Municipal workers’ compensation insurance pools in South Carolina now have another firefighter health condition presumption to consider, after the state’s governor signed House Bill 3163 into law. The law, which took effect upon Gov. Henry McMaster’s signature last week, adds stroke to the list of conditions presumed to be work-related for some firefighters in the state. “…Any impairment or injury to the health of a firefighter caused by heart disease, stroke, or respiratory disease resulting in total or partial disability or death is presumed to have arisen out of and in the course of employment, unless the contrary is shown…
Author: Awais
Scammers have been targeting Spanish-speaking workers, trying to trick them into paying fees to access workers’ compensation benefits around the South and West, officials said. The North Carolina Industrial Commission, which oversees workers’ comp in the state, warned in a bulletin this week about “a sophisticated fraud scheme targeting workers’ compensation claimants across multiple states through the use of official-looking communications and fake hearings.” The scammers have utilized phone calls, emails, texts, video calls and social media to impersonate judicial officials, government employees, attorneys and other comp professionals, the Commission explained. The goal is to convince injured workers to attend…
Three new property insurance companies have entered the Florida market this spring, bringing to 20 the number of new carriers since Florida lawmakers ended assignment-of-benefit agreements and one-way attorney fees in 2023. “To date, these new companies since the legislative reforms bring in more than $850 million in new capital to support additional growth in the state’s property market,” Florida Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky said in a bulletin Wednesday. Frontline Insurance, a stalwart of Florida’s insurance market in recent years, added a new reciprocal exchange company. The Office of Insurance Regulation granted a certificate of authority in April, authorizing the…
Two Democrats, one a longtime insurance agent, will face each other in a June 16 runoff election that will determine who will be on the November general election ballot for Georgia insurance commissioner. Mathis (Ballotpedia) Keisha Sean Waites, a former state legislator and Atlanta City Council member, was the largest vote-getter in the Democratic primary Tuesday, winning more than 427,000 votes and 42%. DeAndre Mathis, a State Farm insurance agent in Decatur, took home almost 20% of the vote in a field of five candidates, the Georgia Secretary of State reported. Since no candidate won a majority of the votes…
As bank executives increasingly tout the promise of artificial intelligence to slim down workforces, regulators are warning them not to get carried away. The European Banking Authority, the rulemaker for financial firms operating in the region, has been meeting with national authorities to ensure human bankers are providing adequate oversight of processes increasingly handled by AI, according to Ruta Merkeviciute, head of digital finance at the EBA. The watchdog’s concerns extend to the kinds of repetitive tasks traditionally handled by bankers in middle and back office functions, she said. Read more: UK’s StanChart to Cut Over 7,000 Jobs, Boost AI…
Lockton Re, the reinsurance arm of the independent broking group, has announced the full deployment of its advisory and structuring capabilities dedicated to Brazil’s Letra de Risco de Seguro (LRS /Insurance Risk Letters) market, utilising locally licensed Special Purpose Securitisation Entities (SSPE).In an announcement made today, Lockton Re said that it is delivering local insurance-linked securities (ILS) structuring expertise, leadership, and a ready-to-deploy Brazilian SSPE to unlock the LRS market for domestic cedants and institutional investors. To ensure unparalleled speed to market, Lockton Re will work closely with an independent, Brazilian-licensed SSPE, the local special purpose vehicle required to structure…
As more and more companies embed AI into select functions, only a portion indicate that they have used AI to change how an overall enterprise runs. It illustrates one of the key takeaways drawn from a recent industry survey by AM Best on AI use – measuring the gap between basic, preliminary adoption and measuring transformational outcomes. Nearly 60% of respondents expect AI to significantly transform their business model within the next one to three years. But approximately just one in five say that their AI implementation is already at an advanced stage. Approximately 150 rated carriers and managing general…
After a year of kidnappings, assaults and armed home invasions targeting cryptocurrency holders, the industry is racing to harden its defenses. Conferences are beefing up security. Private firms serving crypto holders say demand has surged. Exchanges are protecting their executives. The defensive stance was on display at the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas last month, where many of the highest-profile speakers moved through the venue trailed by personal bodyguards. A standing-room-only workshop taught attendees how to protect their crypto holdings during a home invasion. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, The Venetian Resort security team, external contractors and private…
Recent enforcement involving COVID-19 vaccines appears to go hand in hand with the Trump administration’s broader prioritization of Christian issues.
According to research data from Cotality, a global provider of property information, analytics and technology-enabled data solutions, the New York metropolitan area has the largest concentration of homes exposed to hurricane-related risks in the United States.In the firm’s recently published 2026 Hurricane Risk Report, Cotality estimates that more than 3.27 million homes across New York face moderate or greater levels of hurricane wind risk. Cotality noted that these properties represent nearly $1.93 trillion in reconstruction cost value (RCV), placing the region ahead of major metropolitan areas in Florida and Texas. The report states that more than 32.2 million homes in…
The civil rights enforcement arm of the HHS will reinstate a division dissolved during the Biden administration that focuses on conscientious objections and religious issues in health and social programs.
The state of Vermont is offering well testing, free water and other support for southern Bennington and Shaftsbury in the wake of research last year that found PFAS contamination in the Bennington area has spread and worsened over time. The state is also in active negotiations with the current corporate owner of the now shuttered ChemFab factory in Bennington, which produced Teflon-coated fiberglass fabrics, containing PFOA, perfluorooctanoic acid. PFOA is a specific type of PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are a group of thousands of synthetic, toxic compounds that can be found in common items like cookware and…
Property insurers in the State of Florida are expected to benefit from a more pronounced softening of reinsurance pricing and rates at the June 1 2026 renewals, which may serve to sustain the positive market momentum being seen since the legislative reforms, AM Best has explained.Florida’s property insurance market was once deemed dysfunctional due to the proliferation of litigation and issues such as assignment of benefits (AOB), but legislative reforms enacted in recent years have meaningfully changed the picture and served to increase the appetite of reinsurance capital to support catastrophe exposed risks on the Peninsula. Despite that, alongside improving…
A fuller picture is emerging of how the expiration of enhanced subsidies is affecting the Affordable Care Act exchanges and the millions of Americans who rely on them for coverage.