With Arundo Re recently completing its eighth vintage of its 157 Re reinsurance sidecar, Mathieu Halm, Board Secretary and Chief Retrocession & Alternative Capital Officer of the firm recently told Artemis how the vehicle has become a reliable and central alternative capital vehicle for the firm, and how the company sees it as one of the cornerstones of its broader capital management framework.Arundo Re, previously named CCR Re but rebranded last year, utilises the 157 Re reinsurance sidecar vehicle to align itself with third-party investors and benefit from their appetite to share in its underwriting returns. During a recent interview…
Author: Awais
Twenty professional models who sued three Massachusetts-based strip clubs alleging that the clubs used their images in commercial advertisements without their consent and without paying them have been denied their bid to collect from one of the clubs’ insurers on a $1.9 million consent judgment against the club owners. The federal district court in Massachusetts recently ruled that Blackboard Specialty Insurance Co. is under no obligation to cover the consent judgment under the two commercial general liability policies it wrote for the clubs. U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs found the insurer is under no obligation because most of the…
Women in Wisconsin will soon be eligible to receive expanded Medicaid coverage for up to a year after giving birth following near-unanimous passage of a measure last week by the Wisconsin Assembly that would leave Arkansas as the only state yet to expand such benefits. Wisconsin Democrats, and even most Republicans, have pushed for years to expand Medicaid coverage for new mothers, only to be blocked by powerful Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. Vos had argued that he opposed expanding welfare programs, but he relented. The Assembly also unanimously passed another bill with bipartisan support to require insurance to cover…
Homeowners already have the protection – renters don’t
It’s been more than a year since the Palisades and Eaton Fires in Los Angeles, and attorneys who work in first‑party property claims are still seeing a steady rise in disputes. That trend isn’t slowing down anytime soon—these claims will continue moving from adjusters’ desks into legal disputes for at least another year or two. Every claim is unique, but the same patterns keep showing up. Some carriers have handled these fires well, others far less so. This isn’t about calling out anyone by name; it’s about calling out the practices that are creating unnecessary conflict. Slow‑Rolling Total Loss Replacement…
Separately, Amy McCann has been promoted to chief administrative officer, also reporting to Gayner. McCann has served as general counsel of Markel Ventures since 2022. As part of the reshuffle, Mike Heaton, executive vice president and chief operating officer, will depart the company.
As national Democrats search for a unifying theme ahead of the fall’s midterm elections, a California proposal to levy a hefty tax on billionaires is turning some of the party’s leading figures into adversaries just when Democrats can least afford division from within. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders traveled to Los Angeles last week to campaign for the tax proposal, which has Silicon Valley in an uproar, with tech titans threatening to leave the state. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is among its outspoken opponents, warning that it could leave government finances in crisis and put the state at a competitive disadvantage…
Urologic Specialists of Oklahoma, Inc., a medical practice that operates five clinics employing two dozen physicians in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, will pay $90,000 and furnish other relief to settle a pregnancy and disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced. According to the EEOC’s suit, in 2023, Urologic Specialists denied reasonable accommodations to a medical assistant at its Tulsa facility during the final trimester of her high-risk pregnancy. Rather than allow the medical assistant to sit, take short breaks, or work part-time, as recommended by her doctor to protect her health…
Marsh is exploring a sale of its financial risk manager and life insurance broker for high-net-worth individuals in Asia, according to people familiar with the matter. Marsh, formerly known as Marsh & McLennan Cos., is working with an adviser on a possible disposal of Private Client Services as it looks to streamline its global portfolio of assets, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. PCS, which is under Marsh’s Mercer subsidiary, has drawn early interest from private equity firms and industry players, and a transaction could value it at several hundred million dollars, the…
The Oklahoma Insurance Department (OID) announced that its captive insurance program had another record year in 2025 with a net gain of 10 licensed captive insurers. Oklahoma has now surpassed its previous high of 73 captive insurers, which was set in 2017. Since Steve Kinion was appointed Captive Insurance Director in October 2022, the program has grown by 64%. In 2025, OID received 14 captive insurer applications, all of which were approved. Four captives dissolved during the year, resulting in the net gain of 10. OID will hold a Captive Connection event on March 4 in Oklahoma City. More information…
Lumen Re, the main reinsurance underwriting entity of LGT ILS Partners, has now successfully priced its debut Photon Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) catastrophe bond issuance below guidance, securing $175 million in retrocessional protection against losses from North American peak perils, Artemis can report.When this transaction was launched to investors earlier this month we understood that Lumen Re was targeting a minimum $125 million source of multi-year fully-collateralized retro reinsurance protection from the capital markets. It marked the entry of another insurance-linked securities investment manager linked vehicle to the catastrophe bond market, the latest to seek peak peril hedging capacity from…
Amica Insurance is using the comeback journey of Boston Celtics basketball star Jayson Tatum in its new advertising campaign. The campaign traces Tatum’s recovery from his injury last May. The campaign is titled “Back to Zero” — named with Tatum’s “0” jersey number in mind. The insurer hopes the campaign will connect Tatum’s comeback to Amica’s commitment to helping customers rebuild after life’s setbacks. The campaign features a video that combines moments from the player’s recovery – including with his mother Brandy Cole and trainer Nick Sang – with a countdown to his return. The spot launched this week on…
In all-risk policies, an excluded cause of damage must be the sole cause of damage for the exclusion to apply, a federal appeals court decided last week in an opinion that clarifies North Carolina law but could make some claims more costly for insurers. “The district court’s conclusion comports with North Carolina precedent, which has set out different causation standards for all-risk insurance policies than what applies to other types of insurance coverage,” the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in Wake Chapel Church vs. Church Mutual Insurance. The precedent is a 1973 decision by the North Carolina Supreme…
While corporates and carriers are betting on AI to improve performance, some major insurers are starting to pull back from broad AI liability on the coverage side. In late 2025, several large underwriters, including AIG and W. R. Berkley, began introducing exclusions for AI-related risks in corporate policies, citing the potential for unpredictable, multibillion-dollar losses from systemic failures, deepfake-enabled fraud and high-profile AI misfires.