023

National Church Group Agency: Caring for Employees and Clients Alike

The National Church Group Insurance Agency’s mission is to protect its clients’ missions. For nearly four decades, the Leesburg, Viginia-based organization has secured commercial property and casualty insurance for churches, nonprofits, c...

Posted: Nov 20, 2023

Best Agency to Work For – East Gold Winner: National Church Group Agency

The National Church Group Insurance Agency’s mission is to protect its clients’ missions. For nearly four decades, the Leesburg, Virginia-based organization has secured commercial property and casualty insurance for churches, nonprofits,...

Posted: Nov 20, 2023

Dollywood Temporarily Suspends Park Entry Due to Nearby Wildfire

Dolly Parton`s Dollywood temporarily suspended entry Thursday into the Tennessee amusement park as wildfire crews on Thursday battled nearby flames. Park officials say they paused entry to allow fire crews enough room to assess the growing blaze in S...

Posted: Nov 20, 2023

Cannabis Industry Reports First Worker Death From Asthma Attack

The U.S. cannabis production industry’s first reported occupational asthma death took the life of a worker in Massachusetts, federal health and safety officials said. The woman, 27, was working in a cannabis cultivation and processing facility...

Posted: Nov 20, 2023

NYU Langone Doctor Sues Over Firing for Posts Backing Israel

A doctor who ran a cancer center at NYU Langone Health filed a lawsuit claiming he was fired for social media posts relating to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. Dr. Benjamin Neel, the director of the Laura …

Posted: Nov 20, 2023

Best Agency to Work For – Southeast Gold Winner: Wiglesworth-Rindom Insurance Agency

Florida insurance agents have been through the wringer in the last five years, with repeated rate increases for properties across the board, carriers pulling out of the market, and continual complaints from insureds about premiums. But that hasn&#821...

Posted: Nov 20, 2023

Bayer Ordered to Pay $1.56B in Latest Trial Loss Over Roundup Weedkiller

A Missouri jury ordered Bayer to pay $1.56 billion to four plaintiffs who claimed the company’s Roundup weedkiller caused injuries including cancer, a verdict that could intensify investor pressure on the German drugs and agricultural chemicals...

Posted: Nov 20, 2023

The 4 Key Factors Contributing to Rising Insurance Rates

It’s no secret to buyers of almost any type of property/casualty insurance policy — home, auto, business — that rates are rising, regardless of whether claims have been submitted. People may also have heard about major insurers who...

Posted: Nov 19, 2023

S&P: Struggles in Personal Auto Insurance to Subside More Slowly Than Expected

By Allen Laman S&P Global Market Intelligence projects that personal auto results will improve from 2022’s worst-in-decades combined ratio of 112.2%, though not as rapidly as the organization’s experts previously expected. Continued p...

Posted: Nov 19, 2023

Carrier Operational Stability

For nearly 30 years, I’ve been writing and consulting with insurance agencies, brokers and networks on the benefits of choosing the most stable carriers — stable from an operational perspective, which enables agencies to achieve greater s...

Posted: Nov 19, 2023

Higher Repair Costs, Supply Line Delays Drive Business Interruption Claims

The aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic have hit businesses hard, with inflation, supply chain disruptions, and increasing downtime. Just as we saw how ill-prepared our healthcare system was for the global outbreak, so was our economy, and our suppl...

Posted: Nov 19, 2023

Poultry Producers Seek to Dismiss Ruling That They Polluted an Oklahoma Watershed

A group of poultry producers, including the world’s largest, have asked a federal judge to dismiss his ruling that they polluted an Oklahoma watershed. Arkansas-based Tyson Foods, Minnesota-based Cargill Inc. and the others say in a motion that...

Posted: Nov 19, 2023

Louisiana Contractor Gets Max Fine After Fatal Fall at Hyundai Plant Site

Federal safety regulators have brought the hammer down on a Louisiana contractor, deciding that the company failed to use correct safety equipment that would have prevented a fatal fall at an electric car plant construction site in Georgia. “Th...

Posted: Nov 19, 2023

Ransomware Attacks Rise Again

Ransomware attacks are up 95.41% globally in 2023 year over year, a trend showing no signs of slowing. The number of ransomware victims to date in 2023 (3,311) has already surpassed totals for the entirety of 2021 (3,048) or 2022 …

Posted: Nov 19, 2023

SEC Sues SolarWinds for Concealing Risks Before Massive Hack

By Chris Prentice, Jonathan Stempel and Raphael Satter The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 30 sued software company SolarWinds Corp. and its top information security executive, saying they defrauded investors by hiding cybersecurit...

Posted: Nov 19, 2023

How a CRM Can Help Your Firm Create Compound Interest

CRM. AMS. Have you heard of these acronyms? They stand for Customer Relationship Management software and Agency Management System, respectively. The lines between CRM and AMS can get a bit blurry, mainly because people tend to use the terms interchan...

Posted: Nov 19, 2023

Revisiting Terrorism Issues

Yesterday was my son’s 12th birthday but he didn’t spend it unwrapping presents or gorging on ice cream and cake. Most of our evening was spent solemnly observing unspeakable horror and devastation as the events of Sept. 11, 2001, unfolde...

Posted: Nov 19, 2023

Auto Claimants More Satisfied Even Though Repairs Taking Longer: J.D. Power

By Jim Sams Auto repairs are taking more than twice as long as they did in 2021, but policyholders who filed claims appear to be taking that in stride. J.D. Power reported that the industry average claims satisfaction rating increased …

Posted: Nov 19, 2023

Making a Great Place to Work: E&S Brokers Share Their View on Talent Strategies

By Andrea Wells With a staggering 50% of the current insurance workforce set to retire in less than 10 years, potentially leaving more than 400,000 positions unfilled, nearly every insurance organization is struggling to recruit new talent while reta...

Posted: Nov 19, 2023

The Next Chapter: Employment Practices Liability

Employment Practices Liability (EPL) insurance has been available since the late 1980s. But it was not until September 1991 when the world witnessed the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court hearings and Anita Hill’s testimony, that people recognized t...

Posted: Nov 19, 2023

Buying and Selling: 5 Tips for Successful Agency Transactions

You are going to sell your interest in your agency at some point. Whether the sale is internal, external, to a family member, employees, or to a large national organization, there are steps you can take in advance to make …

Posted: Nov 19, 2023