Insurance news

• Varied Florida renewals yield deeper rate cuts: JLT Re

  01-06-2017 21:52
  JLT Re said the Florida reinsurance renewal produced a more
  varied outcome than usual as it estimated rates fell by 5.1 percent
  at 1 June.
  This was ahead of the 3.1 percent drop recorded last year,
  according to JLT Re's rate-on-line index.
  The broker said renewal rates ranged from flat to 10 percent
  down, as it noted "renewed vigour" from insurance-linked
  securities (ILS) markets to deploy capital this year.
  ILS managers
  were keen to increase participations with stronger-performing
  cedants, JLT.
  
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• Marsh launches aircraft finance consortium

  01-06-2017 21:52
  Marsh has formally announced the formation of an Aircraft
  Finance Insurance Consortium (AFIC) alongside aircraft manufacturer
  Boeing which The Insurance Insider
  originally revealed in April.
  In a statement released today Marsh confirmed the report by this
  publication which listed Allianz Risk Transfer, Axis and Sompo
  International (formerly Endurance) as the underwriting
  carriers.
  The facility offers a non-payment insurance product designed for
  banks and capital market investors which are fundin
  
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• Hurricane outlook revised higher by CSU forecasters

  01-06-2017 21:52
  Hurricanes are likely to be more numerous and intense than
  previously forecast for the season that begins today in the
  Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, Colorado State University
  (CSU) scientists said.
  In a revision of their earlier work, atmospheric scientist
  Philip Klotzbach and meteorologist Michael Bell have updated their
  forecast for the 2017 Atlantic basin season and are now projecting
  average storm activity.
  The CSU team now forecasts 13 named storms, six hurricanes and
  two major hu
  
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• Insurer pays out after badger ‘eats swimming pool’

  01-06-2017 19:48 via ft.com
  Aviva says claim for damage to pool is among its most unusual claims
  
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• Pensions providers push for rethink on annuity market reforms

  01-06-2017 17:49 via ft.com
  Sick retirees at risk of selecting unsuitable products, insurers warn
  
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• Brokers warned of the dangers of underinsurance following Ogden change

  01-06-2017 17:16
  
  Miles Smith publishes guide urging brokers to make sure their clients are covered for increasing liability levels.
  
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• Trailblazer Volkswagen to lead 45% drop in van claims

  01-06-2017 16:59
  
  Trailblazer Volkswagen to fit new technology in all vans which will spark massive drop in freqeuency van claims 
  
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• Lemonade doubles customers in a month, reveals claims data

  01-06-2017 16:59
  
  Insurtech home insurer Lemonade doubled its policyholders to over 14k in May
  
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• Opinion: Rupert Swallow on the important role of reinsurance

  01-06-2017 16:48 via insuranceage.co.uk
  
  The importance of reinsurance: It is little understood and often ignored, but reinsurance plays a vital role in the everyday business of broking, writes Rupert Swallow
  
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• Willis disputes ISS recommendation on CEO pay

  01-06-2017 16:43
  Willis Towers Watson has issued a strong rebuttal to an
  Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recommendation to vote
  against CEO John Haley's remuneration package for 2016 by
  saying the advisory firm had "overstated" the value of
  the compensation.
  In a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing yesterday,
  the global broker said ISS had focused on Haley's frontloaded
  performance equity grant - which it had calculated at $53.5mn.
  However, Willis contended this was twice the figure it had f
  
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• Minova seals Cap Z refinance as Ebitda rises 26%

  01-06-2017 16:43
  Minova Insurance has finalised a deal to refinance the first
  part of its preference share deal with private equity house Capital
  Z with debt from investment firm Pricoa.
  The distribution group also announced that its full-year 2016
  Ebitda grew by 26 percent to £17.4mn ($22.3mn).
  Revenues for the group, which is the parent company of broker
  BMS and MGA Pioneer, climbed by 22.5 percent to £103mn.
  Minova issued $50.7mn of preference shares to Cap Zin May 2014, along with...
  
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• Homeowners Choice renews $968mn reinsurance cover

  01-06-2017 16:43
  Florida insurer Homeowners Choice has placed $968mn of
  first-event catastrophe reinsurance for 2017-18, down slightly from
  $972mn last year, as it obtained better coverage terms.
  Paresh Patel, CEO of parent company HCI Group, said he expected
  net reinsurance costs to reach $113mn for the 2017-18 reinsurance
  year, similar to last year's figure.
  "While it is difficult to compare reinsurance coverages
  year to year, we expect our reinsurance spend to be similar to last
  year while securing improved c
  
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• Ergo increases long-term profit target amid revamp

  01-06-2017 16:43
  Munich Re's primary insurer Ergo said it has achieved more
  than half the 1,800 job cuts it was targeting as part of a
  restructuring programme.
  The carrier also noted that it was on track to deliver EUR100mn
  ($112mn) in net savings by year-end.
  In an update on the so-called Ergo strategy programme (ESP), the
  company said it would contribute more than EUR600mn to the
  long-term annual net profit of Munich Re by 2021.
  That is up from the EUR500mn target...
  
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• Atradius Special Products names Geller underwriting head

  01-06-2017 16:43
  Trade credit insurer Atradius has appointed Gary Geller as the new
  London head of underwriting of the company's special products
  division.
  He will report to Caroline Tran, who moves into the new role of
  product leader for structured single situations and political
  risks.
  Geller has over 30 years of experience in trade finance,
  commodity trading and the management of commodity-related
  projects.
  The underwriter spent 17 years with Credit Agricole in New York,
  Paris, and in Hong Kong, where he esta
  
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• Insurance Cares: How to identify vulnerable customers?

  01-06-2017 16:12
  
  RWA’s Kirk Ford advises how to identify customers who may be struggling and offers guidance on treating clients fairly.
  
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• British Airways in travel insurance row over IT outage

  01-06-2017 16:02 via ft.com
  Industry body accuses airline of providing wrong information and complicating claims
  
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• Industry vents frustration as IPT rise kicks in

  01-06-2017 14:11
  
  Brokers and insurers bemoan IPT rise
  
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• Ageas claims employee jailed for fraud

  01-06-2017 13:48
  
  An Ageas employee has been jailed for three years and four months for defrauding his employer out of £271,489 in order to finance his gambling habit.
  
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• Insurers ‘will need to assess’ safety of driverless cars handover systems

  01-06-2017 12:45
  
  Driverless car manufacturers should consider installing ‘phased handover’ functions to minimise the disruption when vehicles switch from autonomous to manual driving.
  
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• Declines in global insurance pricing slow in Q1: Marsh

  01-06-2017 12:16
  
  Global insurance rate decreases moderated for the fifth consecutive quarter, down 2.3% in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the previous quarter’s 3.1%, according to Marsh.
  
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• Brokers welcome arrival of new FCA GI director Keith Jackson

  01-06-2017 12:16
  
  Jackson has insurer and broking experience at Aviva, Towergate and more recently Aon.
  
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• Former Ageas claims employee jailed for fraud

  01-06-2017 12:12
  
  The former Ageas claims employee jailed, defrauded the insurer out of more than £240,000, to fund his gambling habit
  
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• Opinion: Letterbox Brexit

  01-06-2017 11:59
  The European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma)'smissive on Wednesday to national EU regulators handling licence
  applications from Brexit migrants evoked the image of a harassed
  mother entreating squabbling children to please share.
  In issuing its guidelines Esma aimed to restrict the scope for
  regulatory rule-bending for UK firms planning to establish EU
  subsidiaries. It also wanted to reassure the sulky regulatory
  offspring that can be heard crying: "Not fair".
  Of course, the official lin
  
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• Meth labs behind New Zealand home claims: SunCorp

  01-06-2017 11:59
  SunCorp New Zealand has had to raise premiums and change
  underwriting terms to deal with a spate of claims linked to
  cleaning up secret drug factories.
  The company's New Zealand CEO Paul Smeaton told shareholders
  at a SunCorp investor day today: "In our home portfolio, we
  have been focused on remediating the cost inflation mainly caused
  by methamphetamine contamination."
  Smeaton said the group was implementing pricing and underwriting
  changes to cope with the spike in claims. The New Zealand Min
  
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• Guy Carp taps Gen Re executive for Benelux role

  01-06-2017 11:59
  Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter has appointed Hans van Oort, a
  senior Gen Re executive, as managing director at Guy Carpenter
  Benelux.
  On joining the company on 1 December, Van Oort will be based in
  Brussels, and report to Roelant de Haas, CEO, Benelux.
  Van Oort was most recently Cologne-based chief account executive
  and marketing manager for Europe at Gen Re, which he joined in
  1997, the year before the company's takeover by Berkshire
  Hathaway.
  Before joining Gen Re he was...
  
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• 'Double dip' Florida renewal sends rates down 5.0% to 7.5%

  01-06-2017 11:59
  A depressing picture has emerged for property catastrophe
  reinsurers in the key 1 June Florida renewals with a
  re-acceleration of softening that has shattered underwriters'
  hopes that a floor on pricing was in sight.
  This time last year The Insurance
  Insider reported that rate reductions had
  coalesced in the 2.5 to 5.0 percent range, representing a
  slowdown in softening from the 2015 renewal, and reflecting an
  increasingly differentiated approach from reinsurers to the quality
  of cedants.
  But a
  
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• Builders Insurance gains AM Best upgrade

  01-06-2017 11:59
  AM Best has upgraded the financial strength rating of mutual
  captive Builders Insurance and its wholly owned subsidiaries to A
  from A- and the long-term issuer credit ratings to a from a-.
  The rating agency has also revised the entities' outlook
  from stable to positive.
  The Atlanta, Georgia-based group serves 18,000 policyholders
  throughout the southeast US, including trade contractors and
  commercial and residential construction companies.
  "The outlooks are based on the group's strong
  capitalisa
  
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• Trace Isys appoints new CEO

  01-06-2017 11:59
  InsurTech firm Trace Isys has named Simon Howden as its CEO, the
  company said today.
  Howden replaces Julian Mancell Smith, who has been Trace's
  managing director for nine years.
  Mancell Smith will continue to work at Trace and serve on the
  board of directors.
  Howden joined Trace in 2000, becoming a director in 2014. Prior
  to this, he worked in software development in the life assurance,
  health and retail sector.
  He said in a statement that he planned to increase...
  
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• Nice to be niche

  01-06-2017 11:58
  
  Brokers can make a killing in niche lines if only they realise the opportunity is there. LV’s Michael Lawrence explains.
  
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• Atradius appoints Geller to head London underwriting team

  01-06-2017 11:13
  
  Gary Geller has been appointed as the London underwriting team head for global trade credit insurer Atradius' special products unit.
  
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• Roundtable: The case for legal expenses insurance

  01-06-2017 10:17
  
  Our panel of experts discuss how to encourage commercial clients to take up legal expenses insurance and future opportunites with a growing MGA market
  
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• Gen Re boss appointed MD for Guy Carpenter Benelux

  01-06-2017 10:13
  
  Hans van Oort has been appointed as the managing director of Guy Carpenter Benelux and will be responsible for leading the company’s presence in Belgium.
  
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• Roundtable: Digital: Brokers - Surviving the digital age

  01-06-2017 08:00
  
  At a time when regulation and taxes are weighing heavily on their operations, brokers find they have to adapt to the digital age. At a Post roundtable, in association with SSP, they discussed how they can leverage new technologies to better serve their customers and thus stay relevant
  
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• Pay-as-you-drive startup threatens car insurance dinosaurs

  01-06-2017 08:00
  
  Founder Freddy Macnamara launched his disruptive model in 2015 after spending two years convincing underwriters and investors to take a chance Freddy Macnamara came up with the idea for Cuvva in 2013 while in a bar, chatting about lending his car to a friend. “It was ridiculous that you couldn’t borrow a car for an hour, because of the difficulty of getting short-term cover,” he says. “I could order an Uber or a Deliveroo to my house, but I couldn’t buy insurance fo
  
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• In Depth: The GDPR time bomb

  01-06-2017 08:00
  
  The implementation date of the General Data Protection Regulation is less than a year off but the industry’s attention is elsewhere, with issues like Brexit, the General Election and the discount rate looming large on the horizon
  
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• I work in insurance: Anna Stone, Aviva

  01-06-2017 08:00
  
  As the resident archivist at Aviva, Anna Stone delves into the insurer's 320 year past.
  
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• How insurers can protect themselves against cyber threats

  01-06-2017 08:00
  
  In the current cyber insecurity, insurers need to review their management structure and their risk processes to protect their data and their customer’s data, say Matteo Coppola and Ofir Eyal, partners at the Boston Consulting Group.
  
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• Hong Kong digital roundtable: five thoughts

  01-06-2017 06:14
  
  In May Insurance Post held a roundtable with senior digital leaders from brokers, insurers, reinsurers and start-ups in Hong Kong in association with international data centre provider Equinix. Here are five things we learned.
  
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• My other life: Sean O’Regan, Scope Technologies, botany and zoology

  01-06-2017 06:00
  
  O’Regan is a team leader at the telematics provider, with an interest in zoology and botany
  
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• Insurance Premium Tax rises to 12%

  01-06-2017 06:00
  
  Insurance Premium Tax has today risen from 10% to 12% as outlined by Chancellor Philip Hammond in November.
  
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• US casualty rates climb for the first time in 2 years

  01-06-2017 00:51
  Rates rose in the US casualty insurance space over the first
  three months of the year to mark the first gain since the third
  quarter of 2014, according to a new report from broker Marsh.
  On average, the price of renewing casualty business in the
  country increased by 0.4 percent, the intermediary revealed in its
  Global Insurance Market Index.
  "Much of the increase in US casualty renewal rates was
  attributed to rate movements in auto liability and workers'
  compensation," Marsh...
  
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• JLT Re picks up Gen Re's Sammur in US push

  01-06-2017 00:51
  Expansive reinsurance broker JLT Re has hired Tony Sammur from
  Berkshire Hathaway's Gen Re as it looks to grow its US
  presence, the intermediary said today.
  Sammur will join JLT Re's Stamford, Connecticut office as an
  executive vice president with a focus on regional "expansion
  and development", the broker said in a statement.
  At Gen Re, the newly-appointed JLT Re executive served as a
  production underwriter in the mutuals division of the carrier's
  North American treaty business.
  Earlier he head
  
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• Hail claims spiked on 2016 storms in Texas, Colorado

  01-06-2017 00:51
  The battering Texas takes from hailstorms reached record
  proportions last year as claims more than doubled, new statistics
  show.
  Meanwhile storms in the Lone Star State this year already have
  extracted over $500mn from carriers, according to reports from the
  Insurance Council of Texas.
  But one of the worst months for hail in the US begins tomorrow,
  so there is likely more to come, National Insurance Crime Bureau
  data show.
  Based on figures from the past three years, June ranks...
  
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• 'Double dip' Florida renewal sends rates down 5-7.5%

  01-06-2017 00:51
  A depressing picture has emerged for property catastrophe
  reinsurers in the key 1 June Florida renewals with a
  re-acceleration of softening that has shattered underwriters'
  hopes that a floor on pricing was in sight.
  This time last year The Insurance
  Insider reported that rate
  reductions had coalesced in the 2.5 to 5 percent range,
  representing a slowdown in softening from the 2015 renewal, and an
  increasingly differentiated approach from reinsurers to the quality
  of cedants.
  But a survey of und
  
  Read more

• Cybersecurity remains at risk for US businesses: FICO

  01-06-2017 00:51
  After hacks exposing data on hundreds of millions of people over
  the past several years and recent widespread ransomware extortion
  plots, half of US businesses still lack cybersecurity cover and
  over a quarter do not plan to get it, a new survey shows.
  But executives also believe that cybersecurity threats will
  either increase or at least will remain at current levels,
  according to the survey released today by Fair Isaac Corporation,
  the creator of personal credit risk assessments known as...
  
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