The head of a Senate committee working on health care reform said details of a "public option" proposal utilizing Medicare and Medicaid resources to provide competition to private health insurers' products are still in the works.

Independent agencies that do an outstanding job selling insurance and providing risk management services for their clients are urged to enter the 2009 National Underwriter "Commercial Insurance Agency Of The Year" award program, with entries due July 13.

A New York agent's association said it has been alerted to an "alarming' trend, by a fraud investigator who told the group that insurance claims are on the rise in the state.

Hartford Financial Services Group could possibly sell its property-casualty insurance operations for up to $7 billion, according to a UBS analysis issued after reports that the company is shopping the property.

In response to the New York insurance superintendent's inquiry into its possible illegal participation in unregulated insurance markets, Allstate has provided an affidavit that it is operating legally.

A coalition of five producer trade groups representing the life, property-casualty and health insurance industries wrote key members of Congress yesterday urging them not to rush through health care reform.

The European Parliament yesterday approved a Solvency II agreement that would take effect in 2012, providing a broad legal framework strengthening insurer capital requirements and supervision.

Over the last three months, London market insurers reported an average premium reduction of eight percent on renewal business for the commercial sector's directors and officers liability insurance , according to Willis Group Holdings.