Cost pressures are a key driver. Employer-sponsored health plan costs in the US have risen steadily in recent years, driven by high-cost claims, specialty pharmaceuticals, and increased utilisation. In response, employers and brokers are placing greater emphasis on integrated solutions that combine funding strategies with active cost management, including claims analytics, provider network optimisation, and clinical intervention programmes.
Author: Awais
“We’re proud to support the communities we serve and view this funding as a meaningful step toward a stronger Texas,” said Veronica Martinez, senior manager of impact and community partnerships at Texas Mutual. “By investing in organizations that remove barriers for working Texans, we’re helping create opportunities that reach beyond today and into the next generation. We’re honored to partner with these leaders as they strengthen families, fuel local economies, and move our state forward.”
During the SIFMA ILS conference in Miami yesterday a panel discussed the topic of data centre risk and some of the considerations that need to be kept in mind as the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market looks at these potentially meaningful opportunities.With the global data centre build-out continuing at pace and investments into their construction and financing growing, thoughts in the insurance and reinsurance market are on the enormous capacity opportunity to cover the significant risk limits being discussed, with ILS instruments seen likely to play a role, given the depths of capital market funds that could be deployed to support…
Louisiana-based line-up changes affiliation amid ongoing consolidation
Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com, said the announcement should be treated carefully. “On the surface, this is clearly positive for markets. However, the key issue is credibility and durability,” she said. “The Strait has already moved between ‘open’ and ‘restricted’ multiple times during the ceasefire period.”
Broking giant Aon has estimated that global insured catastrophe losses amounted to at least $20 billion in the first quarter of 2026, 6% above the 21st-century average, which came off the back of an economic toll of $37 billion, down sharply from $113 billion in the same period of 2025.As per Aon, economic losses of $37 billion marked the lowest first-quarter total since 2015 and was 43% below the 21st-century Q1 average. According to the broker’s latest Global Catastrophe Recap, the largest contributors to the overall insurance toll were winter storms and severe convective storm (SCS) outbreaks across the United…
As family separations caused by immigration enforcement ramped up last year under President Donald Trump, I wondered what happens to the children whose parents are detained or deported. I found that some have been placed in foster care if they don’t have other family or friends to assume responsibility for them — but it’s not known how many. The federal government doesn’t track what happens to children after their parents are detained or deported, and state data varies. Independent news reports are scarce and likely undercount the issue. But there’s evidence that in many states some of the children are…
Thomas will lead the company’s US trucking strategy, overseeing the development of a nationwide practice serving motor carriers, owner-operators, fleets, and logistics providers. He will work alongside retail and specialty teams to deliver risk, insurance, and advisory services tailored to the sector.
Learn more about this year’s 5-star awardees are winning on value, tech, and broker support
Employers, lawmakers and more said regulators should hustle to get disclosure mandates for the controversial drug middlemen across the finish line, while PBMs slammed the rule as illegal, unnecessary and anticompetitive.
Property and casualty insurance giant Travelers reported a jump in first-quarter profit, buoyed by robust underwriting gains and lower catastrophe losses than a year earlier when results were severely hit by the Los Angeles wildfires. Shares of the company, whose earnings often serve as a bellwether for the sector as well as broader underwriting trends, were down marginally in volatile trading on Thursday. Global insurance spending remained resilient in the first quarter of 2026, as heightened geopolitical risks spurred demand for protection even as a military escalation in the Middle East led to a spike in energy prices and worsened…
Higginbotham, the Texas-based insurance brokerage ranked as the 12th-largest broker in the country last year, has added Harmon Dennis Bradshaw Inc., an independent agency in Alabama and Georgia, to its growing list of partner agencies. Harmon Dennis, known as HDB, has offices in Birmingham, Montgomery, and Troy, Alabama; and in Duluth, Georgia. It was founded in 1977 as The Harmon Agency, and will now be part of the 78-year-old Higginbotham, the companies announced this week. Terms and structure of the deal were not disclosed in a news release. David Dennis is president of HDB. He said that bringing the two…
Carnival Cruise Line should pay $300,000 to a former passenger after a federal jury in South Florida found that the company was negligent in serving the woman more than a dozen shots of tequila before she fell down some stairs and suffered a possible traumatic brain injury. The Miami federal jury decided last Friday in favor of Diana Sanders, a 45-year-old nurse from Vacaville, California. “Taking on a corporate giant like Carnival is a massive undertaking, and I have enormous respect for my client’s resilience throughout this 18-month litigation,” Sanders’ attorney Spencer Aronfeld said in an email. “This case highlights…
Floodwaters from record rainfall in Wisconsin inundated streets Wednesday, trapping drivers and forcing officials to close sections of a highway, as other Midwestern states worked to rebuild after storms. Cars were stranded in high floodwater on a highway in Milwaukee and video shared by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel showed a woman and child being rescued from a vehicle. The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office posted online to urge people not to drive in southeast Wisconsin. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers declared a state of emergency after storms, which had started moving through the state Monday, brought strong winds, hail and heavy rain.…