IBC Insurance has appointed Zee Zepeda as Business Development Strategist. In this role, Zepeda will be responsible for aligning insurance and banking initiatives to drive growth, enhance client relationships, and expand cross-functional opportunities across the organization. Zee Zepeda Zepeda will focus on leveraging existing banking relationships to identify and develop insurance solutions, while strengthening collaboration between commercial banking teams and insurance producers. His efforts will support increased client retention, improved service delivery, and measurable revenue growth. With extensive experience in business development, client engagement, and strategic relationship management, Zepeda is positioned to play a key role in advancing the organization’s…
Author: Awais
Kansas Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt announced a Geary County woman has been sentenced to 24 months of probation for insurance fraud. Kei’Anna Boykin, aged 31, pleaded guilty on January 15, 2026, in Geary County District Court to one felony count of insurance fraud. Boykin was driving on a canceled insurance policy when she was involved in a car accident. She then reinstated her policy but falsely claimed that she had not had a loss while the policy was canceled. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced on March 19 to 24 months of probation with 12 months of underlying prison time…
A resilient medtech industry navigating the fallout from President Donald Trump’s trade wars is taking proactive steps to manage tariff costs as the administration’s policies continue to evolve.
Nineteen camps in Texas have filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate a new state requirement for them to install “end-to-end fiber optic facilities” in order to operate this summer. The requirement that the camps install fiber optic internet does not make their properties safer, violates the state constitution and state law and could prevent them from opening, the lawsuit said. The group of camps, which includes Camp Champions, Camp Longhorn and Tejas Ministries, said in the suit that companies advised them that the service either could not be supplied, could not be confirmed as “end-to-end” — a term the lawsuit…
Opponents demand cost freezes as companies seek relaxed insurance requirements
Three Chinese ships recently sailed through the Strait of Hormuz after coordination with relevant parties, a foreign ministry spokesperson told a regular daily press briefing on Tuesday, while calling for peace and stability in the Gulf Region. The critical waterway has effectively been shut since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28. “The Strait of Hormuz and the surrounding waters are an important route for global trade and energy supplies. China calls for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the fighting and restoration of peace and stability in the Gulf Region,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told…
What should catch the attention of insurance professionals is the scope. According to the filing, Intellectual Ventures has pursued similar claims against at least three other major insurers – Nationwide Mutual Insurance, Liberty Mutual, and GEICO – along with companies in banking, aviation, retail, and agriculture, including JP Morgan, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, The Bank of New York Mellon, Home Depot, and Deere & Company. In several of those matters, some of the same patents were asserted over many of the same software products.
Katie Crouch says calling her state’s Medicaid agency to get information about her benefits can feel like a series of dead ends. “The first time, it’ll ring interminably. Next time, it’ll go to a voice mail that just hangs up on you,” said the 48-year-old, who lives in Delaware. “Sometimes you’ll get a person who says they’re not the right one. They transfer you, and it hangs up. Sometimes, it picks up and there’s just nobody on the line.” She spent months trying to figure out whether her Medicaid coverage had been renewed. As of late March, she hadn’t been…
A federal judge in Massachusetts has dismissed claims against Walgreens but allowed some claims against the The Hershey Co. and its affiliate food manufacturers Paqui and Amplify Snack Brands, Inc. to proceed in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the mother of a teen who died after eating a very spicy tortilla chip. Harris Wolobah, 14, died in September 2023 after eating a Paqui chip containing high levels of capsaicin, the chemical compound found in chili peppers that makes them hot. Capsaicin can cause mouth, throat, stomach and intestinal pain, shortness of breath, chest pain, heart palpitations, nausea and vomiting,…
An appeals court on Wednesday ruled in favor of Berkshire Hathaway’s PacifiCorp unit over a series of Oregon wildfires in 2020, saying a trial judge erred in letting litigation against the utility proceed as a class action. The decision by the Oregon Court of Appeals in Salem could reduce PacifiCorp’s wildfire liability, which Berkshire has estimated could total tens of billions of dollars. Related: Berkshire’s PacifiCorp Pays $575M to Settle Oregon, California Wildfire Claims PacifiCorp has denied claims by Oregon residents and business owners who accused it of negligently failing to shut off power lines during a Labor Day weekend…
Catastrophe bonds and private insurance-linked securities (ILS) largely deliver returns based on insurance and reinsurance risk premiums, but in an environment where uncertainty suggests upside risks to inflation, specialist investment manager Leadenhall Capital Partners LLP has explained how this can play into ILS returns as well.Financial conditions have been volatile throughout 2026 so far, with the conflict in the Middle East now also driving concerns over inflation. This has served to underscore the importance of diversification within investment portfolios, with catastrophe bonds and private ILS seen as one asset class that is largely remote from the risks posed by geopolitical…
Kellen Booher CopperPoint Mutual Insurance Holding Company named Kellen Booher president and CEO. Booher succeeds CEO and Board Chair Marc Schmittlein, who announced his retirement last year. Schmittlein joined CopperPoint in 2016 and was appointed executive chair of the CopperPoint board of directors in 2024. He will remain as chair. Booher joined CopperPoint in 2025 as president and chief operating officer, responsible for leading all field and operating functions and advancing the company’s strategic priorities. Booher most recently served as executive vice president and head of consumer and small commercial for key international markets at Chubb, after previously leading digital…
A Massachusetts water and sewer line construction contractor is facing $4,699,362 in proposed penalties for safety violations related to a trench collapse that claimed the life of an employee and seriously injured another at a Cape Cod worksite. A federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigation into the Nov. 18, 2025 incident found that workers from Revoli Construction Co. Inc. were removing sandy soil and installing steel plates outside of a trench. While working, the backfilled sand collapsed and trapped two workers inside the trench. One worker was engulfed and sustained fatal injuries. One worker managed to escape the…
Six weeks after leaders of scheme to sign up south Florida homeless people for Affordable Care Act policies were sentenced to years in prison, the companies involved have agreed to pay more than $135 million to resolve a federal investigation. AssuredPartners of South Florida, or APSF, an insurance brokerage that was once owned by AssuredPartners Inc., an Arthur J. Gallagher unit, pleaded guilty this week and will pay $27.6 million, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Separately, AssuredPartners, a national partnership of insurance brokers that was not charged criminally, will pay $107 million to resolve False Claims Act violations, DOJ…