A tow truck operator and a used car dealer have bee sentenced for their roles in a motor vehicle theft scheme in New York. New York Attorney General Letitia Jame said an investigation by her office and the New York State Police (NYSP) revealed that John F. Rivers of East Greenbush used his towing company’s contracts with local businesses to steal vehicles, and then later illegally sold the vehicles he towed to scrap yards or used car dealers, including Robert A. Pitcher of Broadalbin. Rivers and Pitcher were charged with more than 30 felonies for stealing and selling vehicles towed…
Author: Awais
SAN Group Names Marcou Agency Growth Coach Lynn Marcou SAN Group, headquartered in Hampton, New Hampshire, hired Lynn Marcou as agency growth coach, supporting member agencies across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Marcou provides hands-on coaching and strategic guidance to SAN member agencies, connecting them with SAN and SIAA resources aligned to their specific goals and challenges. She has 36 years of insurance industry experience, with a background in agency operations, sales leadership, and carrier relationships. She held leadership roles with SAN Group and SIAA, including director of agency foundation, regional vice president for Northern New England, and agency…
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is the most prevalent non-tobacco substance use disorder in the United States and over half of US adults (54%) say that someone in their family has struggled with an alcohol use disorder. Federal data show that 1 in 10 Americans (ages 12+) had an AUD in the past year and over 40% of drinkers reported binge drinking in the past month, yet only one-third of adults view alcohol addiction as a “crisis,” compared to over half who see opioids as such. In early January 2026, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the updated…
Bolttech Holdings Ltd. is in talks to buy Nasdaq-listed MoneyHero Ltd., people familiar with the matter said, a move that would combine two financial technology firms backed by billionaire Richard Li. Closely held Bolttech is doing due diligence and valuation work for a potential takeover of MoneyHero, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Considerations are ongoing and there’s no guarantee they’ll lead to a binding agreement, the people said. Bolttech last year raised $147 million in a Series C round from investors including Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp. and Portuguese private equity firm…
The surge of insurance capital into private markets is boosting hiring and pay deals in the sector despite recent jitters, with senior managing directors asking for pay packets of $2.5 million and above. Those are some of the findings in the latest credit industry recruitment report from RCQ Associates, which said that mandates for professionals experienced in asset-backed financing jumped almost 60% in 2025 from a year earlier. For top staff with in-demand skills, the base salary and bonus packages are being supplemented by “significant” carried interest — a share in profits — RCQ said. Hiring of such of experts…
Hiscox Capital Partners, the division of Hiscox Re that encompasses insurance-linked securities (ILS) investments and quota-share partnerships, lifted its ILS assets under management (AUM) to $1.5 billion at January 1st 2026, as $330 million of inflows over the last year served to increase deployable capital for the unit.Just last week, Hiscox Re, the reinsurance division of Hiscox Group, announced the launch of Hiscox Capital Partners as a new business unit to consolidate all the capital partnership activity the organisation has managed for nearly two decades, including third-party capital and insurance-linked securities (ILS). In the Hiscox annual results this morning the…
The United States failed to place any of its three zones inside the top 10 of the 2026 FM Resilience Index, the annual ranking of 130 countries by commercial property insurer FM. Europe claimed nine of the top 10 spots, with Denmark holding No. 1 for a third straight year, followed by Luxembourg, Singapore, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Finland and Belgium.
A coalition of authorities is deploying technology to try to locate the wreck of a fishing boat that sank last month off Massachusetts, killing all seven aboard. But winter weather and sea conditions have thus far slowed their efforts. The 72-foot (22-meter) vessel Lily Jean was returning to port early Jan. 30 to repair fishing gear when it sank in frigid Atlantic waters off the historic fishing port of Gloucester. Multiple agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Massachusetts Environmental Police, are cooperating to try to find the wreck of the ship and potentially recover…
The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association’s board voted to finalize $4.3 billion as the association’s 1-in-50 probable maximum loss for the 2026 storm season. The 1:50 PML, the level of losses that would be expected to be exceeded on an annual basis 2% or less of the time, is a benchmark that establishes the minimum amount of reinsurance needed to meet TWIA’s statutory funding obligation for the upcoming storm season. The board took the vote on Tuesday. Changes enacted by the Texas Legislature last year reduced TWIA’s minimum required catastrophe funding level. Previously, it was required to obtain catastrophe funding based…
Wynn Resorts on Tuesday said hackers had obtained employee data and that the company was investigating the breach. Michael Weaver, Wynn’s chief communications officer, said in an email Tuesday that the company learned that “an unauthorized third party acquired certain employee data,” and that the company launched an investigation and brought in external cybersecurity experts. Related: Odido Telecom Says Customer Data Compromised in Cyberattack “The unauthorized third party has stated that the stolen data has been deleted,” Weaver said. “We are monitoring and to date have not seen any evidence that the data has been published or otherwise misused.” Weaver…
Jenks will oversee Accelerant’s legal affairs and corporate governance. He joins with more than 20 years’ experience in capital markets, third-party capital, M&A, investment transactions and public company governance. Most recently, he was senior vice president of corporate and securities counsel and corporate secretary at Reinsurance Group of America (RGA), where he held leadership roles for more than 14 years. He previously advised public companies on transactions, disclosure and compliance.
With no debate and little discussion, a final Florida House committee on Tuesday approved a bill that would set up a clearinghouse to help move commercial policies out of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and into surplus lines carriers. The House Commerce Committee, the final stop before a House floor vote, adopted a “strike-all” amendment to the bill after state regulators and some insurance brokers and agents had raised concerns in recent weeks. But the approved version incorporates few of the changes that agents and Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky had hoped for—despite words from the bill sponsor that indicated otherwise. “What…
From 2014 to 2024, over half a million lives (516,790) were lost to suicide, with 2022 marking the highest annual total on record. Since then, overall suicides have declined somewhat, but trends diverged by method: firearm suicides continued to rise, reaching a new high in 2024. As a result, firearms accounted for 57% of all suicides in 2024, up from 50% in 2014, while suicides by other methods fell. Some of the shift may also reflect undercounting if some suicides are recorded as unintentional drug overdose deaths. These shifts may have implications for prevention strategies including the capacity and design of crisis…
A U.S. judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit accusing Tesla of discriminating against American citizens in hiring so it can pay less to foreign workers, but said he was skeptical that the software engineer who sued would prevail. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco said in a brief order late Monday that Scott Taub, who filed the proposed class action in September, had offered up “just enough facts” about Tesla’s hiring practices for the case to move forward. Taub says the electric carmaker led by billionaire Elon Musk passed him over for an engineering job, part of…