Sports insurance is a specialty-lines oddity. It is unprofitable business marred by rising loss payouts not accurately balanced by the premiums generated. It is a competitive market where premium prices should be two or three times their current rate, insiders…
Hurricane Irene, which moved from the Caribbean into southwest Florida with winds gusting at 75 miles an hour, dumped more than 18 inches of rain and caused widespread flooding in mid-October. The damage inflicted by Irene to the U.S. eastern…
Canadian and U.S. property and casualty insurance results for the first half of 1999 show a marked decline in earnings, primarily due to weak investment returns and sluggish premium growth. Both the Canadian and U.S. industries witnessed a rise in…
With year 2000 reinsurance treaty negotiationscurrently in full swing, there is a desperate hope among the players that rates will return to moresensible levels. However, faced with increasedcompetition, both locally and globally, reinsurersanticipate a long road ahead before the soft…
Following a lengthy period of stagnation, pricing within the U.S. reinsurance market seems to have stabilized, with even some evidence in the market of rate increases. However, until the market’s excess capacity is depleted, buyers of reinsurance will continue to enjoy the benefits of highly competitive pricing.
Since reforms in the mid-1990s, more and more corporate capital is flowing into Lloyd’s of London — much of it from some of the world’s most noted reinsurers. Could this injection of new capital forge the rebirth of the world’s most unique insurance market?
Foods that hit New Brunswick and Nova Scotia the week of July 26 have formed one of the largest insured losses to hit Atlantic Canada this decade. Close to 900 claims have been submitted to date and insurers predict damages…
Over recent years the largest catastrophic loss payments of most insurers have resulted from prairie hailstorms. During the 1990s, there have been six major storms, each causing catastrophic losses in excess of $50 million. The National Hail Conference, recently held…
Business conditions for the Canadian property and casualty insurance industry remained weak for the first quarter of this year, with auto and personal property showing increased loss ratios across Ontario and Atlantic Canada, says Paul Kovacs in the Insurance Bureau…
There is a patriotic undertone to this year’s Canadian Risk & Insurance Management Society (CRIMS) national conference — “Risk on the Rock” — which will be held in St. John’s Newfoundland this coming September. In addition to hosting one of Canada’s premier national conferences, the province is also celebrating its fiftieth year of Canadian confederacy.
Arecent tornado that hit Oklahoma has become the worst insured catastrophe in the state’s history, according to preliminary information released by the Property Claim Services (PCS) unit of Insurance Services Office (ISO). The storm system caused $955 million in insured…
Natural disasters such as extreme weather, a volcanic eruption or an earthquake, are often quaintly referred to in the insurance world as “Acts of God”, adverse events which are seemingly unexplainable or beyond man’s control. Noticeably, the economic and insurance…