Insurance costs have done much of the heavy lifting. Insurify’s 2026 home insurance report put Florida’s average annual premium at $8,292 in 2025, an 18% rise on the prior year, while data cited by CMS Law Group put cumulative statewide rate increases at roughly 30% since 2022, and around 40% in Central Florida.
Author: Awais
If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.” As a teenager, Rei Scott spent several weeks living out of a car with four family members and their dog. Each day, Scott worried about where they would spend the following night. Someone in America dies by suicide every 11 minutes. It’s a tragic and entrenched problem. A new approach to prevention shifts the focus from stopping harm in moments of crisis to upstream policies that give people reasons to live. One day at school,…
Cross-border insurance programs are both commercially attractive and operationally demanding. Acquiring new businesses, adding geographies, teams, products, lines of business, and partners is a real opportunity for growth. But most insurance platforms are traditionally optimized for local taxes, language, currency, regulatory reporting and workflows. Over time, that creates a patchwork of regional systems, vendors, and reporting, so while the business can still run locally, the group struggles to operate as one. When the group operates with a global-first foundation, the gap between local execution and group oversight narrows. In practice, many firms bridge the gaps through people, using their teams…
New Jersey car accident victims cannot recover future medical expenses in a personal injury trial if the expenses do not exceed the state’s $250,000 no-fault personal injury protection (PIP) coverage limit, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled in a unanimous opinion. The ruling came in a case where future medical expenses under $250,000 were presented to a jury and included in a jury award despite the state’s no-fault law that says expenses that come in under the limit are inadmissible in a personal injury trial. The court explained that the no-fault law seeks to prevent a double recovery. Even…
Passengers from the Hondius cruise ship are being repatriated under a patchwork of measures that reflect uncertainty over how this strain of hantavirus spreads, complicating efforts to contain the deadly outbreak. Some passengers are being placed in biocontainment units, notably in France, for at least two weeks. Australia plans to quarantine passengers in a purpose-built facility outside Perth. But in the Netherlands, most are being asked to self-isolate for six weeks, with short outdoor walks permitted under masking and distancing rules. The divergent responses come as health officials stress that the risk to the broader public remains low and that…
Spinnaker Insurance Company has now secured $100 million of US multi-peril collateralized reinsurance from the capital markets through its new Mountain Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) issuance, pricing the notes at the low-end of reduced guidance, Artemis can report.Spinnaker Insurance Company, the personal and commercial lines program and fronting specialist, made its return to the catastrophe bond market for its second sponsorship back in April, as the company looked to renew and extend its cat bond backed reinsurance protection. Initially, Spinnaker Insurance was targeting $100 million of US multi-peril collateralized reinsurance protection from its Mountain Re Series 2026-1 issuance. As we reported in…
Rufus French, a former NFL player who starred at Ole Miss, was sentenced last week to over 16 years in prison for orchestrating a years-long scheme to scam government agencies out of nearly $200 million by selling patient information and sham doctors’ orders for orthotic braces that patients did not want or need. According to the Department of Justice, French worked with overseas telemarketing call centers that pressured elderly Americans to provide their personal and health insurance information and agree to accept medically unnecessary orthotic braces. French paid sham telemedicine companies kickbacks to obtain signed doctors’ orders from doctors and…
The findings, drawn from the first of three installments in Prudential’s 2026 Benefits & Beyond study, “The Future of Work: Building financial resilience in an era of rising costs,” come as employer health costs and employee out-of-pocket expenses are both expected to climb faster than general inflation through 2026, according to benefits consultants and healthcare analysts.
What brokers should expect as further filings emerge According to the company, customers will still need to meet all applicable underwriting guidelines to qualify for coverage, and availability will continue to vary by geography and risk profile. In higher wildfire‑exposed areas, agents and brokers should expect ongoing scrutiny of construction, defensible space and other mitigation steps, even as new capacity comes onstream.
New Zealand’s government plans a law change to prevent private legal action against greenhouse gas emitters, arguing cases have created business uncertainty and deterred investment. The amendment will impact current and future proceedings before the courts, including a case brought by climate campaigner Mike Smith against companies including Fonterra Co-operative Group, Genesis Energy, Z Energy and New Zealand Steel. Smith’s case alleges that the companies’ emissions add to damage from climate change, creating a public nuisance for him and others. His case is due to be heard in the High Court next year, after the Supreme Court overruled a lower…
Across the insurance landscape, a familiar tension is playing out. Interest in captives and alternative risk solutions is rising, even as many small and mid-size businesses still miss the basics when premiums spike, disasters hit, or litigation arises. The result is a widening gap between what companies think they’re protected against and what they can withstand. The conversation around 831(b) plans often centers on structure and compliance. That matters. But the more urgent question for business owners is simpler: Will your risk strategy keep the doors open when something goes wrong? For many, the honest answer is no. The Coverage…
Iran says it’s deployed small submarines to act as an “invisible guardian” of the Strait of Hormuz amid a series of rejected peace deals between Tehran and the US. The Islamic Republic has at least 16 of the Ghadir-class midget submarines, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Each has a crew of fewer than 10 people and can carry either two torpedoes or two Chinese-designed C-704 anti-ship cruise missiles. But they are noisy compared with most modern submarines, according to a person familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Their crews…
Netflix NFLX.O was sued on Monday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who accused the streaming company of spying on children and other consumers by collecting their data without consent, and designing its platform to be addictive. Texas said that for years, Netflix has falsely represented to consumers that it did not collect or share user data, when it actually tracked and sold viewers’ habits and preferences to commercial data brokers and advertising technology companies, making billions of dollars a year. The Los Gatos, California-based company was also accused of quietly using “dark patterns” to keep users watching, including an…
Hopes for a peace deal on Iran faded on Tuesday after Donald Trump said a ceasefire with Iran was “on life support” as Tehran rejected a U.S. proposal to end the conflict and stuck to a list of demands the U.S. president described as “garbage.” Iran has called for an end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, where U.S. ally Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. Tehran also emphasized its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, demanded compensation for war damage, and an end to the U.S. naval blockade, among other conditions. Trump said Iran’s response threatened the…