Latest Texas Headlines

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

New Billing, Commission System at Texas Windstorm Pool Starts Jan. 1

Oct 13 2011 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) will be implementing a new billing and commission system beginning Jan. 1, 2012.In a bulletin to insurance agents, TWIA said under the new system it will assume the...

Texas-based The Gibraltar Group Adds Rampy to Leadership Team

Oct 12 2011 // The Gibraltar Group, a risk and insurance advisory firm headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, has added Abie Rampy as director of communications and marketing. With more than 10 years of organizational management and marketing...

Foremost Launches Upgraded Auto Program in Texas

Oct 11 2011 // Foremost Insurance Group’s enhanced auto program is now available in Texas. The Foremost program features more competitive rates, new discounts, increased coverage options and improved online processing features. The...

Three Work Comp Safety Groups Earn Combined $848K in Texas Mutual Dividends

Oct 11 2011 // Texas Mutual Insurance Co. announced that three workers’ compensation safety groups have earned a combined $847,714 in dividends. The dividends were based largely on each group’s overall loss ratio.The largest...

Nine Texas Cities to Receive Smoke Alarms

Oct 11 2011 // Firefighters in nine Texas cities will be installing smoke alarms into the homes of low income and elderly residents thanks to this year’s We’re Out to Alarm Texas smoke alarm campaign. The program now in its...

Farmers’ Filing Would Raise Homeowners Rates in Texas by Nearly 10%

Oct 11 2011 // Farmers Insurance plans to hike homeowner premiums in Texas by nearly 10 percent next year.The increase will apply to about half of the Farmers Insurance customers across Texas, according to a report in The Dallas Morning...

2nd Man Pleads Guilty in Houston in New York Tour Boat Insurance Case

Oct 11 2011 // A second man has pleaded guilty in Houston in a case involving the sale of insurance to a New York tour operator whose boat capsized in 2005 killing 20 elderly tourists, federal officials reported.Edmund Hugh Benton, 63,...

Texas Insurer in New York Boat Accident Pleads Guilty to Fraud

Oct 7 2011 // A Houston man has pleaded guilty to a charge related to selling fraudulent insurance policies, including one to a company that owned a tour boat which capsized in a New York lake in 2005, killing 20 tourists.Federal...

Texas-based Capps Insurance Agency Adds Fraley as Sales Executive

Oct 6 2011 // Capps Insurance Agency of Mount Pleasant, Texas, announced it has added Jim D. Fraley as a sales executive who will primarily cover the Dallas/Fort Worth and East Texas areas. He brings more than 42 years of insurance...

Management of Texas Disaster Fund Worries Feds

Oct 6 2011 // Texas’ outsourcing of the management of more than $1 billion in federal disaster recovery funds to an engineering firm has raised concern from federal officials.The Austin American-Statesman reports that the firm,...

Few Keep Inventory of Home Property

Oct 6 2011 // It only takes one fire, tornado or hurricane to completely destroy everything you own. Insurance adjusters frequently work with homeowners who have lost everything, but for those who have not taken an inventory of their...

Texas Gov. Perry’s ‘Loser Pays’ Law Seen Having Limited Effect

Oct 5 2011 // Texas Governor Rick Perry’s latest plan to kick trial lawyers out of his state may not send them packing after all.The so-called “loser pays” law that Perry has touted as he seeks the Republican...

Fire Manufacturing Plant Near Dallas Contained, Authorities Say

Oct 4 2011 // A fire at a chemical plant south of Dallas shot massive plumes of black smoke and bright orange flames into the sky on Oct. 3, forcing schoolchildren and residents to evacuate or take cover indoors to avoid possible...

Some Texas Residents Say Seismic Testing is Damaging Homes

Oct 4 2011 // Some homeowners in southeast Fort Worth, Texas, say they have found damage to their homes that they believe was caused by recent seismic testing in their neighborhoods.The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that seismic...

Texas-based MainStreet Joins the ISU Network

Oct 4 2011 // MainStreet, an insurance agency in Montgomery, Texas, has joined the ISU Network, the San Francisco-based organization reported. ISU MainStreet was established and is currently owned by President and CEO Dee Vanschoick Jr....

2011 Sets New Record for Federal Disaster Declarations

Oct 3 2011 // The year 2011 will go down as a record-setting year when it comes to federal disaster declarations, industry analysts say.With another three months left in 2011, and hurricane season continues until November 30, the number...

Work-Related Fatalities Decreased in Texas in 2010

Oct 3 2011 // Texas recorded a preliminary total of 456 work-related fatalities in 2010, a 5 percent decrease compared to the revised 2009 total of 482 fatalities, the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’...

Texas AG: Roofing Contractor to Pay Restitution for Misleading Homeowners

Oct 3 2011 // A Rosenberg, Texas-based roofing contractor has agreed to reimburse all homeowners who improperly paid the company’s “liquidated damages” contracts, the Texas Attorney General’s Office reports.In...

The Woodlands Financial Group Announces 6 New Locations

Oct 3 2011 // Texas-based The Woodlands Financial Group Inc. (TWFG) has opened six new branch locations in three states.Desiree Garza has opened a new branch location in San Antonio, Texas. Garza has 13 years of experience in the...

How Can Insurance Agents Help Texas Fire Victims?

Oct 3 2011 // Many businesses and homeowners are struggling to determine the extent of their damages from what is shaping up to be the worst year in Texas history for fire losses.In handling the crisis, policyholders must quickly...