Insurers blast Florida lawmakers for inaction on Catastrophe Fund and Citizens Insurance

The Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR) have begun criticizing Florida lawmakers over their inaction on the state’s Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. Legislators are also coming under fire from ABIR over their failure to take action on the troubled Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state run insurance organization that accounts for the majority of coverage in the state. Both the Catastrophe Fund and Citizens Insurance are being crippled by financial problems, which could put the state in a very dangerous position once this year’s hurricane season kicks off. Insurers had…

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Insure.com releases survey showing where in the U.S. auto insurance is most expensive

Car insurance rates vary wildly from state to state. This is often due to differing regulations throughout the U.S. It is also because driving in some states is more dangerous than driving in others. Insure.com, an online insurance quote system, has conducted a survey to determine where auto insurance is most expensive in the country. The survey has ranked each state in terms of insurance premiums and the availability of affordable plans, using 900 insurance models as a benchmark. The survey found that Louisiana, Oklahoma and Michigan are the leaders…

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Attensity unveils new insurance industry social analytics solution

Top Social CRM social analytics and engagement app provider, Attensity, has announced its latest product, which consists of a solution for the insurance industry that broadens the flagship text analytics app by the company with new and unique topics, category sets, dashboards, and reports that are designed specifically for the needs of the insurance industry. This new solution has been created to allow insurance carriers and other businesses within that industry to perform a timely and accurate analysis of customer conversations over social media as well as other unstructured sources,…

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Tornadoes and storms in Oklahoma create difficult insurance marketplace for consumers and companies alike

The National Tornado Preparedness Summit in Oklahoma City – an event sponsored by the Oklahoma Insurance Department, the National Weather Center, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners – is expected to draw almost 800 representatives from the insurance industry. According to the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Insurance vice president of public affairs, John Wiscaver, the harsh reality for the state is that throughout the last five years, the marketplace has faced the highest historic loss levels among all organization histories. He stated that earthquakes, hailstorms, tornadoes, and wildfires have all…

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Eqecat weighs in on the recent storm in Midwest and Southern U.S

Last week’s outbreak of devastating tornadoes in the South and Midwest of the U.S. are likely to cost the insurance industry quite a lot of money. Thus far, no insurer has been keen to release estimates regarding the total cost of the disasters, but risk modeling agency Eqecat is willing to hazard a guess. The acclaimed modeling firm says that this year’s storm season is already looking to be 30% more disastrous and costly than the average of previous years. The firm also notes that tornadoes may be one of…

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Global insurance programs have significant challenges to overcome if they want to be viable

The global insurance industry is an ardently regulated entity. Most nations have strict laws and rules concerning insurance and have a great deal of interest in applying these regulations as a way to govern the actions of insurance companies. The problem, however, is that these regulations differing wildly from country to country, meaning that no two countries have the same regulations. As such, creation of global insurance programs has been a gargantuan challenge, and one that cannot be easily overcome through tenacity. As with other industries of business, insurance is…

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State Farm maintains stability regardless of record breaking 2011 storms

State Farm has announced that although they faced a significant number of payments for catastrophe claims from some of the largest events in the quarter century history of the company, it has been able to maintain its financial strength. In 2011, State Farm’s combined net worth fell by $0.4 billion by the end of the year, bringing it to $60.8 billion. This includes the drop by $0.2 billion in the insurance company’s net worth in connection with the unaffiliated stock portfolios of the property and casualty companies. Moreover, those figures…

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