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Bermuda's property and casualty insurance companies are planning to use their capital to diversify beyond that catastrophe-prone area of business. Shareholders are pressuring firms to pay profits before capital is depleted by dropping prices. Of the eight Bermuda reinsurers, some are considering aggressive investment strategies but most are planning diversification. Operations at Renaissance Reinsurance Co, Mid Ocean Reinsurance and Glencoe Insurance Ltd are examples., If pricing deteriorates further in 1997 as expected, pressure on the Bermuda reinsurance market to improve capital utilization could pick up, according to market experts. Craig Elkind, a director at [...]

Insurance agents can often find better coverage for their clients on the non-admitted market than on the admitted market, according to some industry members. However, the admitted market is more difficult to access. This situation indicates that there is a need for more flexibility in the surplus market, according to some insurance officials. However, others believe that brokers have more access than they think to the non-admitted market. For example, they do not have to accept quotes from the admitted market if it does not meet their clients' needs. This then qualifies them to look at the non-admitted market., State regulation of commercial insurance is often the butt of jokes and criticism about bureaucracy and inflexibility. Indeed, the current state of commercial lines regulation -- even in the 'unregulated' [...]

ACE Bermuda Insurance Ltd., a unit of ACE Ltd., announced the details of a restructuring that will allow the company to capitalize on the new opportunities presented by ACE'S expanded [...]

Mutual Risk Management Ltd. seems perfectly situated to profit from an upswing in commercial insurance prices, which would stimulate interest in the alternative risk-transfer market. But Robert A. Mulderig, chairman [...]

Overseas Partners Cat Ltd., a new subsidiary of Overseas Partners Ltd., has entered into an agreement with Renaissance Re Holdings Ltd. to underwrite worldwide property-catastrophe reinsurance programs. The new company--OPCat--has [...]

John Engstrom, speaking at the 1999 International Reinsurance Congress, finds that the reinsurance industry is not over-consolidated. The statistics from different sources do not agree, showing the top ten reinsurance companies to have written either 48.7% or 29.8% of the market in 1998., Concern about whether there has been too much consolidation in the reinsurance industry is overwrought, according to John Engestrom, president and chief executive officer of Tempest Reinsurance Company Ltd. in [...]

It's not personal, it's just business,' says a character in Francis Ford Coppola's film masterpiece, 'The Godfather.' Those sentiments were echoed by Donald Cramer, vice chairman of ACE Ltd., the [...]

While experts assert that e-mail discovery can double or even triple discovery costs in litigation covered by insurance, directors and officers liability insurers report that they have seen little evidence [...]

For some time now, Bermuda's property-catastrophe reinsurance industry has been slowly expanding product lines to the point where many are now full-fledged multiline reinsurance companies. The trend has hardly been [...]

A week after United Parcel Service, Inc. decried a U.S. Tax Court's opinion holding it liable for taxes on income paid out as premiums for reinsurance on shippers' risk coverage, [...]

As Clive R. Tobin takes over the helm of XL Insurance Co. Ltd., he seems genuinely comfortable with the diminished but still important role the company will be playing in [...]

John W. Smithson likes PMA Reinsurance Corp.'s business model so much he is applying it to the reinsurer's affiliated companies. It's no surprise he likes the model, since he designed [...]

DAN LONKEVICH IS AN ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR NU's PROPERTY & CASUALTY/RISK & BENEFITS MANAGEMENT EDITION. Steven Brilling is not a typical chief information officer. The newly appointed 55 year-old CIO [...]

As IRB Re Brazil goes, so goes the Brazilian reinsurance market. Analysts say the emerging reinsurance market in Brazil is a fascinating one in that it involves a single company--IRB [...]

Two top executives at Gemini Re Holdings Ltd. have suspended their association with the Bermuda-based reinsurance startup that has a hedge-fund twist because of 'strategic differences with other principals' as [...]

A federal judge has urged Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Linda L. Ruthardt and the Bermuda-based liquidators of Electric Mutual Liability Insurance Co to negotiate on the protocols for sharing control over the liquidation of the failed insurer. The company has declared itself insolvent and petitioned for liquidation in Bermunda. Massachusetts has disputed jurisdictional and other issues., A federal judge has strongly urged a Massachusetts regulator and the Bermuda liquidators of Electric Mutual Liability Ins. Co. to try to negotiate protocols for sharing control of the disputed [...]

Insurance regulators from Florida and Illinois are concerned about the insurance company abuses that could take place as a result of the Insurance Services Office's new Year 2000 computer-related exposures exclusions. There is concern about how the exclusions will be used rather than with the wording of the exclusions. Florida's Department of Insurance plans to hold a public hearing to discuss these issues., Illinois and Florida insurance regulators are raising questions about the potential for abuse by insurers of new exclusions for Year 2000 computer-related exposures recently introduced by the Insurance Services Office. [...]

Allied Mutual Ins. Co. announced last week it wouldn't release its list of policyholders to 'a New York newsletter publisher' seeking a seat on the insurer's board. 'The release of [...]

The Catastrophe Risk Exchange (Catex) says that it will provide subscriptions to the 120 syndicates and 60 managing general agents of Lloyd's of London under an agreement between the two companies. Lloyd's managing general agents will have the ability to access Catex's trading system by utilizing the London market's computer system., Catex, the Catastrophe Risk Exchange, has announced it has reached an agreement to offer subscriptions to Lloyd's of London's 60 managing general agents and 120 syndicates. Providing they sign on, [...]

Cigna Corp has formed Cigna IntegratedCare, a subsidiary that will integrate Cigna's workers's compensation, disability, and health products. Donald Duford has been named president of the new group, which was created jointly by Cigna Property & Casualty Co, Cigna Healthcare, and Cigna Group Insurance. Cigna IntegratedCare will offer AbilityReturns and MedReturns, two products that integrate return-to-work health care with managed care services., In a move to define the market for fully integrated workers' compensation, disability and health products, Cigna Corp. has formed a new subsidiary called Cigna IntegratedCare. The new company -- [...]

Schiff's Insurance Observer Publisher David Schiff has raised serious questions about the sales of stock, transfer of stock, stock repurchases and loans that have taken place between Allied Mutual Insurance Co. and its stock affiliate, Allied Group Inc., since 1985. Schiff is trying to obtain a seat on Allied Mutual's board in 1997. Schiff will get rid of the current Allied Mutual board of directors and return as much as $725 million to policyholders of the mutual company., Allied Group Inc. posted an 11 percent increase in net income in the latest quarter, citing less severe weather, improved underwriting gains and lower underwriting expenses. Meanwhile, despite these solid [...]

A prominent insurance agent group is raising questions about a growing trend in the insurance industry: the use of credit history in personal lines underwriting. The Arlington, Va.-based Independent Insurance [...]

Several state regulators have criticized CIGNA Corp's restructuring deal, citing the desire for improved ratings from A.M. Best and other agencies as the impetus for the restructuring. Cigna and state regulators approving the restructuring said ratings were a factor but not a driving factor in the restructuring. Some are criticizing the role ratings agencies play in the insurance market., As critical attention continues to focus on Pennsylvania's controversial approval of Cigna Corp.'s liability-based restructuring, some regulators from other states are raising questions about insurance rating agencies' involvement in the [...]

Managed-care workers' compensation insurer Riscorp Inc of Sarasota, FL, plans to cut staff, refocus on key markets and restructure financial operations. Analysts say the 17% workforce reduction and other measures are designed to make the firm more attractive for acquisition. Riscorp is under pressure from rating agencies and the Nasdaq Market System as well as scrutiny from state and federal regulators., Riscorp Inc. has announced a major corporate restructuring to refocus its operations on key markets and its key line of business. The troubled Sarasota, Fla.-based managed-care workers' compensation insurer said [...]

National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) CEO William D. Hager is deflecting talk of controversy regarding NCCI's potential conversion to a for-profit stock company. NCCI's board postponed a decision on the conversion after regulators and board members expressed concern about the plan. Under Hager's tenure, NCCI has reduced its output of regulatory products, a de-emphasis that may account for the objections of some regulators to NCCI's for-profit plan., Orlando William D. Hager, chief executive officer of the National Council on Compensation Insurance, is playing down any controversy over NCCI's consideration of a conversion to a for-profit stock company [...]

Lexington Insurance Co. has averted concerns expressed by the Delaware Dept of Insurance by no longer ceding business to Coral Reinsurance Co and by commuting $100 million in Coral Re's reinsurance credits. The Dept had been concerned about the nature of Lexington parent company American International Group's control of Coral Re and related matters, such as the fact that Coral Re investors' return is based on the level of investment rather than on the company's overall profitability., Lexington Ins. Co. has agreed to stop ceding any business to Coral Reinsurance Co. and to commute $100 million of the Coral Re reinsurance credits it is curently taking. The [...]

Terrorist threats have had little effect on insurance premiums for the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, GA. Insurance coverage for the Olympic games will increase by about 2% as a result of terrorist threats, according to estimates from risk management administrator for the state of Georgia, Jerry Newsome. The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games has purchased automobile liability, general liability, umbrella liability and property and inland marine and workers' compensation for the Olympic games., Risk managers who obtain insurance for the city of Atlanta and private Olympics groups during the Summer Games say the potential threat of terrorism from militia groups hasn't translated into [...]

The key to success in the reinsurance business is emphasizing profit as global rather than as local, and underwriting expertise above marketing prowess, cording to Jean-Marie Nessi, chairman, president and [...]

The new Bermuda government is committed to making the island a friendly environment for international business and especially the insurance industry according to Jennifer M. Smith. the newly elected Premier [...]

In today's strenuously competitive global reinsurance market the benefits of scale and the trend of convergence are not always what they seem. This was the warning delivered here by a [...]

As a new group of insurance and reinsurance startups looks for a foothold in the Bermuda market, analysts remain skeptical about the new entities' chances for success. The capital flowing [...]

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners nearly completed a white paper on mutual insurance holding company restructurings at its summer national meeting here, but policyholder advocates were vehement in their [...]

Bowing to pressure from regulators and consumer advocates, FCCI Mutual Ins. Co., a Sarasota, Fla.-based mutual workers' compensation insurer, said it has simultaneously withdrawn and resubmitted its plan to reorganize [...]

U.S.A. Basketball playing at the 1996 Olympic Summer Games has insured each of its players on the Dream Team up to $20 million in the even of a permanent or temporary disability. The hybrid permanent total disability/partial temporary disability insurance policies are underwritten by Lloyd's of London and other insurance carriers. Dream Team players will also be watched and monitored by onsite trainers and doctors., Even as National Basketball Association free agents negotiate fatter and fatter contracts, players for the 1996 U.S. Olympics basketball 'Dream Team' face the unlikely prospect of a career-threatening injury. The [...]