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It’s Time to Face Reality, Berkley Says
Chiding industry peers for making an art out of "but for" measurements of financial results, the chief executive of W.R. Berkley Corp. also said it's time for the industry to face reality about ...
Commercial Auto: Profitability Issues Remain, But There’s Light at the End of Tunnel
Despite insurers' best efforts to increase rates to compensate for losses, commercial auto continues to be an unprofitable line. In less than a decade, despite continued increases in premiums, two ...
Underwriting Pain, Exits Begin; Insurers Rethinking Lloyd’s
News that Lloyd's is undergoing a strategic review of its operations may be part of a larger industrywide phenomenon—reality is setting in and underwriting pain is increasing, an industry executive ...
For 7 Years Running, U.S. Commercial Auto Remains a Money-Loser: Fitch Ratings
U.S. commercial auto insurance remains a trouble spot for carriers even with ongoing attempts to reverse stubborn underwriting losses, Fitch Ratings said in a new report. As a result, Fitch is ...
Legacy Insurance Systems Are Shaking Under Weight of Innovation
Garbage in, garbage out. It's a phrase as old as computing, attributed to an Army specialist in an era when the cutting edge of processing was 16 bits on a device the size of a commercial ...
Agent and Insurance Carriers: The Changing Nature of Their Relationship in a Customer-Centric World
Auto insurance shoppers are placing a greater importance on having more services provided to them today versus five years ago, underscoring the fact that shoppers are increasingly demanding more ...
NAIC Alert Forcing Insurance Companies to Rethink Cash Strategy
Diversification just became a little more difficult for insurance companies thanks to a correction of an unintentional error on the part of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). ...
Favoring Employees Who ‘Kiss Up’ to the Boss Can Have Negative Consequences
Executives might want to think twice about how they favor employees who "kiss up" to the boss at work to boost their careers. A new Oregon State University study says employees who rely on the ...
What Insurers Can Learn About Customer Success From SaaS Models, Netflix and Amazon
No one purchases insurance from a carrier because he wants to. It doesn't taste good, drive fast, make you thin, keep you warm or save time. Nevertheless, many of the hardworking individuals who are ...
A Good Leader Finds Out the Story Behind a Job Well Done
A good leader asks for the story behind a job well done, rather than just giving compliments and going on with their day. That's the argument that Ron Carucci makes in a recent Harvard Business ...
Lloyd’s of London Is Pursuing a Strategic Review of Its Entire Operations
Lloyd's of London is reviewing all aspects of its business, including its centuries-old structure, to ensure it is cost-competitive and responsive to both clients and members, especially after ...
How to Attract Millennials and Overcome the Looming Talent Shortage
What do millennials want? This question is critical for the specialty insurance and reinsurance industry. We face a looming talent shortage. Retirement will soon skim off the cream of our industry's ...
Unsung Heroes Of The Insurance Industry
When Roger Schmelzer belts out a favorite tune at one of the top cabaret venues in the country, he's not just doing it for pleasure. He's singing his heart out for kids with cancer and to support the ...
Former Guy Carpenter Chairman Newhouse Discusses His Career Changing Events
Everybody has career-changing events and life-changing events—and sometimes, as with the case of Britt Newhouse, events from those two worlds collide. Newhouse, the former chairman of reinsurance ...
Technology and Tariffs: Chubb CEO Greenberg Sounds Off
To carriers seeking to modernize and digitize, Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg has this to say: It's all about scale. Greenberg, speaking during the company's 2018 second quarter earnings call on July 26, ...
Executives On The Move At AIG and Argo Group
AIG brought in a veteran insurance industry financial executive to be its new chief accounting officer. Argo Group appointed a retired Allied World executive to its board of directors.***
To AIG CEO Duperreault, the Path to Profitability Is ‘Not a Straight Line’
After a disappointing second quarter, AIG CEO Brian Duperreault restated his pledge that the struggling insurer would reach an underwriting profit after 2018. He also cautioned that the road to ...
How Insurance Is Rethinking Cat Modeling After Last Year’s Disasters
After Hurricane Harvey swept through Texas last August, it left behind not only an estimated $125 billion in damage and nearly 50 inches of rain in some areas but also questions for the insurance ...
Reinsurance a Train Wreck; Brokers and Carriers Need to Bring Value Together, Berkley Says
W. Robert Berkley, Jr., the CEO of W.R. Berkley Corp., is not one to mince words about perceived missteps in the property/casualty insurance industry. A recent assessment of the P/C reinsurance ...
Catastrophe Bonds A to Z
A reader of this publication, the president of an insurance agency, recently wrote to say he kept hearing about catastrophe bonds but had little knowledge of what they were. He was curious if these ...
An Effective Leader Is Often an Interesting Public Speaker
An arguably key part to being a leader of a company is public speaking, and it's not just talking in front of a crowd. Leadership expert Chris Brady argues that the bigger challenge for leaders is to ...
‘All Options’ Still On The Table; Some Lloyd’s Biz Will Go: Aspen CEO
The chief executive of Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited described business changes to Aspen's Lloyd's insurance book last week, while neither unequivocally confirming or denying rumors that a deal to ...
Insurers Increasingly Seek Legacy Transfers to Shed Long-Tail Liabilities
Several recent reserve cover deals—including the single-largest reinsurance transaction on record—demonstrate a growing interest on the part of insurers to shed their long-tail liabilities. A ...
Insurance Is a ‘Well-Kept Secret,’ and Other Millennial Insights
What is the best part about working in insurance? For a group of millennials speaking with Insurance Journal at a July roundtable, the answer was simple. "The people," roundtable participants agreed. ...
Cyber Catastrophe Modeling: Challenges of an Inexact Science
Insurers, their regulators and ratings agencies are increasingly aware of the potential for a catastrophic cyber loss. The aggregation of cyber risk assumed under policies providing affirmative or ...
Extraordinary Re’s Extraordinary Idea
Imagine there's a way for institutional investors to trade insurance risks much like they trade stocks. Well, imagine no more. A new and unique reinsurer, Extraordinary Re, has hit upon the novel ...
AIG Confronts Q2 Underwriting Loss and an Investment Income Slump
American International Group Inc.'s second-quarter earnings took a hit on a slump in income from the insurer's investment portfolio. The stock fell as much as 6.1 percent. Profit in the period fell ...
New World of Digital Recruiting: Chatbots, Videos and Social Media
Long gone are the days when employees printed their resumes and cover letters on fancy paper, worried about choosing the proper font, and put both documents in the mail. The idea of employers ...
Ignore the Naysayers: Blockchain’s Potential Touches Every Aspect of Insurance
Every emerging technology has its naysayers, who can be very accomplished in their field and still end up being wrong. For example, columnist and economist Paul Krugman once opined on the Internet's ...
Q1 Loss Ratios Unsustainably High for InsurTech Carriers Root and Metromile
Considering differences in "share of voice" commanded by InsurTechs Lemonade and Root, a surprise of first-quarter 2018 is the fact that the Columbus, Ohio-based Root has squeezed past Lemonade in ...
Marine Insurance’s Risk Rating Revolution: Why Insurers Cannot Afford To Be Left Behind
According to container logistics company Maersk "everything that can be digitized will be digitized,"and there is no doubt that the world of shipping is currently undergoing a digital revolution. ...
Travelers CEO Schnitzer: Agents, Brokers Have a Place, Even With InsurTech Investments
Travelers Chairman and CEO Alan Schnitzer said that independent agents and brokers still have a place with the insurer even as it continues exploring InsurTech innovations for its operations. "Yes, ...
Executives On The Move at The Hanover, AGCS and Starr Companies
A former Munich Re executive is joining The Hanover Insurance Group as head of its cyber practice. An ex-AIG exec will take on an overseas leadership role at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty. ...
Tolerating Rogue MGAs Could Harm Entire Sector’s Reputation: Gallagher UK’s Chilton
While there's a bright future for managing general agents that "get it right," Grahame Chilton, CEO of Gallagher UK, warns against tolerating the few rogue MGAs who could ruin the reputation of the ...
‘Killer Apps’ and the Amazon Effect on Legacy Carriers
Once upon a time, in 1994, Amazon entered the commercial marketplace as an online bookstore. While Amazon was not the first company to offer this service, it was the first to offer to deliver any ...
AI Investments Give Insurers 10X the Return: Accenture
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics and other "intelligent" technology could help U.S. insurers boost their profitability by up to $20 billion, according to a new Accenture report. ...
XL Catlin Will Sell On-Demand Cyber Cover Using Slice Labs’ Cloud-Based Platform
XL Catlin will use Slice Labs' cloud-based, pay-per-use platform for a new cyber insurance product. The insurer and reinsurer plans to offer the new coverage for U.S. small and medium-sized business ...
Executives On The Move at Tokio Marine HCC and GEICO
Tokio Marine HCC promoted a number of executives within its Specialty Group. GEICO promoted an up-and-coming executive on the East Coast.
Executives On The Move at Chubb, XL Innovate and RMS
Chubb hired an executive who will oversee its North America Claims operations. XL Catlin's XL Innovate named a new principal who will help lead investments into novel areas. Catastrophe modeler RMS ...
Once Again, Dust From Africa Helps Tamp Down Atlantic Hurricane Risks
Atlantic storm watchers are going to have a hard time seeing the ocean, never mind any tropical systems, as another Saharan swirl of dust from Africa is moving west. The dust, a marker for dry air, ...
Bigger and Redder: A Look at Q1 ’18 for Lemonade, Other InsurTech Carriers
The three independent U.S. InsurTech startups whose 2017 full-year results we profiled in April continue to grow rapidly in early 2018. But so far that has meant more red ink. Results that are bigger ...
Where Carriers Fall Short of Agents’ Expectations: Channel Harvest Survey
There appears to be a misalignment between carrier performance and independent agents' expectations in both personal and commercial lines, according to a new survey. In commercial lines, agents ...
Insurers’ Big Data Plans Could Fail If They Don’t Get Basics Right: Mair of Atticus DQPro
Artificial intelligence? Machine learning? Thinking big is great, but before insurers begin to pursue such advanced big data projects, they must not lose sight of the fundamentals. They must first ...
AmTrust Struck With A.M. Best Ratings Downgrade
AmTrust Financial Services got slapped with a downgrade of its financial strength and credit ratings from A.M. Best, even as the company's stockholders recently approved a bid to take it private. The ...
How Insurers and Reinsurers Can Proactively Manage Weather-Related Claims
Insurers handle and pay out millions of weather-related claims each year on homes, businesses, and automobiles. The bulk of these claims result from wind and hail damage caused by severe convective ...
State Auto Ekes Out Small Profit; Combined Ratio Reaches 107
State Auto Financial Corp. eked out a small profit in the second quarter, with rate hikes helping its bottom line. At the same time, the Ohio-based insurer struggled with a combined ratio well above ...
For CNA, International Insurance Was a Blemish on an Otherwise Solid Q2
For CNA Financial Corp., the 2018 second quarter produced mostly gains: Higher net premiums written in most of its divisions, increased investment returns and still-healthy combined ratios in all but ...
Dispatches From InsurTech Survival Island: Five Takeaways From Statutory Financials (Part 1)
"All the insurance players will be InsurTech" is a phrase we have uttered on many occasions in the past few years, but some InsurTechs have chosen to be insurers. Real insurers. Which means they file ...
Executives On The Move at Everest Re Group, XL Catlin and AXIS Capital Holdings
A former Chubb executive is joining Everest Re Group in a leadership role at its Reinsurance division. Ex-executives from Willis Towers Watson and Nationwide Insurance are starting as underwriters at ...
Wait Before You Ask About AIG’s Next M&A Target
Now that American International Group has finally closed its $5.6 billion acquisition of Validus Holdings, an unspoken question has been: What's the next acquisition target? The issue came up during ...