Latest Underwriting Headlines

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

Orchid Underwriters Expands Commercial Lines into Alabama, Mississippi

Jul 24 2017 // Orchid Underwriters Agency, LLC, a specialty underwriter of catastrophic coastal insurance, announced that it expanded its Commercial Lines business to two new states: Alabama and Mississippi.The two new states join New...

London Underwriters, Trigon to Offer Low-Value Homeowners Program in Alabama

Jul 24 2017 // London Underwriters LLC, a national MGA and surplus lines broker, has partnered with Birmingham based wholesaler Trigon Inc., to provide a new and exclusive low-value homeowners program for the state of Alabama.The product...

‘Specialize and Diversify,’ Industry Veteran Markel Tells Super Regional Insurers

Jul 21 2017 // Insurance is a very simple business.“You take in some money, you spend some money and you lose some money, and God willing, you have some left at the end of the day,” according to Anthony (Tony) Markel, vice...

Castel Specialty Launches Global Construction Business

Jul 21 2017 // Castel Specialty, a division of Castel Underwriting Agencies Ltd., has expanded its portfolio with the launch of Castel Construction.London-based Castel Underwriting Agencies, part of Barbican Insurance Group, is a...

Travelers Says It’s ‘Where It Needs to Be’ to Compete; Q2 Results Dampened by Weather

Jul 20 2017 // Small business insurance leader Travelers Companies is well-positioned to continue to compete in the small commercial insurance space that is attracting new entries including technology-driven start-ups, according to CEO...

Ironshore Taps Berkley Re Property Treaty Execs for Pembroke’s Patria Re Portfolio

Jul 18 2017 // Ironshore International’s Pembroke Managing Agency Ltd. has appointed two treaty property leaders to join the Patria Re underwriting team.Nicolas Benardout has been appointed divisional director while Jack Bunting is...

Insurance Underwriters See Risks, Opportunities in Speeding Up Infrastructure Projects

Jul 14 2017 // “We’re going to cut a lot of red tape,” President Trump said at a CEO town hall meeting as he unrolled a long, colorful flow chart showing the process required for a state government to obtain the federal...

Tokio Millennium Re Names Ex-Lloyd’s Exec, Secrett, as Chief Underwriting Officer

Jul 14 2017 // Zurich-based Tokio Millennium Re AG (TMR) has appointed Brian Secrett as chief underwriting officer (CUO) and member of the executive committee, with effect from Oct. 1, 2017 and subject to regulatory approvals.As the new...

Chubb Appoints Bertossi as VP, Global Underwriting, Succeeding Bonneau

Jul 13 2017 // Chubb Ltd. announced it has named Ross Bertossi vice president of Global Underwriting for Chubb Group. He succeeds Jacques Bonneau who announced his retirement.Bertossi will have responsibility for advancing underwriting...

Agents Seek Better Grasp of Carriers’ Commercial Lines Underwriting Likes

Jul 12 2017 // Independent agents want to talk about underwriting, and they’re urging their carriers to listen. Preliminary results from the 2017 Channel Harvest Research survey indicate agents want to see companies put greater...

RSG Forms LatAm-Focused MGU, Capital Bay Underwriting; Ex-AIG Execs Lead Unit

Jul 11 2017 // Ryan Specialty Group (RSG) announced the formation of its first Latin American-focused managing general underwriter (MGU), hiring two former executives from American International Group to lead the unit.Pascal Alvarez has...

Neon Names Novae’s Watson as Underwriter in Professional Indemnity Team

Jul 10 2017 // Neon announced it has appointed of Matthew Watson as an underwriter in its professional indemnity team. Watson is based in London and reports to Antonio Bellanca, head of Professional Indemnity at Neon. He joins from Novae...

Linhart Joins J.M. Wilson as Transportation Underwriter

Jul 10 2017 // Managing general agency and surplus lines insurance broker, J.M. Wilson, has hired Joni Linhart as transportation underwriter in their Carmel, Indiana, office.Linhart is responsible for quoting new and renewal...

State of P/C Insurance Industry, Part 1: The Fate of ‘Hard Market’ Agencies (and Companies)

Jul 10 2017 // Property/casualty (P/C) insurance and group benefits industry is changing faster than ever. Many factors are the parents of such change. In part one of this two part series, I will focus on the more traditional aspects and...

People

Jul 10 2017 // The Main Street America Group has promoted Dan Gaynor to senior vice president and chief underwriting officer.Gaynor, who has been the super-regional property/casualty insurance company’s vice president of commercial...

J.M. Wilson Adds Bartolacci as Assistant Fleet Underwriter

Jul 7 2017 // Managing general agency and surplus lines insurance broker, J.M. Wilson, has added Ryan Bartolacci as assistant fleet underwriter in its Portage, Michigan, office. He is responsible for quoting new and renewal fleet...

Zurich North America Names Ironshore’s DeLong VP of Cyber Underwriting

Jul 6 2017 // Zurich North America has hired Yosha DeLong as vice president of cyber underwriting, a role that expands Zurich’s cyber resources as the cyber exposures continue to evolve beyond data security. DeLong will lead the...

Campbell Promoted to Senior Transportation Underwriter at J.M. Wilson

Jul 6 2017 // Managing general agency and surplus lines insurance broker, J.M. Wilson, has Brenda Campbell to senior transportation underwriter in its Portage, Michigan, office. She is responsible for quoting new and renewal...

Flood Insurance in the Standard Market Part 2

Jul 5 2017 // Last week, we started a conversation about flood coverage. If you missed last week’s blog, go back and read it now. We’ll wait for you. To sum up last week’s blog, I believe that the standard market could...

Zurich’s Fergot Heads to CNA as Vice President of Underwriting in California

Jun 30 2017 // CNA has named Gregg Fergot as vice president of underwriting. Fergot will be based in San Francisco and report to Dieter Korte, senior vice president of customer segments. He will be responsible for leading the technology...