The Superior Court ruled in favor of the insurers in May 2022, finding breach of contract and fraud. Lindberg filed multiple appeals, petitioning the Supreme Court of North Carolina for discretionary review in 2023, but the state high court denied that request in October 2025, returning the matter to the Superior Court for final awards.
Author: Awais
European countries are taking their broadest swipe yet at social media, with a growing number weighing bans of the services for minors and setting the stage for a new showdown with some of the biggest US companies. The policy was first implemented in Australia, encompassing Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram and Facebook, Snap Inc., Elon Musk’s X, TikTok and Google’s YouTube. Now it’s catching on in Europe, threatening to cut off access to millions of young users from services regulators call harmful and addictive — and the critical advertising dollars that come with them. It took a pointedly political, ideological and…
Political violence insurance premiums in Democratic Republic of Congo jumped as much as tenfold last year due to unrest in the east, boosting insurers but lifting costs for copper-cobalt miners, insurance executives told Reuters. Rwandan-backed AFC/M23 rebels overran eastern Congo’s Goma town in January 2025, part of an advance that saw the group seize more territory than ever before. The violence forced widespread business closures, left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. Congo’s No. 2 insurer, SFA, gets a quarter of its business from mining and insures about half of the country’s operators. Valery Safarian, adviser to the board…
He was a surgical oncologist at a hospital in a Southern city, a 78-year-old whose colleagues had begun noticing troubling behavior in the operating room. During procedures, he seemed “hesitant, not sure of how to go on to the next step without being prompted” by assistants, said Mark Katlic, director of the Aging Surgeon Program at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. The chief of surgery, concerned about the doctor’s cognition, “would not sign off on his credentials to practice surgery unless he went through an evaluation,” Katlic said. Since 2015, when Sinai inaugurated a screening program for surgeons 75 and older,…
China will ban ‘hidden’ car door handles from 2027, becoming the first country to phase out a design pioneered by Tesla and adopted by Chinese competitors including Xiaomi. The hidden handle design, which functions through a key fob or mobile phone or by manually pressing it, has drawn scrutiny in both the United States and China over potential safety risks. Last year, the U.S. auto safety agency opened a defect probe into Tesla Model 3 sedan’s emergency door release controls. Tesla, which did not comment on the investigation at the time, did not immediately respond to a request for comment…
Marsh & McLennan (MMC), the parent of Marsh, announced full-year 2025 revenue of $26.2bn, with organic revenue growth of about 7%, supported by resilient market conditions and strong client engagement across its risk, strategy and people advisory units. Marsh’s brokerage arm benefited from disciplined underwriting markets and a favorable rate environment in property/casualty and specialty areas, which helped sustain premium flows. Operating margins remained robust, with MMC continuing to prioritize investment in analytics and digital services to differentiate its advisory offerings.
For the full year, net income per share reached $25.68, up 13.1%, while core operating income per share rose 10.8% to $24.79. P&C net premiums written totaled $47.56 billion, up 5.4%, with underwriting income of $6.53 billion and a combined ratio of 85.7%.
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill said she will be nominate Susan Ochs, a financial services and economic policy expert, as Commissioner of the Department of Banking and Insurance (DOBI). Ochs served as a senior advisor to the head of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) at the U.S. Department of the Treasury during the Obama Administration. She has also held roles in the Clinton Administration and at the Securities and Exchange Commission. As DOBI commissioner, Ochs will oversee the banking, insurance, real estate, and healthcare markets and the Get Covered NJ, the state healthcare exchange. “We need a leader who…
Catastrophe risk modelling specialists at Karen Clark & Company (KCC) have pegged private insurance industry losses from winter storm Fern in the US at $6.7 billion, with estimated losses the highest in Texas and Tennessee. Beginning on January 23rd, 2026, Winter storm Fern saw snow and ice hit more than 30 states, with daily minimum temperature records set in numerous locations, with records tied in several others. According to Karen Clark, the combination of a low-pressure system, Fern, and an Arctic air mass which dipped southward from Canada, saw many parts of the US hit with significant ice accumulations, with…
A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Elon Musk’s bid to dismiss a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that claimed he waited too long to disclose his purchases of Twitter shares in 2022. U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C., said none of Musk’s arguments warranted a dismissal, including his claim that the SEC overreached in order to punish him for criticizing the agency. Lawyers for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment. An SEC spokesperson declined to comment. The SEC sued Musk in January 2025, saying his 11-day delay in revealing his initial 5% Twitter stake…
It’s probably too late for 2026 legislative session, but by this time next year, a newly formed Florida group hopes it will be well on its way toward a new set of laws that will help Florida become a powerhouse domicile for captive insurance companies. “The goal is to have 200 captives in Florida within five to 10 years—hopefully, five years,” said Andre Teixeira, chairman of the Florida Captive Insurance Association, which was formed only last summer. Ultimately, Florida corporations could save money by having some control over premiums with their own captives, which often face less-stringent surplus requirements. Or…
The American Property Casualty Insurance Association testified on Capitol Hill Jan. 3 in support of the Fix Our Forests Act. The legislation, led by Reps. Bruce Westerman, R-Ariz., and Scott Peters, D-Calif., was passed by the House following the January 2025 destructive wildfires in Los Angeles and then another version (S. 1462) was passed by a Senate committee last October. The bill prioritizes treatment of forests at the highest risk of wildfire and coordinates grant programs for community mitigation efforts. It also promotes research on wildfire resilience and land management, and supports the adoption of fire-resistant building methods, codes, and…
Andrea Baldrica Hub International Limited (HUB), headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, named Andrea Baldrica as chief sales officer of U.S. Employee Benefits. Baldrica will be responsible for driving HUB’s national employee benefits sales strategy and comprehensive growth across its employee benefits services. Baldrica has over 25 years of insurance industry experience. She has been with HUB since 2014, when HUB acquired Baldrica & Company, the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based brokerage. In her new role, Baldrica will manage the adoption of shared service capabilities, drive talent management, and establish best practices for sales execution across HUB. Ellen Sue Bernards HUB also hired Ellen…
Litigation activity varies by state, influencing casualty pricing at the local level. Texas recorded more than two million new civil cases in 2024, the highest among US states, followed by Florida, California, New York, and New Jersey. Most casualty cases are resolved in state courts, contributing to uneven rate conditions across regions.