Florida regulators announced a crackdown on people selling vehicle insurance products without a license. Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky this week ordered American Dream Auto Protect Inc., an auto warranty company, to cease operations because it did not have a license or approval from the state Office of Insurance Regulation. The company, which incorporated last year, must run off its hundreds of existing warranties by honoring the warranties or allowing purchasers to cancel and to obtain a refund. American Dream, based in New Jersey, must also send the consent order to consumers and post it on the firm’s website, Yaworsky said…
Author: Awais
Yet this year’s honorees demonstrate that technology has amplified, not diminished, the value of specialist wholesale brokers. As more routine risks are commoditized by algorithms and portals, the market increasingly depends on human specialists to handle the unusual, bespoke, and hard-to-place.
A Connecticut judge last Friday dismissed criminal charges against three current and former New Haven police officers who were accused of mistreating prisoner Richard “Randy” Cox after he was paralyzed in the back of a police van in 2022. Judge David Zagaja dropped the cases against Oscar Diaz, Jocelyn Lavandier and Luis Rivera after granting them a probation program that allows charges to be erased from defendants’ records, saying their conduct was not malicious. Two other officers, Betsy Segui and Ronald Pressley, pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor reckless endangerment and received no jail time. Cox, 40, was left paralyzed…
Jump to winners | Jump to methodology The sense makers Artificial intelligence has gone from buzzword to baseline in America’s insurance industry, and it has raised the question: If algorithms can read submissions, score risks, and match them to capacity, do we still need specialist wholesale brokers? The answer from the market and the data is a resounding yes, because a key part of their role is not to look back but to anticipate exposures clients haven’t seen. The standout operators are honored in Insurance Business America’s Top Specialist Wholesale Brokers 2026. For the seventh straight year, direct written premiums saw…
The seven Western states that depend on the Colorado River missed a deadline for the second time Saturday to agree on a plan addressing record drought and water shortages. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo released a joint statement calling on Upper Basin states to offer more concessions. Those states include Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. “The Colorado River is essential to our communities and economies, and our states have conserved large volumes of water in recent years to stabilize the basin’s water supplies for years to come,” the governors said. “Our…
Insurance broker SterlingRisk of Woodbury, New York announced the acquisition of ASZ International, Inc., a Westchester County, N.Y. agency specializing in transportation risks. The transaction became effective February 1, 2026. As part of the transaction, ASZ principals Marc Zettl and Chris Zettl have joined SterlingRisk. Marc will serve as president of SterlingRisk’s Transportation Vertical, and Chris joins as account specialist, supporting the continued growth of the practice. “This acquisition represents a meaningful expansion of our transportation capabilities,” said David Sterling, chief executive officer of SterlingRisk. “Transportation is a highly specialized and complex area of insurance, and ASZ International has built…
A federal judge rejected California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s bid to dismiss Exxon Mobil’s lawsuit accusing him of defamation in criticizing the oil giant’s advanced plastics recycling initiatives. U.S. District Judge Michael Truncale rejected Bonta’s claim he was immune from being sued because he criticized Exxon in his official capacity as attorney general, and in the “heartland” of his employment duties. The Beaumont, Texas-based judge also said whether Bonta criticized Exxon in good faith was a question of fact to be determined later. Related: California Attorney General Investigating Eaton Fire Emergency Response Truncale dismissed related claims against the environmental groups…
Stephen Smith, 56, a UK-based art collector, has bought prints through MyArtBroker, a sales and management platform for secondary-market prints and editions, since 2024, when he purchased Echo by British abstract artist Bridget Riley for £7,500 ($10,300). He uses the platform’s instant valuation tool, finding it helpful because he’s overpaid when buying from galleries before. “It gives quite a good, accurate impression of the price for a specific print at that particular time,” he says. It’s notoriously difficult to know how much art should cost, because many galleries do not disclose prices and sales by galleries and dealers are rarely…
Munich Re’s primary insurance unit ERGO aims to cut about 1,000 positions in Germany, partly as a result of its increased use of artificial intelligence. The cuts affect simple and repetitive tasks in telephony and claims processing, a spokesman said on Tuesday. They will take place over five years through the end of 2030, with ERGO saying there will be no forced redundancies during this time. Companies in the finance industry are increasingly using AI to speed up services and cut costs. Late last year, ING Groep NV said almost 1,000 positions are at risk in response to “digitalization, AI,…
It’s the rare policy question that unites Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and the Democratic-led Maryland government against President Donald Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California: How should health insurers use AI? Regulating artificial intelligence, especially its use by health insurers, is becoming a politically divisive topic, and it’s scrambling traditional partisan lines. Boosters, led by Trump, are not only pushing its integration into government, as in Medicare’s experiment using AI in prior authorization, but also trying to stop others from building curbs and guardrails. A December executive order seeks to preempt most state efforts to govern AI,…
Germany’s IG Metall has filed a criminal complaint against the manager of Tesla’s factory near Berlin, accusing him of “spreading false allegations,” the union said on Tuesday, in another sign of its souring relations with the U.S. automaker. The union said it had also applied to a labor court for a temporary injunction to prohibit Andre Thierig from further making the allegations. Tesla did not respond immediately to an emailed request for comment. The matter relates to a criminal complaint that Tesla made last week against an IG Metall member for allegedly secretly recording a works council meeting at the…
AXIS Capital, the global specialty insurance and reinsurance underwriter, has put a new reporting line in place for its insurance-linked securities (ILS) division AXIS ILS, with Group Chief Underwriting Officer Dan Draper adding that to his responsibilities.Recently, AXIS Capital announced some senior leadership changes aligned with its planned succession and development process. Firstly, Ann Haugh, who took on the CEO of AXIS Re role in June 2022, has become Group Chief Operations Officer (COO), a new position at the company. As a result, AXIS Capital’s Group Chief Underwriting Officer Dan Draper has been given expanded responsibilities, including a new position…
The addition of 82 owned and affiliated clinics in Florida comes as Humana doubles down on its primary care portfolio.
The 2026 regular session of the Florida Legislature may not make significant changes to the state’s property insurance statutes. But it could become known as the “water safety” session that approved measures aimed at reducing drowning deaths in the state—bills that could impact liability litigation and insurance costs. Halfway through the session, one bill nearing a floor vote would mandate that rental properties with swimming pools be equipped with safety features. Senate Bill 658, which incorporated the similar SB 608, would require landlords or licensees of rental properties to comply with the same pool-safety standards already required for new residential…