Liberty Taps Kooijman as General Manager, Insurance, Netherlands, Belgium, Nordics Liberty Specialty Markets, part of Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, announced the appointment of Monique Kooijman as general manager for Netherlands, Belgium and the Nordics, subject to regulatory approval. Kooijman will be based in the Netherlands and will report to Pierre-Edouard Fraigneau, president, Liberty Europe. Kooijman joins Liberty from Everest, where she served as head of Northern Europe, playing a key role in accelerating regional growth and strengthening strategic broker relationships across the market. She has more than 30 years of international insurance experience, having previously held senior leadership positions at…
Author: Awais
A difference-in-difference, quasi-experimental design was used to estimate a “treatment effect” (PEPFAR), based on comparison to a control group (the counterfactual). The difference-in-difference design compares the before and after change in outcomes for the treatment group to the before and after change in outcomes for the comparison group. The outcomes of interest, their definitions and sources are listed in Table 1. Baseline variables are listed in Table 2. The panel data set of 157 low- and middle- income countries used in the prior analysis, covering 1990 to 2018, was updated to include data through 2022 (due to data limitations, the…
Scott Irlbeck crouched in a field of stunted wheat plants in a parched stretch of West Texas and slipped his hand into a crack wide enough to swallow it. Last autumn, Irlbeck planted a crop that barely grew because rain never came. He now hopes his insurance adjuster will declare it a total loss so he will not need to spend money on pricey fuel to harvest it next month. Soaring costs of fuel and commercial fertilizer in the wake of the Iran war are making hard times worse for farmers across the U.S. Plains states of Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma,…
A US safety investigator said United Parcel Service Inc. decided not to take further action after reviewing a 2011 service letter from Boeing Co. that flagged failures of a key structural component in the type of plane that later crashed in Louisville, Kentucky. Investigators probing the 2025 accident found Boeing issued a service letter in 2008 informing operators of McDonnell Douglas MD-11F cargo jets of fractures in a component of the plane’s engine mount called the spherical bearing that helps uniformly distribute loads across the structure. At the time, however, the planemaker determined the problem wouldn’t result in a safety…
The tanker crew gathered their courage and carefully navigated along a route designated by Iran, hugging the coastline and maneuvering their hulking vessel between island checkpoints through the Strait of Hormuz. The 330-meter-long Agios Fanourios I, laden with Iraqi crude oil and bound for Vietnam, had been bottled up off the coast of Dubai since late April. But on May 10 it set off for the strait after a direct deal with Iran overseen by Iraq’s prime minister. Iran’s orders to the tanker were part of a complex, multi-tiered mechanism that the country has deployed for clearing vessels through the…
Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) announced the launch of two new casualty insurance policies in Switzerland: one multinational and another for domestic risks, both tailored for large corporate and upper middle market commercial and industrial organizations in Switzerland. The new policies are designed to provide customizable, best market-standard coverage in clear and simple language. For multinational customers, BHSI can provide local policies in more than 178 countries worldwide. “Swiss domestic and international companies are facing an ever‑challenging risk landscape. With our new products, we aim to offer targeted and tailored solutions,” said Pascal Carrer, head of Casualty at BHSI Switzerland,…
Alex Murdaugh has filed a lawsuit against the court clerk whose behavior during his murder trial led the South Carolina Supreme Court to overturn his convictions and life sentence for the deaths of his wife and son. The suit filed Sunday in federal court accuses former Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill of violating Murdaugh’s right to a fair trial and seeks punitive and compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees. Murdaugh spent $600,000 on his trial defense, according to the suit. In a unanimous ruling Wednesday, the state Supreme Court said Hill “egregiously attacked Murdaugh’s credibility” by suggesting to jurors…
Barney Frank, the quick-witted Democratic congressman who found himself on the front lines of the government’s rescue of the American financial system in 2007 and 2008, has died. He was 86. He died on Tuesday at his home in Ogunquit, Maine, the Boston Globe reported, citing a longtime friend, Jim Segel. Politico had reported in April that he had entered hospice care at home while dealing with congestive heart failure and writing one last book. Frank was well into his third decade representing Massachusetts’ fourth district — and well known as the first member of Congress to have voluntarily identified…
Ariel Sociedade Seguradora de Propósito Específico S.A. (Ariel SSPE) will be the third insurance-linked securities (ILS) structure in Brazil, harnessing the country’s regulations to become an independent issuer of Letra de Risco de Seguro (Insurance Risk Letters), Brazil’s own brand of ILS instrument.Pre-authorisation approval has already been granted by the Superintendence of Private Insurance (SUSEP), Brazil’s regulator, we understand. The structure then emerged in a notice posted in a daily newspaper, the Journal O Dia SP, giving readers a chance to raise any objections or request clarifications and documentation, a typical part of the regulatory process in the country. Typically,…
Risk Placement Services, Inc. (RPS) reports it has acquired McKee Risk Management, Inc., a King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based program administrator. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. McKee Risk Management provides underwriting, policy administration, claims coordination and risk management services with program focuses of construction, public entity and property. Clyde McKee III, Clyde McKee IV and their team will operate under RPS’s program administration division. RPS is the U.S. wholesale brokerage, binding authority and programs division of global broker Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. “McKee Risk Management brings a well-established platform and underwriting expertise that complement RPS’s programs offerings,” said…
This article appeared recently on Grindley’s Linkedin page. Republished here with permission. For those working in property insurance, adjusting, and forensic engineering, a proposed Florida rule may have unintended consequences for how claims are investigated and processed. The Florida Board of Professional Engineers (FBPE) has considered a proposed rule (61G15-38) that, if passed, will regulate how engineers document evaluations of allegedly damaged structures. At first glance, improving consistency in engineering reports sounds great. Heck, as a guy who has to review them myself, I know there are many ways they could be improved! But after reviewing the proposed rule carefully,…
The Florida Board of Professional Engineers this month considered but did not adopt new rules governing engineers’ ethical responsibilities in drafting damage reports, but the changes are likely to come up again. This guest article examines the need for those rules and the rising concerns about expert reports in insurance claims litigation that fail to meet professional standards. The Ethical Framework: Objective Truth vs. Zealous Advocacy The primary ethical dilemma in forensic engineering stems from the fundamental difference between the roles of an attorney and an expert witness. While an attorney is ethically bound to be a zealous advocate for…
The UK government must provide clarity on the future of Flood Re or risk seeing its failure to do so feed through to the country’s housing market. That’s according to the Climate Change Committee, a group created back in 2008 under an act of parliament with the goal of ensuring the UK is ready for the fallout from global warming. “One of our top recommendations for government is to undertake a priority review of what is the future of flood reinsurance,” said Richard Millar, the CCC’s director of adaptation. There needs to be “a clear decision,” not just for the…
Two supertankers exited the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday while another is making its way out, after waiting in the Gulf for more than two months with 6 million barrels of Middle East crude oil onboard, shipping data on LSEG and Kpler showed. The ships are among a handful of supertankers exiting the Gulf this month via a transit route that Iran has ordered ships to use. The U.S.-Israeli war on Iran which began on February 28 has severely curtailed shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, through which around one fifth of the world’s supply of oil and energy normally…