Catastrophe losses from Q4 2011 and prior quarters significantly weighed on earnings for three Bermuda specialty insurance and reinsurance companies.

XL Group says it took a 2011 fourth-quarter net loss of $515.5 million on a large impairment charge and catastrophe losses.

Negotiations between Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and plaintiffs attorneys over more than $100 million are off to a rocky start following a U.S. Supreme Court decision to not delay the execution of the class-action judgment against the last-resort insurer.

International filming locations, motorcycle riding by its Oscar-nominated actress and highly physical scenes made The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo the riskiest film for Firemans Fundto insure in 2011.

If there wasnt already enough tension between Allstate agents and the company, a memo about a glitch in agents compensation may have added some more fuel to the fire.

While clarity has begun to emerge in some of the countries affected by the Arab Spring, the resulting tension has spurred or intensified protests in dozens of countriesand this remains a concern for businesses operating in those nations, says Aon.

While the month of January delivered no single major catastrophe loss, there were enough weather events to cause close to a half-billion dollars in losses worldwide, according to a report released by Aon Benfield.

In spite of continuing soft-market conditions, both median organic growth and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for privately held insurance agents and brokers were up slightly from 2010. Median organic growth totaled 3.7 percent, and median EBITDA profitability was up slightly at 18.2 percent, according to Reagan...