Latest Indiana Headlines

All the headlines from our Indiana Topic Page, ordered by recency.

P/C RESERVES IN FOR TIGHTER SCRUTINY

Mar 10 2003 // The property/casualty industry’s reserves will be scrutinized more closely, Fitch Ratings has announced. Specifically, Fitch’s analyses will target reserves from U.S. casualty business written between 1997 and...

ARBITRATION USE FOR RESOLVING INTER-INSURANCE DISPUTES JUMPS NEARLY 25 PERCENT IN 2002

Mar 10 2003 // The use of arbitration by property/casualty companies and self-insureds to resolve inter-company claims disputes surged nearly 25 percent in 2002, according to Arbitration Forums Inc. (AF). AF, a nonprofit provider of...

UCITA DEAD IN OKLAHOMA

Mar 10 2003 // Proponents of the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) suffered a double setback as UCITA legislation (SB697) in Oklahoma died in the Senate Appropriations Committee and the American Bar Association (ABA)...

ATNIP PLEADS GUILTY IN ARK.

Mar 10 2003 // Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Mike Pickens announced that Gary Atnip, an alleged co-conspirator with Martin Frankel, entered a guilty plea to a felony charge of violating the maintenance of home office records law. The...

Several Midwestern States Revisit Insurance Scoring

Mar 6 2003 // The issue of credit-based insurance scoring is being revisited in many Midwestern states that considered legislation or regulations on the subject in previous years, according to the National Association of Independent...

TORT COSTS ROSE IN 2001

Feb 24 2003 // The U.S. tort system cost $205 billion in 2001, or $721 per U.S. citizen, representing a 14.3 percent increase in tort costs since the year 2000, according to a study by Tillinghast- Towers Perin (Tillinghast) in...

First Financial Bancorp to Buy Indiana Agency

Feb 11 2003 // First Financial Bancorp has signed a definitive agreement for the cash purchase of a Connersville, Ind., insurance agency. The Feb. 7 agreement indicates that the agency would operate as a full-service office of Flagstone...

IIABA’s Virtual Univ. Offering New Sales Skills Programs to Ind. Agents, Brokers

Feb 10 2003 // The Big “I” Virtual University (VU) of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA) is now offering Richardson QuickSkills™: a four-star rated portfolio of online sales skills programs...

AAI Says Proposed Ind. Credit Scoring Restrictions Could Do More Harm Than Good

Jan 27 2003 // A measure placing additional restrictions on insurer use of credit scores that passed an Indiana House panel late last week could harm an already healthy property/casualty market, thereby harming consumers, according to...

NEW BILLS GO LIVE IN CALIF

Jan 27 2003 // California Gov. Gray Davis and the Democratic-controlled state Legislature came to agreement on 1,168 bills during the last session, making it the most bills Davis has signed in a single year since taking office in 1999. A...

RMS EXPANDS WEATHER DATABASE IN U.S., EUROPE

Jan 27 2003 // Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a provider of products and services for managing natural hazard risks, has expanded the weather databases in its ClimetrixTM weather derivatives trading and risk management system to...

TORT REFORM BILL FILED IN ARK.

Jan 27 2003 // The Arkansas business community is behind a tort reform effort and the introduction of a bill that many believe will help restore rationality to the state’s tort system. According to the National Association of...

Five Bills Introduced in Ind. to Reportedly Restrict Credit Use By Insurers

Jan 24 2003 // During the first three weeks of the 2003 session, Indiana legislators have introduced five bills that would reportedly restrict the use of credit information in underwriting and rating policies, continuing a major debate...

LIBERTY MUTUAL AUTO RATE CHANGE APPROVED IN NEVADA

Jan 13 2003 // Nevada Insurance Commissioner Alice Molasky-Arman has approved a rate change for private passenger automobile insurance filed by Liberty Mutual Group. The statewide average change of -0.3 percent for Liberty Mutual Fire...

AWARD SLASHED IN MOLD CASE

Jan 13 2003 // The Third Court of Appeals in Austin found that Farmers Insurance Group had both acted in bad faith and violated the state’s deceptive trade practices law in a landmark case that originally saddled the company with a...

INSURER IN RECEIVERSHIP

Jan 13 2003 // Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Carroll Fisher obtained a temporary court order placing Fairway Employment Services into receivership. According to the insurance department Fairway, along with a number of affiliated...

Two Tallahassee Ind. Agencies Merge To Form Area’s Largest

Jan 9 2003 // Two of Tallahassee, Fla.’s oldest and largest independent insurance agencies, Rogers, Atkins, Gunter & Associates and Vaughn Insurance Agency, announced they merged into one company effective January 1, 2003....

Hub International to Purchase Fifth Third Insurance Services

Dec 30 2002 // Chicago-based Hub International Limited announced an agreement to purchase Fifth Third Insurance Services, Inc., an insurance brokerage subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp.“The acquisition, which is...

PROBLEMS IN RESIDUAL AUTO MARKET

Dec 16 2002 // A recent report by issued by the Alliance of American Insurers shows that despite the lowest market share in over 20 years, automobile residual market mechanisms in several states continued to burden private insurers in...

CRACKDOWN ON AGENTS IN LA.

Nov 25 2002 // The Louisiana Department of Insurance Fraud Unit investigators served cease and desist and summary suspension orders to licensed insurance agent Tommy Ray Dean of Shreveport, the day after the department served a C&D...