Alphabet Inc.’s Google plans to introduce new mental health support features for its Gemini chatbot as the company and rivals, like OpenAI, have faced several lawsuits accusing their artificial intelligence tools of leading to harm. Gemini will add an interface directing chatbot users to a support hotline when the conversation indicates “a potential crisis related to suicide or self-harm,” Google said in a blog post on Tuesday. Additionally, the company is adding a “help is available” module for chats about mental health and design tweaks to discourage self-harm. The rapid explosion of tools like Gemini and ChatGPT have led to…
Author: Awais
Christian Greyenbuhl will replace Lee Westerfield, who has been interim CFO since 2023. The health IT company has worked to get up to date on its financial reporting requirements after it was delisted from the Nasdaq in 2024.
Together, these incidents are reshaping how insurers and cultural institutions think about prevention, response, and insurability. For one specialist broker, the Magnani-Rocca theft underscores the rise of sophisticated criminal tactics, which may be evolving faster than traditional security models and risk strategies.
Unlike property insurance, which benefits from decades of actuarial data, cyber underwriting has historically lacked a robust loss history. However, that gap is narrowing. Insurers now have access to more granular data on attempted, successful, and thwarted attacks, enabling better risk assessments.
Originally published in July 2025, this policy watch has been updated in April 2026 to reflect additional developments and updated measles trends. Measles has been officially “eliminated” from the U.S. since 2000, which means the country had not seen very large outbreaks and had not had 12 months or more of uncontrolled domestic transmission of the virus since before that time. However, a series of measles outbreaks began in the U.S. in early 2025 that continue today: from January 2025 through the end of March 2026, U.S. states have reported over 3,800 measles cases. Several factors have contributed to the…
The Alabama Department of Insurance named Stephanie Tompkins manager of the department’s Consumer Services Division, succeeding Dusty Smith, who was promoted to be deputy commissioner for insurance regulation. Tompkins Tompkins has 25 years of experience in the insurance business and regulation, including the past 10 years as education and outreach coordinator and as consumer service specialist at ALDOI. Before that, she was a senior underwriter at Associated Insurance Administrators, according to her LinkedIn profile. Tompkins holds a master’s degree in management, and she earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Auburn University at Montgomery. Was this article valuable? Yes No…
India is planning sovereign guarantees to support insurers that provide cover for vessels traveling in the Persian Gulf, as the Middle East war increases the risks to shipping, said government and industry sources familiar with the matter. The plan includes a $1.5 billion sovereign guarantee fund to provide insurers with reinsurance support and liquidity should insurance costs remain high, said one government source. A separate $300 million fund with contributions from the country’s insurance industry is also being set up to help settle any large increase in insurance claims, the same source said. Maritime war risk insurance premiums have surged…
A Texas coffee bar and lounge must pay $85,197 for operating an illegal tip pool. The U.S. Department of Labor recovered the back wages for 36 employees after an investigation reportedly found a coffee bar and lounge in Buda operated an illegal tip pool. An investigation by the department determined that Nate’s At The Buda Mill & Grain Inc. (operating as Nate’s Coffee & Cocktails) violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by allowing its general manager to participate in the employee tip pool. That invalidated the employer’s use of the tip credit and required the employer to pay full minimum…
Artificial intelligence-enabled program administrator INSTANDA said its launch of INSTANDA MAX enables commercial lines and non-admitted insurers to underwrite tens-of-thousands of complex assets under a single policy at both the portfolio and individual item level in real-time. Patent-pending INSTANDA MAX is designed for commercial lines where asset volumes and complexity have historically constrained underwriting accuracy and productivity. INSTANDA MAX anchors scale in insurance‑grade categorization at the individual item level, with AI-assisted analysis and insights to support data-driven decisions for greater underwriting accuracy, improved pricing, and faster response at quote, mid‑term adjustment (MTA), and renewal. “Commercial line insurers have traditionally been…
Twenty insurers rated by Moody’s reported net income of $69 billion in 2025, up 29% over 2024, as the combined ratio for the group improved in 2025 to 88.4 from 91.7 the prior year. Losses from the Los Angeles wildfires early in the year were somewhat offset by no landfalling hurricanes for the first time in a decade, as well as fewer losses from severe convection storms, to drop overall catastrophe losses for the rated companies 9% to $19 billion in 2025. Moody’s said results reflected strong underwriting performance and higher net investment income, which finished 2025 at about $39.6…
A Kentucky insurance agency owner has been charged with diverting premiums from a church client, and the Kentucky Department of Insurance is investigating other clients. Multiple news sites reported that Glen “David” Ramey, 59, an agent and owner of David Ramey Insurance in Murray, Kentucky, was charged with defrauding a local church of at least $10,000. Ramey allegedly accepted premium payments from the church but failed to secure property and liability insurance policies, the Murray Sentinel and other news outlets reported. “My attorney has advised me not to comment,” Ramey told Insurance Journal Tuesday morning when he was reached by…
An explosion at a Troy, Illinois, house and ensuing fire killed three people. The cause is under investigation. Several homes and buildings on the property were still standing, but the home where the explosion occurred was destroyed, according to media reports. A news police report states that first responders arrived at the scene late Sunday to answer calls reporting a structure fire with people trapped inside. The report stated one person suffered burn injuries and was taken to a hospital for treatment, and that three people were found dead inside the home. Todd Mersinger, who lives in the neighborhood, said…
OAKLAND, Calif. — Rosa María Carranza se inclinó para sostener la espalda de una niña de 3 años mientras la pequeña trepaba una roca en las colinas boscosas del noreste de Oakland. Vestida con ropa de senderismo y collares de cuentas, Carranza, de 67 años, se movía entre árboles y niños en una mañana soleada de diciembre. “Agárrate de esa rama”, dijo en español. “¡Tú puedes, mi amor!”. Carranza, una profesional del desarrollo infantil que creció columpiándose entre árboles y nadando en ríos en El Salvador, dijo que se siente como en casa en el bosque del preescolar al aire…
The Florida Retirement System Pension Plan, which is administered by the Florida State Board of Administration, saw its allocation to insurance-linked securities funds and reinsurance strategies rising to make up 1% of total pension fund assets by the end of 2025, which equated to around $2.23 billion invested.The Florida State Board of Administration’s investment team began allocating to catastrophe reinsurance and insurance-linked securities in time for the 2018 underwriting year. Those allocations are made on behalf of the giant Florida Retirement System Pension Plan, which reached total fund assets of over $222.5 billion by the end of 2025. The ILS…