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Insurance Carriers Optimize Digital Quoting and Expand Services to Address Evolving Climate Changes, Multilingual Communications 0

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Insurance Carriers Optimize Digital Quoting and Expand Services to Address Evolving Climate Changes, Multilingual Communications

Wilmington, Del. (Jan. 23, 2024) – Keynova Group, the principal competitive intelligence source for digital financial services firms, is pleased to announce the results of the Q2 2024 edition of its semi-annual Online Insurance Scorecard, an evaluation of 12 of the largest U.S. auto and property insurance carriers’ website capabilities. Progressive remains in first place for its online user experience. The key trends in this edition of Keynova’s Online Insurance Scorecard include advances in digital quoting, capabilities to accommodate evolving weather patterns and expanded Spanish-language resources. “Many leading carriers are reworking their digital quoting experiences to help insurance prospects efficiently acquire the most optimal pricing and coverage for their needs,” said Beth Robertson, managing director, Keynova Group. “In addition, factors like the rise in destructive weather events and the evolving U.S. population are generating new dynamics that carriers must accommodate within ongoing product planning and digital strategy.” Key Findings: Advances in Digital Quoting and Binding Optimize Process To foster long-term policyholder relationships by helping consumers select optimal insurance coverage, two-thirds of Scorecard carriers have made recent updates to their online quoting interfaces. Nearly 70% of carriers build coverage advisory information into their quotes, and close to 60% deliver multiple quote...

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Robinhood Snaps Up Advice Platform Pluto

Robinhood Markets Inc. agreed to buy the artificial-intelligence research platform Pluto Capital Inc. to bring more tailored investment strategies and analysis to the retail brokerage’s users. Founded by Jacob Sansbury, 24, Pluto is best known for AI-driven personalized investment advice and real-time analytics. Terms of the deal weren’t made public. “They have built an impressive platform that is highly regarded in the financial-services industry,” Mayank Agarwal, Robinhood’s vice president of engineering, said in a statement Monday. “Their expertise in artificial intelligence coupled with a mission-aligned passion to democratize finance will complement our team’s effort to bring AI-powered tools to our customers,” Agarwal added. Robinhood has expanded in recent years into services including cryptocurrency, retirement products and credit cards.

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$21M to Settle Claims Over Botched Fireworks Detonation in Los Angeles

Article 0 Comments Los Angeles will pay more than $21 million to settle claims by residents of a neighborhood where police bungled the detonation of a cache of illegal fireworks three years ago, injuring 17 people and displacing dozens of others. The City Council this week unanimously approved the payments, and the settlements will now go to Mayor Karen Bass for approval, the Los Angeles Times reported. Councilmember Curren Price, who represents the South Los Angeles district where the blast occurred, said he regrets the “agonizingly slow” process of reaching a deal. “The victims of the 27th Street fireworks explosion have endured unimaginable pain and trauma that will last a lifetime,” Price said in a statement. “Reaching these financial settlements were a crucial step toward their healing, rebuilding their lives, and finding stability and peace.” The settlement awards range from $100,000 to $2.8 million for the 17 claimants, according to the Times. Police found an estimated 32,000 pounds of illegal commercial and homemade fireworks and other explosive materials at a home on East 27th Street on June 30, 2021. The LAPD bomb squad packed nearly 40 pounds of the most volatile and dangerous homemade fireworks into an armored containment vessel...

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GM to Pay $145.8M Penalty After US Finds Excess Emissions

Article 0 Comments General Motors will pay a $145.8 million penalty and forfeit credits worth hundreds of millions of dollars after a U.S. government investigation found excess emissions from approximately 5.9 million GM vehicles, government agencies said on Wednesday. The Environmental Protection Agency said GM has agreed to give up approximately 50 million metric tons in carbon allowances after the multi-year investigation found vehicles from the 2012-2018 model years were emitting more than 10% higher carbon dioxide on average than GM’s initial compliance reports claimed. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration separately said GM will pay a $145.8 million penalty for fuel economy compliance issues and cancel more than 30.6 million fuel economy credits for the 2008-2010 model years to resolve the issues identified by EPA’s light-duty vehicle in-use testing program. GM earlier this year disclosed it was in discussions with the EPA and other regulators regarding adjustments to its credits, adding through 2023 its total costs expensed in connection with the issue was $450 million representing its “current best estimate of the probable loss.” That would value the credits forfeited at about $300 million. GM said Wednesday that figure is “consistent with the costs of the final resolution of...

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Worsening Floods Pose Threat to U.S. Dam Safety

Article 0 Comments ST. LOUIS (AP) — Early last week, floodwater in rural Minnesota pushed debris against a more than century-old dam and then carved a path around it, eroding so much of the riverbank that most of a house fell into the river. Several days later, intense rain damaged a dam that holds drinking water for Houston, forcing officials to issue a potential failure warning. “Something like this could happen, and it has happened, all over the country,” said Del Shannon, former president of the U.S. Society on Dams. There are roughly 90,000 significant dams in the U.S. At least 4,000 are in poor or unsatisfactory condition and could kill people or only harm the environment if they failed, according to data from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They need inspections, upgrades and even emergency repairs. It’s a difficult problem in part because dams in the U.S. are roughly 60 years old, on average. It requires costly maintenance to keep decades of wear and tear from degrading dams, and resources to fix problems are often scarce, Shannon said. Blue Earth County owns the Rapidan dam, a 1910 hydroelectric dam in Minnesota that is still standing but was badly...

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FTC Ban on Worker Noncompete Agreements Delayed by Judge

Article 0 Comments A federal judge delayed implementation of the US Federal Trade Commission’s near-total ban on noncompete agreements, the first salvo in the high-stakes legal fight over how much freedom workers should have to switch jobs within an industry. US District Judge Ada Brown in Dallas sided with the US Chamber of Commerce and a Texas-based tax firm that claimed the agency lacks authority to craft rules defining unfair methods of competition. The groups warned the unprecedented rule would invalidate 30 million employment contracts in a move that “amounts to a vast overhaul of the national economy.” The ban was set to take effect Sept. 4, but it will now be on hold until August while the judge considers the merits of the lawsuit by the groups that seek to permanently strike the rule from the books. Brown said in her ruling Wednesday that the challenge to the measure is “likely to succeed on the merits,” and that the public interest weighed in favor of temporarily blocking the rule. The FTC approved the new rule in April, arguing that noncompete agreements unfairly block workers from switching jobs and undermine labor competition. The ban is backed by labor organizations AFL-CIO...

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How High Earners Can Maximize This Business Tax Deduction Before It Disappears

What You Need to Know The 20% deduction for qualified business income can greatly reduce tax liability for partnerships, S corps and other pass-through entities. Income restrictions limit the availability of the deduction for higher-earning service businesses. The tax treatment is set to expire entirely after 2025 if Congress does not legislate an extension. The 2017 tax overhaul fundamentally changed the tax treatment of pass-through business entities through the enactment of Section 199A. The 20% deduction for qualified business income can greatly reduce tax liability for the owners of partnerships, S corps and other pass-through entities. That said, the deduction isn’t available to all businesses. Income restrictions serve to limit the availability for higher-earning pass-throughs who are classified as service businesses.  There are steps that taxpayers can take to maximize the value of the deduction — and many taxpayers may be forgetting that Section 199A is scheduled to expire entirely after 2025 if Congress does not legislate an extension. Taxpayers interested in maximizing the tax treatment of qualified business income while simultaneously funding their retirements should act quickly to take advantage of this potentially limited deduction. Business clients may be overlooking valuable tax savings if their circumstances have changed since...

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JPMorgan’s Kolanovic to Exit Amid String of Poor Stock Calls

Marko Kolanovic, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief market strategist and co-head of global research, is leaving the bank, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg News. Kolanovic, who has been at JPMorgan for 19 years, is “exploring other opportunities,” the memo stated. Dubravko Lakos-Bujas, the firm’s chief equity strategist, will become chief market strategist. Co-head of global research Hussein Malik will be the sole head of global research. Stephen Dulake and Nicholas Rosato will co-lead fundamental research, a new team that brings together credit and equity research. A JPMorgan spokesperson declined to comment. Kolanovic, Lakos-Bujas, Malik, Dulake and Rosato didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The move follows a disastrous two-year stretch of stock-market calls by Kolanovic.

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State Farm Seeking Large Rate Increases in Wildfire-Prone California

Article 0 Comments State Farm has applied for large rate increases in California, months after the carrier got rate approvals of 7% and 20% earlier this year—adding fuel to a burning homeowners crisis in a state that’s seen an increasing number of carriers pullback or raise rates in the last year. The Bloomington, Illinois-based insurer, the largest in California, insuring nearly one-in-five homes in the state, requested a 30% rate increase for its homeowners line, a 52% rate increase for renters and 36% rate increase for condo coverage. A growing number of carriers have grown disenchanted with California as larger and more frequent wildfires rear up in the state’s increasingly longer wildfire season. The season ahead doesn’t look like it will give much relief. So far, it’s been far busier for firefighters than last year—and the state is heading into a week of triple digit temperatures and a holiday with fireworks. A CalFire official on Monday said there has been a 1600% increase in acres burned this year compared to last year in the same timeframe, and “if the future is any indication of what has occurred already this year, it’s going to be a challenging season for firefighters across...

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Marshall Elected Chair of Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission

Article 0 Comments Wesley G. Marshall has been elected to a three-year term as chairman of the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission (VWC), effective July 1, 2024. He succeeds Commissioner Robert A. Rapaport, whose term ended June 30, 2024. Marshall, of Richmond, was appointed to the commission in 2012. He also served a term as chairman from 2015-2018. From 1988 to 2012, he was an attorney in private practice, primarily representing plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, employment matters, and other civil litigation. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia. Wesley G. Marshall Marshall serves on the executive committee of the Southern Association of Workers’ Compensation Administrators (SAWCA), the board of directors of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC) and the National Association of Workers’ Compensation Judiciary (NAWCJ), and was a founding member of the Virginia Workers’ Compensation American Inn of Court. In 2015, he was inducted as a fellow in the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers. The Commission The VWCC, established in 1918, is an independent judicial and administrative state agency that oversees the workers’ compensation system for employees, employers, and insurers. VWC interprets and applies the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act and resolves claims through...