California-headquartered Inszone Insurance Services has continued its hot streak of acquisitions with the purchase of Coastal Insurance Services in Florida and affiliated Optimal Insurance Solutions. The acquisition marks Inszone’s first step into the Florida market, the company said in a news release. Coastal Insurance was founded in 2008 by Rolando Gonzalez. He later established Optimal Insurance in Illinois, and the two agencies were combined in 2024. The agencies’ teams are likely to remain in place under the Inszone ownership, the companies said. Inszone, founded in 2002, led the country with 17 merger and acquisition deals in the first quarter of…
Author: Awais
During this month, two insurers and two brokers have announced acquisitions in India and Europe. Details of these deals follow. Vienna Insurance Group Completes Purchase of Germany’s Nuernberger Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) has completed its acquisition of Nuernberger Beteiligungs AG for 1.38 billion euros ($1.6 billion), in VIG’s largest-ever transaction. The deal was first announced in October 2025 and was finalized on May 18. “We are delighted that we managed to obtain the approvals faster than expected. We will contribute VIG’s expertise to the strategic direction of Nuernberger and position it as a leading provider of biometric solutions also within…
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has secured a $108 million settlement with Monsanto Company (PDF), the major manufacturer of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and affiliated companies Solutia Inc. and Pharmacia LLC to address harms from PCB contamination in the State of Michigan. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will jointly oversee the use of funds to remediate PCB-contaminated property and resources and restore natural resources adversely impacted by contamination. Under the agreement, Monsanto will pay an initial $32 million in June 2026 and another $32 million by March 2027.…
The Trump administration continues to open the doors to the cheap, high-deductible coverage, to the worry of insurance experts and stakeholders in the healthcare industry.
Health care costs are a top concern for the public, and there is widespread interest among lawmakers in making health care more affordable. Attention has increasingly focused on hospitals, which represent nearly one third of total health care spending and accounted for 40% of spending growth from 2022 to 2024. Hospital spending reflects both the prices paid for services and the volume and intensity of care delivered, and trends in both factors have implications for affordability and spending growth. The prices paid by private insurers are higher than Medicare rates on average—e.g., nearly double traditional Medicare rates for hospital services…
Nectaris Re Ltd., the Class 3A Bermuda-based rated reinsurance platform backed by specialist insurance linked securities (ILS) and reinsurance investment manager Leadenhall Capital Partners LLP, continued to report solid underwriting results for a third consecutive year in 2025, according to a rating affirmation from AM Best.The rating agency said that it assesses the overall operating performance of Nectaris Re as adequate, based on “solid gross and net underwriting results from 2023 through 2025, along with the historical operating results of the reinsurance portfolio of the Leadenhall-managed funds from which the Nectaris Re portfolio was formed, and the projected performance results…
More than half of pilots killed in US civil aviation accidents between 2018 and 2022 tested positive for at least one drug, the US National Transportation Safety Board said in a report published May 14. Of the 984pilots who died in crashes and other fatal events, tests in about 29% of cases detected “potentially impairing drugs” that could diminish a pilot’s performance, the report said. The percentage for potentially impairing drugs — a category that includes illicit substances and sedating antihistamines often used in allergy and nighttime cold-and-flu products — was the highest since the board began collecting the data…
Hatch Trick, Inc., a Chick-fil-A franchisee operating multiple locations in Austin, Texas violated federal law by refusing to reasonably accommodate an employee’s request to refrain from working on Saturdays in observance of her Sabbath day and instead fired her, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, the employee, who managed Hatch Trick’s delivery drivers at one of its Austin locations, is a member of the United Church of God denomination, which observes a Saturday Sabbath. In adherence to her religious faith and practice, she requested no scheduled hours on Saturdays,…
Dozens of wind projects in Texas are in limbo after the U.S. Department of Defense paused issuing routine federal permits citing national security concerns, a move that experts say expands the Trump administration’s crusade against wind energy. According to data collected by the American Clean Power Association, 54 Texas wind projects are waiting for the department to review development plans to ensure that turbines don’t interfere with military operations. It’s part of a broader nationwide logjam that has ensnared 165 onshore wind projects, a figure first reported by the Financial Times. Federal law requires any structure 200 feet or taller…
An investigation began Friday into what caused a small plane to crash into a house in northeast Ohio and explode into flames, killing both pilots aboard. The National Transportation Safety Board was leading the review in Akron, alongside the Federal Aviation Administration and Ohio State Highway Patrol, officials said. The white and blue Piper PA-28-180, commonly known as the Cherokee, took off from Akron Fulton Airport for a training flight at around 2 p.m. on Thursday, according to Aaron McCarter, an NTSB aviation accident investigator. The two people on board — a certified flight instructor and the aircraft’s pilot-owner —…
Overwhelmed by the demands of caregiving, Quette dialed 911 when she found her teenage son downstairs in their kitchen struggling to breathe. He had rolled his wheelchair to the oven to keep himself warm as he tried to regulate his temperature, she recalled, and was drenched in sweat from an apparent infection. In that moment, Quette knew that she and her son’s grandmother could no longer meet his medical needs on their own at their Illinois home just outside St. Louis. He had become paralyzed when he was shot in 2023, and, despite their efforts, they struggled to take care…
Hint, a self-described “home management platform,” has launched with a $10 million seed round of funding and the original influencer of all things having to do with the home. Well-known multimedia mogul and businesswoman Martha Stewart has co-founded Hint with home services veteran Yih-Han Ma, who is the CEO, and artificial intelligence entrepreneur Kyle Rush, Hint’s chief technology officer. Hint co-founders Kyle Rush, Martha Stewart, and Yih-Han Ma According to the announcement last week, Hint will be an “AI-native home management platform that is a single, trusted interface to manage and optimize every facet of the home.” “While the home…
A prominent Miami real estate developer who once hired the city’s mayor as a $10,000-a-month consultant has pleaded guilty to money laundering and payroll-tax charges in a $89 million fraud scheme. Rishi Kapoor, who once led Location Ventures and URBIN development firms, now faces more than 10 years in federal prison and $70 million in restitution to former investors and the Internal Revenue Service, according to court documents and local news reports. Kapoor was accused of raising millions of dollars from investors for major condominium and housing developments in the Miami area, then failing to build the projects and diverting…
Boston-based General Indemnity Group (GIG), an insurance holding company specializing in commercial and contract surety, announced that it has agreed to be acquired by CopperPoint Insurance Co., a workers’ compensation and commercial insurance provider based in Phoenix. The transaction includes GIG’s subsidiaries United Casualty & Surety Insurance Co. (UCS), surety placement platform BOSS Bonds, and the technology platform SuretyBonds.Market. The deal gives CopperPoint nationwide surety capabilities and a countrywide platform. GIG, which was founded in 2015, provides bonds facilitating construction, commercial, and public sector projects across all 50 states. It is known for its technology-driven business approach and specialized surety…