While the entire year’s results are not in yet, the insurance industry should show significant financial gains for 2010 and its performance will be the best it has experienced since the beginning of the financial crisis, said an industry observer.

The chief acquisition officer for Brown & Brown has left the company, replaced by a seasoned executive with more than 20 years of experience with the Daytona Beach, Fla.-based insurance brokerage firm.

Liberty Mutual reached an agreement with two state attorneys general to pay a total of $7.5 million to settle allegations it engaged in a bid-rigging and kickback scheme with insurance brokers.

An executive with Reagan Consulting believes the current rate of merger and acquisition activity over the past five weeks will not be sustained throughout 2011.

The 2011 merger and acquisition spree continued with the recent announcements of six agencies acquired by four major insurance brokerage firms, with Marsh & McLennan Agencies scoring the largest of the lot.

Emphasizing the need for a new approach to state government, New York's new governor is seeking a radical realignment of the way the state does business, including folding the Department of Insurance in with two other agencies.

To deal with a record deficit, New York's new governor is looking to make cuts in state government, and he is eyeing the state's insurance department as one area to promote efficiency.

To deal with a record deficit, New York's new governor is looking to make cuts in state government, and he is eyeing the state's insurance department as one area to promote efficiency.