Agency Management

Not even a still-fragile economy can keep members of Florida's insurance associations from their annual gatherings. Find out where agents, brokers, and industry and carrier representatives will be meeting across the state in the coming months.

My neighbor's home caught fire two years ago after being hit by lightning. Frankly, thunderstorms scare me more than the threat of hurricanes because we have them more often. But I guess there's not much we can do to about it.

After years of fighting between politicians and Florida's property insurers, it appears that the state's private carriers may be on the verge of getting the ability to raise their rates by a limited amount.

Vernon D. Smith has been much in the insurance news lately, as the poster boy for certain transactions

Insurance brokerage Willis Group Holdings, plc., said it raised more than $400,000 for Haitian earthquake relief efforts using a special internal company Web site to gather donations.

An unprecedented $16 billion in first-quarter reinsurer losses from the Chilean earthquake, European storm Xynthia and other natural catastrophes is a record worst for the period, said Willis Re.

While Democrats tout consumer protections in the health care reform law, most people with group health coverage don't appreciate they already enjoy such benefits, says NU Editor Sam Friedman in his blog today at www.NUSamSoapbox.com.

Vertafore's president of agency markets told a user group conference that the company's customer service needs to be improved and users can expect to see the company make strides to do just that.