Latest Insurance News

Dividend Surprise is on the Cards for HSBC Investors

The London market's fragile confidence will be tested this week as another clutch of major companies are due to post results. HSBC will be the last of the 'big five' banks to post results this week, with analysts expecting the company to add pounds 11.56bn in profits to pounds 25bn-plus already posted by Barclays, HBOS, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland over the past fortnight. But HSBC has given investors a rocky ride in recent times with February's shock news that the group's bad debt...

State Farm Auto Policyholders to Get Dividends

By Bloomberg, AP and Staff Reports State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. announced Thursday that its policyholders in Oklahoma will receive dividends totaling $21.4 million. State Farm vehicle policyholders in 46 states, the District of Columbia and the Canadian province of New Brunswick will receive a total of $1.25 billion in the company's latest policyholder dividend declaration, approved by the State Farm Mutual board of directors. Oklahoma policyholders will receive 12.5 percent...

Biz People: Suncorp Chief to Pick Executives

John Mulcahy (above), chief executive officer of Suncorp-Metway Ltd, will choose an executive team and proceed with a share sale after Promina Group Ltd investors yesterday approved a A$7.5 billion ($5.9 billion) takeover bid. Promina shareholders voted in favor of the offer at a meeting in Sydney. The acquisition by Brisbane-based Suncorp, which will become Australia's second-largest car and home insurer, is the biggest takeover in the nation's financial services industry in seven years. ...

Fraud Charges Brought

By Daily News A Newhall man could face up to five years in state prison and $50,000 in fines for asking the wrong guy to steal his truck, the state's insurance commissioner said Friday. Eric Joseph Horvat, 28, was arrested Feb. 23 by investigators with the state Department of Insurance fraud division on suspicion of staging the theft of his 2006 Ford F-150 truck in a scheme to defraud his auto insurance carrier of $45,000, Commissioner Steve Poizner said. Horvat was charged with two fel...

State Farm Announces Dividends

The 2006 North Dakota Tourism print campaign received both a Judge's Choice and a Gold ADDY Award at the annual awards banquet sponsored by the Bismarck-Mandan Advertising Federation on Feb. 17. Silver ADDYs were presented for the 2007 official state map and for a Minneapolis event invitation. All three projects were done as a joint creative effort with Odney Advertising. The AdFed awards recognize excellence in advertising, exemplifying outstanding creativity in each category. The gold A...

Seat-Belt Statement Wrong

John LaMonte stated that Utah's secondary seat-belt law results in higher auto insurance rates than if we had a primary seat-belt law (Readers' Forum, Feb. 28). I was intrigued, so I checked. According to insure.com's list of average auto insurance rates by state and the 2004 list of states with primary, secondary or no seat- belt laws, the average auto insurance cost for states with primary seat-belt laws is $822.69; the cost for states with secondary seat- belt laws is $741.24; the cost for...

The State Legislature is Set to Consider Numerous Bills to Address Consumer Issues: Lawmakers, Insurers and Healthcare Providers Are at Odds Over the Fate of the State's Controversial No-Fault Auto Insurance Law, Which is Set to Expire

Mar. 4--State legislators are at a crossroad: Fix the problems with Florida's no-fault auto insurance system -- or move on and come up with new solutions. The no-fault law, which is set to expire Oct. 1, requires all drivers to buy at least $10,000 in personal injury protection, or PIP, which guarantees medical, disability and death benefits. Yet, accident-related suits continue to multiply and the law's provisions breed fraud, which adds to the cost of auto insurance for drivers in the state...

Bill Would Crack Down on Unlicensed Drivers

By Ed Vogel REVIEW-JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU CARSON CITY - A Las Vegas assemblywoman introduced a bill Friday that would require police to impound cars of motorists they stop who do not have driver's licenses. Assemblywoman Ellen Koivisto, a Democrat, said she introduced Assembly Bill 240 because some of her constituents complained they had been involved in accidents with unlicensed motorists without auto insurance. "That is why we pay high uninsured motorist rates," she said. "Now what ...

Your Money: Pound Notes ; TREASURE HUNTERS

By JAMES BREESE pounds ONE in 10 first-time home buyers expect parents to help them financially compared to one in five six months ago, say Abbey. pounds NEARLY half a million British women admit sneaking fashion purchases on to a partner's credit card, according to website uSwitch.com pounds NORWICH & Peterborough BS have launched new 15-and 20- year fixed-rate mortgages. The 15-year deal is 5.48 per cent until April 30, 2022, and the 20-year one is 5.28 per cent until April 30, 2027. ...

Farmers Group Agrees to Buy Bristol West Holdings: Shares of Insurance Firm Bristol West Holdings Jumped 36 Percent After Los Angeles-Based Farmers Group Agreed to Buy the Davie Company

Mar. 3--Davie-based auto insurance firm Bristol West Holdings has agreed to be acquired by Zurich Financial Services Group's Farmers Group in a deal valued at $712 million. Farmers also will assume some debt. Bristol specializes in writing coverage for drivers with checkered driving records and limited financial resources -- known as nonstandard auto insurance.....We are unable to display this entire news item because this article's licensing expires after a certain amount of time. This artic...