There's been a lot of talk on the acquisition front by excess and surplus lines insurance companies, but little action to date--even in a year that followed back-to-back declines in organic growth for the segment overall.

A U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board proposal, intended to improve existing financial statements' fair value accounting measurements, will actually make them difficult to compare and interpret, an insurance industry group said.

In a year when "growth" has meant "flat" and economic recovery remains frail, the fact that almost 1,000 attended the Applied Systems Client Network (ASCnet) TENCon here is proof of the organization's success.

The insurance industry shot itself in the foot once again with the clumsy release of a health reform study that has galvanized the industry's critics into a lynch mob, says NU Editor Sam Friedman in his blog today at www.NUSamSoapBox.com.

Forty-three insurance agents and brokers have been fined a total of $42,650 for accepting kickbacks, or failing to supervise staff who accepted kickbacks, New York's insurance superintendent said today.

Officials of America's Health Insurance Plan are apparently extending an olive branch to Senate Democratic leaders in an effort to re-open talks aimed at reshaping the health care reform legislation passed by a Senate panel earlier this week.

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake along the Peninsula segment of the San Andreas Fault in the San Francisco area could cause a $19 billion insured loss, a modeling firm estimates.

Marshall Kath of Dallas has been elected president of the National Association of Professional Surplus Lines Offices, Ltd.