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A Vermont law allowing the formation of branch captives to reinsure employee benefits is expected to stir up a lot of interest if such entities can pass muster with the [...]

Financial services reform hasn't exactly been high on the agenda for the nation's captive insurance industry. But at least some observers warn that such nonchalance might come back to haunt [...]

Bermuda's Parliament unanimously enacted three pieces of legislation aimed at fostering greater cooperation between the island's regulatory authorities and law enforcement and tax authorities in other jurisdictions. Bermuda's governor is [...]

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, [...]

A U.S. Tax Court decision holding United Parcel Service, Inc. liable for up to $1.7 billion in taxes and penalties in connection with the establishment and spin-off of a Bermuda-based [...]

In what came as a surprise to many analysts, Terra Nova (Bermuda) Holdings, Ltd. has signed an agreement to be acquired by excess and surplus lines specialist Markel Corp. in [...]

Continuing its strategy of acquiring investment expertise to leverage its considerable capital base, XL Capital Ltd. Of Bermuda has acquired a minority stake in MKP Capital Management for an undisclosed [...]

Terra Nova (Bermuda) Ltd. said it has hired Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette to help it sort out its strategic alternatives in the wake of an unsolicited merger proposal. The Hamilton, [...]

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 [...]

When Kaj Ahlmann stepped down as president, chairman and chief executive officer at Employers Re Corp., it might have signaled the end of the old way of doing business at [...]

Another life insurer has started legal proceedings to void reinsurance contracts connected with Unicover Managers Inc.'s controversial workers' compensation insurance pool. Unicover is a managing general agency that operated a [...]

DAN LONKEVICH IS AN ASSOCIATE EDITOR WITH NU's PROPERTY & CASUALTY/RISK & BENEFITS MANAGEMENT EDITION. Another life insurer has started legal proceedings to void reinsurance contracts connected with Unicover Managers [...]

Everest Reinsurance Company, one of the few remaining mid-sized independent reinsurers, touched off a wave of speculation about a possible sale last week when it announced the cancellation of an [...]

In a move that appears to mean General Electric has decided to take a broader view of its reinsurance unit, David L. Calhoun was appointed president and chief executive officer [...]

Chutzpah is a Yiddish term that perhaps best applies to Stirling Cooke Brown Holdings Ltd., the Hamilton, Bermuda-based reinsurance brokerage currently embroiled in messy litigation with Odyssey Re (London) Ltd. [...]

ACE Ltd., which recently completed its $3.45 billion acquisition of Cigna Corp.'s domestic and international property-casualty business, must be breathing a little easier, thanks to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In [...]

DAN LONKEVICH IS AN ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF NATIONAL UNDERWRITER'S PROPERTY & CASUALTY/RISK & BENEFITS MANAGEMENT EDITION. With all eyes trained on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers continue to wrangle over financial [...]

William Adamson, chief executive officer of CNA Re, prides himself on his company's high hurdle rate for acquisitions. To be sure, he says, that high hurdle rate is based on [...]

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 [...]

Imagine the chaos and confusion of a fire scene. Now imagine it's your responsibility to investigate and detect evidence of arson. One misstep and another arsonist gets away with it. [...]

Parochial U.S. reinsurers will beat a significant competitive disadvantage because globalization has permanently altered the formula for success in the reinsurance business, according to industry experts. 'It's clear to me [...]

As the aura of gloom about continuously falling prices shows signs of lifting in the global reinsurance market, analysts and investors wonder whether the optimism is really warranted. 'Everyone [in [...]

PXRE Corp.'s announced reason for redomesticating to Bermuda may be to enhance its profitability, but analysts assert it also may enhance the company's appeal as a takeover target. The Edison, [...]

ACE Ltd. announced the completion of its acquisition of the U.S. property-casualty business of Cigna Corp. and said it expected to achieve $195 million in annual expense savings in the [...]

The tobacco industry has significant incentives to pursue insurance claims against their liability insurers, according to a July 9 report by Schroders Securities in London. Indeed, insurance analysts at Schroders [...]

In what could be a harbinger of a number of deals in which reinsurance is used to protect the downside risk in capital investment, Swiss Reinsurance Co. and Partners Group [...]

The Colorado Supreme Court handed insurers another loss in an environmental liability case, citing ambiguous policy language and ruling that it must be construed in favor of coverage. The high [...]

Trenwick Group inc. said it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Chartwell Re Corp. for $368 million, including the assumption of debt. The deal also would require Chartwell to [...]

A working group of state insurance regulators is warming to the idea of establishing greater parity between the admitted and surplus lines markets for large commercial buyers and is expected [...]

A smokeless-tobacco 4 company in Memphis, Tenn. has asked its insurers to pay about $10 million in defense costs related to a single wrongful death lawsuit; insurance attorneys contend. Meanwhile, [...]

Gemini Re Holdings, a new Bermuda-based reinsurer with a hedge fund twist, has not had much success replacing its senior management which suspended their association with the company last month. [...]

USAA has set another benchmark in terms of catastrophe risk securitization with its third purchase of reinsurance from Residential Reinsurance Ltd., a Cayman Islands special purpose vehicle. Residential Re has [...]

IRB Re Brazil wouldn't confirm press reports last week that the Brazilian reinsurer had its privatization priced at between R1.5 billion ($860 million) and R1.7 billion ($974 million) by three [...]

XL Capital Ltd. said it is acquiring ECS Inc., an underwriting manager specializing in integrated environmental coverages, a some see as enhancing its ability to compete with rivals ACE Ltd. [...]

The Montana Supreme Court has agreed to settle a dispute between property-casualty insurers and the attorneys they hire to defend policyholders about litigation management techniques, such as billing practice requirements [...]

Steven Brilling is not a typical chief information officer. The newly appointed 55-year-old CIO of Swiss Reinsurance America Corp. said he is accustomed to 'thinking outside the box,' compared with [...]

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 [...]

Peter Gentile prefers being a big fish in a little pond to being a little fish in a big pond. That's why the 46-year-old chairman, president and chief executive officer [...]

Berkshire-Hathaway Inc.'s acquisition of General Re Corp. was supposed to insulate the Stamford, Conn.-based reinsurance giant from shareholders' anxieties about earnings volatility. Now in the first quarter of 1999, General [...]

Brian Duperreault is as good as his word. Back in April, the chairman, president and chief executive officer of ACE Ltd. told National Underwriter he would consider acquiring financial guaranty [...]

Oriental Land Company, Ltd., the Tokyo-based owner and operator of Tokyo Disneyland, said it has completed two transactions in which it securitized a total of $200 million of earthquake risk. [...]

Gemini Re Holdings Ltd. In Hamilton Bermuda said it planned to announce new management this week; although no names of candidates were released. The announcement from the reinsurer with the [...]

If the U.S. economy is doing so well, then why is the domestic property-casualty insurance industry doing so comparatively poorly? That was the question vexing a panel of experts here [...]

An entrepreneurial spirit or unbridled competition in the employment practices liability and directors and officers liability markets has insurers cooking up an offshore scheme to offer coverage for punitive damages [...]

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 [...]

George L. 'Geo' (pronounced Joe) Estes, the chairman and chief executive officer of Discover Re, has his sights set high. Not only does Mr. Estes predict that Discover Re--a reinsurance [...]

Despite structural and economic impediments to the securitization of insurance risk, the industry's entrepreneurs are slowly but surely proving that the current fascination with the concept is merited, experts contend. [...]

Regulators are close to adopting changes to model laws and regulations that would eliminate what many consider the biggest obstacles to the onshore securitization of insurance risk. In general, state [...]

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 [...]

DAN LONKEVICH IS AN ASSOCIATE EDITOR WITH NU's PROPERTY & CASUALTY/RISK & BENEFITS MANAGEMENT EDITION. A working group of state insurance regulators charged with drafting a new agent licensing model, [...]