LISTEN: Taking a GLP-1? Doctors say don’t forget to move your body and tend to your mental health, too. Severe ankle pain drove Jelon Smart to start taking a weight loss injection a year and a half ago. Smart was 285 pounds and worked as a caterer in Savannah, Georgia. After she’d been standing on her feet for long hours, her ankles would be “as swollen as a football,” she said. She was walking with a limp. An orthopedic doctor diagnosed her with Achilles tendinitis and recommended losing weight to mitigate the symptoms. Smart began taking the brand-name GLP-1 Ozempic.…
Author: Awais
The case centered on a long-running dispute between GEICO and a group of Connecticut towing and auto repair businesses – Modzelewski’s Towing & Storage, Inc., Chris’ Auto Clinic, LLC, MyHoopty.com, LLC, and Farmington Auto Park, LLC. The businesses accused GEICO and employees John P. Vaz, an insurance investigator, and Patrick Capri, who managed insurance claims and oversaw payment of property damage bills, of filing hundreds of baseless complaints with the DMV between 2017 and 2021, alleging overcharging and improper fees for nonconsensual towing, transporting, and storage services.
Machut brings more than 30 years of experience in insurance, reinsurance and management consulting for large organizations. His background spans health, life and accident lines, including underwriting, business development, product development, distribution channel management, risk management, pharmacy benefits consulting and employer stop loss.
ALKEME Insurance Appoints Stradling as Chief Financial Officer Ryan Stradling ALKEME Insurance named Ryan Stradling chief financial officer. Stradling has experience scaling organizations through execution, strategy and data-driven decision-making. Stradling has experience across the insurance, healthcare, and SaaS industries, where he has led companies through growth, acquisitions, and integrations. ALKEME is headquartered in Ladera Ranch, California. Quintero Joins Alliant Private Client as SVP Michelle Quintero joined Alliant Insurance Services as executive vice president with Alliant Private Client. Based on the West Coast, Quintero has more than 25 years of technical experience and servicing high-profile individuals in music, film, and live…
Colorado workers’ compensation provider Pinnacol Assurance announced it will distribute a $15 million general dividend to its members in 2026. Pinnacol members can expect to receive dividend checks starting March 25. More than 46,000 members in the state will receive a dividend check or credit. This marks the 11th straight year Pinnacol has returned capital. This latest payment brings the total dividends returned by Pinnacol to Colorado employers to $905 million over the organization’s history. Pinnacol Assurance is a provider of workers’ comp insurance. Was this article valuable? Yes No Here are more articles you may enjoy. The most important…
Investigators are probing the potential causes of Sunday’s collision between an Air Canada Express plane and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York. The two pilots were killed. Air Canada said 39 of the 76 passengers and crew were hospitalized. The accident revived concern about air traffic control shortages. The following is a look at the potential liability of federal and local authorities to the pilots’ families, passengers and surviving crew. WHAT HAPPENED According to a recording of air traffic controller communications from LiveATC.net, a controller who authorized Air Canada flight 8646 to land had been trying to…
Just over three years ago, Florida lawmakers effectively ended one-way attorney fees, disincentivizing much of the costly property insurance claims litigation that had plagued the industry. Last week, a Florida appeals court issued what it called a “sea change” and long-overdue decision—one that could further reduce insurers’ defense costs and streamline at least some lawsuits and appeals. The 6th District Court of Appeals, covering part of south-central Florida, threw out a 62-year-old court practice that had required expert witnesses to testify and courts to hold hearings on the level of fees that should be awarded. Lavisky The court’s opinion “is…
Domestic gas supply in several European cities contains high levels of benzene, an odorless substance that can cause cancer, according to research released on Wednesday. Gas samples taken in UK homes contained 37 times more benzene than North American gas, on average, while concentrations in the Netherlands were 66.5 times higher, researchers at Stanford University and independent research institute PSE Healthy Energy found. There is no safe exposure level for benzene, which is associated with leukemia and other long-term health impacts and diseases, according to the World Health Organization. “We were surprised by how much higher the benzene in gas…
Verisk and the American Property Casualty Insurance Association released preliminary 2025 underwriting results for the property/casualty industry, with a $40 billion increase over the prior year. For private U.S. P/C insurers, the underwriting gain for 2025 was $63 million compared with $23 billion for 2024 and an underwriting loss of $22 billion posted in 2023. “The industry delivered one of its strongest underwriting results in years in 2025, supported by a near-record low combined ratio, but that outcome was driven more by unusually low catastrophe losses rather than a fundamental shift in industry risk,” said Saurabh Khemka, president of Verisk…
Two new private catastrophe bond arrangements have been issued by Artex Axcell Re, the Bermuda based Artex Risk Solutions operated transformer entity, with almost $48.26 million of notes sold to investors across the two series, Artemis has learned.These are the first two private cat bond issuances we’ve seen so far in 2026 from the Artex Axcell Re (Bermuda) Limited transformer and cell facility, which is owned by Artex Risk Solutions. Including these two Artex Axcell Re deals we have now tracked 12 of these cat bond lite transactions so far in 2026, while issuance of these privately placed catastrophe bond…
“Speed in this industry, especially in the wholesale space, is number one in importance – speed and expertise,” Kessel said. Technology, she added, should support those strengths rather than replace them. “We’re really using the technology and the innovations to free up our team so that it allows their expertise to come in.”
Build over buy: internal solutions with scale and integration A central question for any technology transformation is whether to build in-house or partner with external providers. For USI, Bang explained, the answer is largely “build over buy.” “We do have partners, but the majority of our work is internal,” she said. “We want to create proprietary solutions that give us a long-term, sustainable advantage, and we also want to ensure tight integration within our ecosystem. Many external vendors are startups; some may be sold or change direction, creating potential risks for us. Building internally allows us to maintain control, scale…
As the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market continues to expand, Augment Risk is positioning parametric triggers not merely as a peripheral alternative, but as a central, diversifying asset class defined by its structural independence from traditional indemnity-based retrocession, a shift the firm believes is fundamental to unlocking the next phase of third-party capital allocation.Artemis recently spoke to Kurt Cripps, Partner and Head of Global Parametric Specialty, and Thad Hall, Partner and Head of ILS Solutions at Augment Risk, who discussed a range of topics, such as how the company is positioning parametric triggers as a diversifying asset for third-party capital, as…
Company founder and CEO explains what works