Property and Casualty News

Government officials outlined plans for what they say will be the largest fire clean-up in California history, aimed at removing hazardous substances and ash from 8,400 homes and other structures burned in Northern California wildfires this month. With hundreds of anxious homeowners listening, state emergency services official Eric Lamoureaux set a target date of early 2018 for completing the clean-up and allowing owners to start rebuilding.

The Senate is pushing ahead on a $36.5 billion hurricane relief package that would give Puerto Rico a much-needed infusion of cash but rejects requests from the powerful Texas and Florida congressional delegations for additional money to rebuild after hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The measure also replenishes rapidly dwindling emergency disaster accounts and provides $16 billion to permit the financially troubled federal flood insurance program pay an influx of Harvey-related claims.

Florida is a no-fault state, there is mandatory $10,000 PIP Personal Injury Protection coverage accounting for one-fourth of the insurance premiums. Florida is second in the nation for uninsured drivers on the road at 24%, and there is more car insurance fraud than any other state with con men attempting to take advantage of no-fault laws.

_ The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. on Monday reported third-quarter profit of $234 million. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 59 cents per share. The Hartford shares have climbed 19 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard& Poor’s 500 index has climbed 15 percent.

The chances you’ll hit a deer while driving the next year are 1 in 94, according to new numbers from State Farm Insurance. The national cost-per-claim average is up a little bit– to $4,179, from $3,995 in 2015-2016. The months you’re most likely to collide with a deer are, in order: November, October and December. State Farm encourages motorists to slow down after…

The man sold the policies for American Family Mutual Insurance Company. Levi Watson pleaded guilty to first-degree theft and admitted the crime was particularly egregious because there were multiple victims and the defendant misused his position of trust and fiduciary responsibility. Snohomish County Superior Court Judge David Kurtz sentenced Watson…

Mercury Insurance Company and a coalition of insurance industry groups filed a petition against Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones in the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, again challenging his authority to protect California consumers from excessive and unfair insurance rates. “Consumers should be angry but not surprised that Mercury and other insurers are…

Swiss Re, one of the world’s biggest reinsurers, estimates that Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, two recent earthquakes in Mexico will cost the industry about $95 billion. The Zurich-based company, which as a reinsurer provides backup policies to companies that write primary insurance policies, says the claims process is ongoing and such estimates could evolve.

Oct. 20– Third quarter profits at Travelers Cos. were battered by claims from an unusually severe hurricane season, and the property-casualty insurer said Thursday that it is keeping a close watch on the wildfires in California as it heads to the end of the year. Net income in the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $293 million, or $1.06 a diluted share, compared with $716…

Two big insurers alone– Farmers Insurance and State Farm Insurance– have received at least 6,600 claims in connection with California’s infernos. The vast majority of those are linked to the blazes in the North Bay for homeowners’ insurance claims, officials with both insurers said Wednesday. Even worse, other recent natural disasters, including brutal…

NRA’s insurance for gun owners involved in self-defense cases is under fire. A gun-control group is launching an advertising campaign calling the product ‘murder insurance’ and says it will encourage people to shoot during any perceived threat. It’s asking the insurance companies involved to back out.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency issued the following news release:. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is set to begin enforcing the Alabama Mandatory Liability Insurance Law. Alabama’s Secretary of Law Enforcement Hal Taylor said, “There has been a grace period in enforcing that law to give motorists time to obtain the proper insurance coverage.

CAMDEN, N.J.- An Ambler, Pennsylvania, man was charged today with using phony documents to collect $252,734 in FEMA- backed disaster benefits and insurance payments that were supposed to be used to cover storm damages to his mother’s property in Ocean City, New Jersey, Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick announced. He appeared today before U.S. Magistrate…

–Flooded vehicles have finally stopped arriving at the Royal Purple Raceway east of Houston. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, these totals surpass the number of claims that resulted from Hurricane Katrina and from Superstorm Sandy. In addition, more than 215,000 claims have been filed following damage to vehicles from Hurricane Irma in…

The former mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is suing an insurance company and broker because she says the $4 million she received for a lost blue diamond ring isn’t enough. The Tulsa World says Kathy Taylor reported that she lost the ring her husband gave her while taking a cooking class during a vacation in California. She says in a federal lawsuit that AIG Property Casualty Co.’s payment doesn’t cover the ring’s full value.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency issued the following news release:. Federal funding is available to state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by Tropical Storm Harvey in…

Oct. 17– Jurors on Monday convicted a Twin Cities chiropractor and two co-defendants of a multimillion-dollar scheme that defrauded insurance companies through submission of no-fault auto insurance claims. Forthun’s alleged patient recruiters, Abdisalan A. Hussein, 48, and Carlos P. Luna, 49, both of Minneapolis, were also found guilty of multiple mail and…

Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited announced today a preliminary estimate of approximately $310 million in pre-tax losses, net of reinsurance and reinstatement premiums, related to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. In addition, Aspen estimates pre-tax losses, net of reinsurance and reinstatement premiums, of approximately $50 million from several other…

–Aon Benfield, the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon plc, today launches its annual Homeowners’ ROE Outlook report, which forecasts continued growth in direct US homeowners’ insurance premiums for 2017 despite a decreasing return on equity for insurers. The report reveals that US homeowners’ premiums increased from USD89 billion in…

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner Monday requested Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to supply his city with money from the state’s $10 billion so-called Rainy Day fund to finance a $70 million phase-1 clean-up of damages left by Hurricane Harvey that hit the city on August 26 and lasted nine days. The mayor’s office is seeking City Council approval for an increase in taxes…