Featured Articles Blog

Rival Launches R-Quote, the Future of Quoting for Insurance Brokers 0

Uncategorized

Rival Launches R-Quote, the Future of Quoting for Insurance Brokers

Toronto, ON (Aug. 1, 2024) — Rival Insurance Technology, a leader in insurance management systems and connectivity solutions, is excited to announce the launch of R-Quote, the next evolution in insurance rating and quoting technology. R-Quote empowers insurance brokers with streamlined quoting in a modern, responsive web application and is powered by Rival’s expansive Rating Service. R-Quote offers a host of key features, including: Modern, Responsive Interface: With a sleek and intuitive design, R-Quote provides a user-friendly experience, ensuring insurance brokers can deliver quotes quickly and accurately. Streamlined Workflows: Built with efficiency in mind, R-Quote’s streamlined workflows significantly reduce quoting time, allowing brokers to focus on providing exceptional customer service. Seamless Integration: R-Quote is powered by Rival’s existing Rating Service, ensuring smooth operations for insurance carriers. It integrates seamlessly with Rival’s BMS solutions, TBW and TBW Flex, and the newly launched Rival Platform & Marketplace (RPM), creating a comprehensive ecosystem for insurance technology. “We are thrilled to introduce R-Quote to the market,” said Greg Purdy, CEO of Rival Insurance Technology. “R-Quote represents a major step forward in insurance quoting, offering brokers a faster and more efficient experience. With its streamlined interface built on the Rival Platform, it lays the groundwork...

0

Uncategorized

Vanguard Fund Plans Change in Portfolio Management

Sykes has worked closely with Hynes since joining Wellington’s health care team in 2007. During Hynes’ tenure as a portfolio manager, the Health Care Fund has outperformed its benchmark by more than 1.6% per year, and fund assets have doubled to $48 billion from $23 billion, according to Vanguard. She will continue to serve as a resource to Sykes and the broader Wellington health care team, the fund giant said. “I am confident that the fund’s shareholders are in good hands with Rebecca Sykes at the helm,” Hynes said in a statement. Skyes “is an experienced and extremely skilled investor and a great example of the depth of Wellington Management’s investment talent. I’m excited to see her take over as the fund’s lead portfolio manager,” Hynes added. (Shown in photo: Jean Hynes and Rebecca Sykes)

0

Uncategorized

Oil and Gas Power Lines Suspected of Causing Texas Panhandle Wildfires

Article 0 Comments When a spate of wildfires tore across the Texas Panhandle in February and scorched 20,000 acres of Craig Cowden’s ranch near Skellytown, he decided he had had enough. Cowden took on a second unofficial job: looking for possible fire hazards on his family land, including checking on the electric lines that power oil and gas equipment. Unlike the utility companies that run power lines across a region under state oversight, oil and gas companies typically string their own power lines from utility poles to their work sites. Texas relies on the operators to maintain those lines. Not all of them do. And the state agencies that regulate the energy industry and the power industry said they’re powerless to regulate power lines in the oil patch. Cowden, 38, spots problems such as a pump jack with faulty wiring or a power line lying on dead grass. He’s filed complaints with the Railroad Commission of Texas, which oversees oil and gas operations. The agency inspected some of the issues he reported, Cowden said. That made him lucky — a lawyer said others have had to file lawsuits against oil lease owners to get dangerous electric equipment fixed. “I have...

0

Uncategorized

8 Ways the Advice and Investing Worlds Are Changing Now

7. Private equity firms are seeking to reach RIAs’ clients. A number of big investment managers like KKR and Apollo are putting in major efforts to gain access to retail investors through RIAs, Oros said. These investments, once only available to institutions and accredited investors, have never been more accessible to retail investors, he said. Many of Hightower’s clients, Oros said, are ultra-high-net-worth investors who made their money through investing in a single asset. These investors have an appetite for thematic investing and are not necessarily looking to invest through a 40 Act mutual fund. Hightower recently launched a cybersecurity fund in conjunction with an outside manager that has drawn a lot of interest from some clients, he said. Why are private equity firms eyeing up RIAs’ clients? These firms see a big opportunity for growth, Oros said, pointing out that some of these firms have dedicated as many as 100 people to building out this market. Koch mentioned that her firm will be bringing some of their alternative investing capabilities to the wealth management market through both existing structures and dedicated offerings. The hardest part of this process, she added, is figuring out the type of vehicle and structure...

0

Uncategorized

Report: 1Q 2024 California Workers’ Comp Written Premium 3% Lower Than Year Ago

Article 0 Comments Written premium for the first quarter of 2024 was 3% lower than the first quarter of 2023, while written premium in 2023 was slightly above 2022, according to the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California. The WCIRB released its Quarterly Experience Report, an update on California statewide insurer experience valued as of March 31, 2024. Highlights of the report include: The average charged rate for the first quarter of 2024 is 1% lower than the first quarter of 2023 and the lowest in decades. The projected combined ratio increased by 2 points in accident year 2023, driven by increases in average claim severities offsetting premium increases. The average charged rate for 2023 continues to decrease. It was 5% lower than 2022 and the lowest in decades. The estimated average charged rate for the first three months of 2024 was 1% lower than 2023. Over the long term, declining claim frequency and increasing wage levels have offset rising medical costs and increases in indemnity benefits, resulting in decreases in average charged rates. The WCIRB proposed a 0.9% advisory pure premium rate increase for September 1, 2024. California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara issued a decreased pure premium rate,...

CrowdStrike Outage: Policyholder Guidance and Insurance Implications 0

Uncategorized

CrowdStrike Outage: Policyholder Guidance and Insurance Implications

By Joshua Motta, CEO and Co-Founder, Coalition Inc. — On Friday, July 19, 2024, at 04:09 UTC, cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike released a single computer file buried in a defective software update, causing a global IT outage for customers running the update on any Microsoft Windows operating system version 7.11 and above. Numerous airports, banks, 911 services, hotels, trains, hospitals, restaurants, governments, and maybe even your own computer were taken offline and replaced by the so-called Blue Screen of Death. Microsoft has estimated that 8.5 million computer systems were impacted. Coalition was not impacted by the outage. We are processing claims as they are received, and our security support and incident response teams are readily available to assist impacted customers. Remediation guidance was also directly provided to affected Coalition policyholders immediately following its availability and can be found on CrowdStrike’s remediation hub, together with a preliminary post-incident review detailing CrowdStrike’s investigation into the outage. Understandably, this event has garnered international media attention and raised questions among Coalition policyholders and insurance partners about how cyber insurance — and Coalition, specifically — will respond. It also highlights the ongoing discussion about risk aggregation and how (or whether) the insurance industry can insure widespread...

7 IRS Retirement Cash Access Draft Facts, for Annuity Advisors 0

Uncategorized

7 IRS Retirement Cash Access Draft Facts, for Annuity Advisors

Start Slideshow The Internal Revenue Service recently began a regulatory project that could turn some annuity owners’ retirement accounts into rainy day funds. IRS officials posted draft guidelines for implementing sections 115 and 314 of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (Secure) 2.0 Act, or Secure 2.0, which added two important exceptions to Internal Revenue Code section 72(t). Comments on the draft are due Oct. 7. For a look at how that draft guidelines could affect annuity owners and annuity advisors, if the guidelines take effect as written and work as the IRS expects, see the gallery above. Internal Revenue Code Section 72(t): IRC Section 72(t) is a law that helps keep the yolk in a client’s retirement savings nest egg. Section 72(t) applies to individual retirement accounts, 401(k) plan accounts and other accounts that benefit from federal retirement savings tax incentives. The section normally imposes a 10% additional tax, on top of any income taxes, when a client cracks the nest egg and takes cash out before reaching age 59½. Before 2022, Section 72(t) already included exceptions for retirement savers who became disabled or retired early. The new IRC section 72(t) 10% tax penalty exemptions: Secure 2.0 was part...

0

Uncategorized

Delta Air Lines to Seek Compensation Over Cyber Outage: Report

Article 0 Comments Delta Air Lines has hired a law firm and will seek compensation from Microsoft and CrowdStrike over a global cyber outage earlier this month that disrupted flights around the world, CNBC reported on Monday. The Atlanta-based airline has been the slowest among major U.S. carriers to recover following the tech failure that led to more than 2,200 flight cancellations on July 19. Delta has canceled more than 6,000 flights so far, leaving hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded. Analysts estimate that the impact on its bottom line could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. “We are aware of the reporting, but have no knowledge of a lawsuit and have no further comment,” a CrowdStrike spokesperson said. Shares of the cybersecurity firm were down about 2% in after-hours trading. Microsoft, Delta and law firm Boies Schiller Flexner did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. The U.S. Transportation Department announced last week it would open an investigation into Delta following the outage-led flight cancellations. Topics Cyber Talent Was this article valuable? Thank you! Please tell us what we can do to improve this article. Submit No Thanks Thank you! % of people found this article...

0

Uncategorized

IWI Rolls Out New Courses for Advisors

The Investments & Wealth Institute, a nonprofit financial advisor education and accreditation organization, says it recently launched two short-form learning modules tailored for growth-focused advisors. The first course, dubbed “Visual Insights,” is described by the IWI as a monthly “nano” content series. It will offer monthly 10-minute educational lessons about topics related to investments, retirement planning and tax planning. The coursework is specifically designed for advisors to reference during client conversations, according to the IWI. The second course, “Strategic Planning for Business Owners,” is described as a short online course that addresses the unique financial planning needs of entrepreneurs, small business owners and aspiring business leaders. The lessons aim to help advisors grasp how to better serve this important client niche across all stages of the business lifecycle, according to the IWI. “Being able to simplify the complex and communicate in a way that resonates with clients of all ages and from all walks of life will enable advisors to differentiate themselves and better serve HNW clients and multi-generational families,” said Ross Riskin, chief learning officer of the IWI.

0

Uncategorized

People Moves: Gov. Moore Appoints Grant as Next Maryland Insurance Commissioner

Article 0 Comments Maryland Governor Wes Moore has named Marie Grant, an attorney with nearly 20 years of experience in insurance and health care policy and regulation, as his state’s next insurance commissioner. Grant currently serves as assistant secretary for health policy at the Maryland Department of Health. Her previous roles include director of government affairs at that same department and vice president of public policy with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. Grant began her career as a non-partisan committee counsel to the House Health and Government Operations Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, where she advised on health, life, and malpractice insurance legislation, as well as consumer protection. Pending her confirmation by the Senate Executive Nominations Committee during the 2025 legislative session, Grant will join the Maryland Insurance Administration on October 1, succeeding interim commissioner Joy Hatchette. Moore named Hatchette as interim insurance commissioner after Kathleen Birrane’s planned exit from the commissioner’s job at the end of June. Birrane returned to private practice at DLA Piper, the law firm where she was a partner until being appointed commissioner in May 2020 by former Gov. Larry Hogan. Moore said Grant has been an “outstanding leader” at the Department of Health and brings...