The U.S. Navy could begin escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz if necessary, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, adding he had ordered the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to provide political risk insurance and financial guarantees for maritime trade in the Gulf. The move marks one of the administration’s most aggressive steps yet to attempt to contain soaring energy prices amid escalating conflict in the Middle East that has raised risks to shipping through key waterways. Global crude pricesO/R have spiked since Israeli and U.S. forces began striking Iran over the weekend, leading to fighting that has…
Author: Awais
A Georgia bill that would bring larger insurer fines, more fraud enforcement and more wind-mitigation funding now moves to state Senate, where it is expected to pass in the next few weeks. The Georgia House of Representatives late last month approved, by an overwhelming majority, House Bill 1344, which has been endorsed by an insurance agents’ group, by a national carrier group, and by state regulators. The measure is ostensibly aimed at making property insurance more affordable, and it would affect much of the industry, including carriers, agents and policyholders. The main sponsor, Rep. Matt Reeves, R-Duluth, called it “the…
Berkshire Hathaway’s chief executive had the unusual task of reporting lower 2025 underwriting and investment income for GEICO and other insurance and reinsurance operations in his first report to investors recently. After two years of rising underwriting profits, Greg Abel, taking the helm from Warren Buffett, addressed the state of the conglomerate’s insurance and reinsurance operations, which remained profitable but showed shrinking levels of underwriting income and higher combined ratios in all sectors—personal lines, commercial lines and reinsurance—in a letter to shareholders opening the annual report on Saturday. Personal lines insurer, GEICO, the largest in the group, accounted for more…
Looking for deals, consumers are increasingly shopping year-round for home and auto insurance, bucking seasonal trends and insurer expectations. Elevated insurance shopping trends seen throughout 2024 and earlier in 2025 continued through the end of the year, prompting questions about whether the surge should be viewed as a temporary lift or permanent shift in consumer behavior, according to Q1 2026 Insurance Personal Lines Trends and Perspectives from TransUnion. Auto and property shopping saw a year-over-year increase of 10.6% and 5.3%, respectively. Q4 data showed shopping exceeded the usual end-of-year numbers and given the decelerating rate of growth in shopping reported…
Florida’s property insurer of last resort Citizens Property Insurance Corporation began 2026 with 67% less exposure, while the firm also projects it will need $3 billion of traditional reinsurance and / or catastrophe bonds for the 2026 hurricane season.We reported last year that Florida’s Citizens was anticipating lower reinsurance costs in 2026, as the firm’s policy count and exposure-base continued to decrease meaning less limit was likely to be needed this year. The catastrophe bond market provides $3.125 billion of reinsurance limit to support Florida Citizens for the hurricane season in 2026, however the company’s $500 million Lightning Re Ltd. (Series…
Nesselt joins from Risk Strategies, where he served as commercial lines leader for the Atlantic region with responsibility for sales, recruiting, market relationships, retention and organic growth. His earlier career includes senior roles at Marsh McLennan and McGriff Insurance, and producer and account executive positions at Brown & Brown.
Summary Actions taken by the Trump administration and Congress will likely have major impacts on health and health care for immigrant families, including children. About one in four children in the U.S. has at least one immigrant parent, and the vast majority of these children are U.S. citizens. President Trump’s increased immigration enforcement activity has contributed to significant levels of fear and uncertainty among the immigrant community, which can negatively affect the health and well-being of immigrant families and make them more reluctant to access health coverage as well as health care. Longstanding research also shows that such fears can have lifelong negative impacts on the physical and mental…
Research from the R Street Institute, published before the transaction was announced, shows the mutual posted a combined ratio of 182.6% in 2023, improving to a still-unprofitable 117.4% in 2024. R Street also pointed to concentrated reinsurance ties, arguing that risk may be retained within a relatively narrow set of counterparties.
Global re/insurer Chubb has reported that it ceded more risk in premium terms to its third-party capitalised total-return reinsurance joint-venture ABR Re in 2025, while the reinsurance commission benefits earned from the entity continued to increase.For full-year 2025, Chubb has reported that the ceded premiums written under transactions involving ABR Reinsurance Capital Holdings Ltd. and its independent reinsurer ABR Reinsurance Ltd. (ABR Re) climbed to $520 million, a solid increase from the $476 million reported for 2024, and the $441 million reported for 2023. As a reminder, for Chubb, the ABR Re strategy provides aligned third-party capital supported reinsurance capacity,…
Planning for continued volatility in 2026 Looking ahead, Gallagher believes spot market volatility, unresolved tariff risk, and rising insurance, repair, and equipment costs will continue to define the near-term outlook for commercial trucking insurance.
Evanko, currently the insurer’s COO, will assume the chief executive role after Cordani retires in July.
In a given year, a small portion of the population is responsible for a very large percentage of total health spending. This collection of charts explores the variation in health spending across the population through an analysis of 2023 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data. The analysis finds that five percent of the population accounted for nearly half of all health spending, spending an average of $72,918 annually in 2023. People with health spending in the top one percent spent an average of $150,467 per year. The analysis also examines spending variation by age, gender, race, insurance coverage status and…
On June 6, 2020, during the policy period, an armed Response Protection guard shot and killed a guest on the hotel premises. The victim’s estate sued Shree Aum, Patel, Response Protection, and the guard in Oklahoma state court, asserting claims including negligence, negligent hiring, training, retention and supervision, premises liability, and negligent use of force, along with a claim for punitive damages.
As the catastrophe bond market continues to expand into new perils and more complex structures, broad and credible modelling coverage becomes highly important. However, reinsurer Swiss Re’s proprietary catastrophe models allow the firm to analyse a wider range of risks, which according to executives expands the “investable universe” while maintaining a well-understood risk-return profile.Artemis recently spoke to Balz Grollimund, PhD, Head of Catastrophe Perils, and Mariagiovanna Guatteri, PhD, Chief Investment Officer of Swiss Re Insurance-Linked Investment Advisors Corp. (SRILIAC), who both explained how Swiss Re’s in-house catastrophe modelling capability works in practice, and how it also supports investment decisions. Across…