After several years of soft-market conditions, Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) is experiencing double-digit rate increases, driven in part by claims caused by the recession.

Smaller agencies selling employee-benefit services face increased compliance demands and lower commissions now that the health-care-reform law has been upheld by the Supreme Court, but agents arent throwing in the towel just yet.

According to a report from insurance broker Marsh, the percentage of clients purchasing Pollution Legal Liability (PLL) and Contractors Pollution Liability (CPL) policies has increased: Nearly 10 percent more PLL policies were sold in 2011 compared to 2009.

Global non-life insurance premiums grew 1.9 percent in 2011 compared to 2010, driven by strong economic expansion in emerging markets and by rate increases in advanced markets, according to Swiss Re.

Commercial and personal-lines pricing continued their upward drive through the month of June as composite rates matched the previous months increases, according to MarketScout.

A recent court case illustrates why wholesale brokers should carefully review the contractual language before signing with a surplus-lines carrier an agreement that obligates the producer to ensure that risks being submitted comply with the insurers underwriting criteria.

Increasingly, more CEOs and CFOs are taking charge of their companies risk-management duties, according to a Deloitte & Touche and Forbes Insights surveyand the majority of those companies say they plan to implement changes designed to raise the profile of risk management throughout their organization.

As the number of catastrophe bonds has grown over the past five years so has the use of industry triggers to determine the release of capital, according to a report from Property Claim Services.