With high-profile cases like ChoicePoint and TJX acting as a lure, plaintiffs' attorneys are targeting businesses for data security breaches or electronic data loss events...and the lawsuit could be the least of a business's problems.

After years of robust M&A insurance activity, the number of deals completed in 2009 will probably cause this year's deal totals to be the lowest in several years.

In a year when "growth" has meant "flat" and economic recovery remains frail, the fact that almost 1,000 attendees came to Kansas City last week for the Applied Systems Client Network (ASCnet) TENCon proves the organization's success.

They're located in Canada, Florida, and a Mississippi Gulf Coast town. They have as few as 10 employees and as many as 250. One of the only things these ASCnet agencies have in common is success based on automation.

s incoming chair of the Applied Systems Client Network (ASCnet), Lisa Parry Becker, vice president of William B. Parry & Son, Ltd., Langhorne, Pa., is targeting more educational opportunities for members and increased engagement at all levels.

Earthquakes, wildfires, state budget collapses and massive unemployment.

Things gradually may be getting back to normal in the global stock markets, at least compared to events last year, when Lehman Brothers tanked and AIG and others were in crisis mode after their subprime mortgage investments collapsed.

After years of contraction, the agency-brokerage mergers and acquisition market could be on the verge of a comeback.