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US Deep Freeze Wreaks Havoc on Texas Oil Producers and Refiners

Article 0 Comments A massive winter storm that swept the US over the weekend crippled oil and gas producers and the industrial plants that refine the raw commodities into everything from gasoline to plastics. Refinery flares lit up the Houston Ship Channel late Sunday and into Monday morning as a cold front hit the Texas coast and plunged temperatures below freezing. Plants operated by INEOS, Pemex, Shell and LyondellBasell all reported flaring gases, a common safety measure when severe weather causes operational disruptions. Several plants, including ExxonMobil’s Baytown mega refinery and Goodyear’s Bayport chemicals facility, curtailed operations Saturday ahead of the freeze. The waterway connecting Houston’s refineries to crude imports and global export markets for their products closed Saturday as the cold front approached and partially re-opened Monday morning. Weather-related refinery issues weren’t just contained to East Houston’s industrial corridor. One of INEOS’s plants on the Texas coast was truck by lighting as the winter storm approached the facility, tripping the site off line, according to a regulatory filing. Farther north in Illinois, where refineries are designed to operated in colder temperatures, Phillips 66’s Wood River plant reported a leak in a piping system due to the winter storm, the...

Trufla Launches PolicyPro, Its Rapidly Growing Policy Administration Services Arm 0

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Trufla Launches PolicyPro, Its Rapidly Growing Policy Administration Services Arm

Toronto, ON (Jan. 14, 2026) – Trufla is officially launching PolicyPro, a dedicated offshore back-office and policy administration service designed to help insurance brokerages reduce operational strain and refocus licensed staff on clients, retention, and growth. Built by former broker operational leaders and backed by Trufla’s established infrastructure, PolicyPro provides trained, insurance-focused offshore teams that integrate directly into brokerage workflows and systems. The service delivers immediate operational capacity without the cost, disruption, or risk associated with expanding in-house administrative teams. PolicyPro was created to address one of the most pressing challenges facing brokerages today: increasing administrative workload driven by renewals, transactions, accounting requirements, system migrations, portal entry, acquisitions, and regulatory change. By removing high-volume, non-licensed work from internal teams, PolicyPro allows brokerages to stabilize operations while scaling more confidently. “PolicyPro was built from real brokerage pain,” said Diane Horsfield, Vice President of Customer Success at Trufla and the leader behind PolicyPro. “I’ve spent years inside brokerage operations, and the pressure is real — renewals stacking up, accounting backlogs, constant system and process change. PolicyPro was designed to take that weight off brokerage teams in a way that’s practical, scalable, and grounded in how brokerages actually work.” PolicyPro is an operational...

Halpenny Acquires Windley Ely 0

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Halpenny Acquires Windley Ely

Halpenny Acquires Windley Ely, Creating a New Canadian Leader in Corporate Insurance, Risk Management & Claims Advisory Services Ottawa, ON (Jan. 14, 2026) – Halpenny Insurance Brokers is pleased to announce the acquisition of Windley Ely, a nationally respected leader in workers’ compensation claims management, disability programs & workplace safety solutions. This strategic partnership brings together two organizations with deep expertise, integrity and proven track records of exceptional customer service standards. Halpenny & Windley Ely will now operate in 6 Canadian cities: Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary & London marking a key milestone in their national growth strategy. Richard Massie, CEO of Halpenny comments: “This partnership is a perfect union. Windley Ely’s extensive expertise in workers’ compensation management aligns perfectly with Halpenny’s corporate insurance, risk management, employee benefits, affinity and private client insurance offerings. Together we are stronger, more specialized and better positioned to support our clients in every region of the country.” Windley Ely will continue to operate under its existing name and brand for the foreseeable future maintaining the strong relationship and service standards that its clients have come to expect and trust. “We are thrilled to be joining forces with Halpenny” comments Dan Pompilii, CEO of Windley...

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New Exoskeleton System Said to Reduce Back and Strain Injuries by Almost Two-Thirds

Article 0 Comments An exoskeleton system developed initially by Vanderbilt University researchers decreased strain, sprain and lifting injuries by as much as 62% over months of study, signaling a way to reduce some of the most common workers’ compensation claims. The HeroWear company, based in Nashville, said trials over eight to 23 months show that workers at distribution centers who wore the Apex 2 exosuit had a significantly lower injury rate. Strain and sprain injuries dropped from about 10.2% per 100 workers per year to 3.8%. The system works like an extra set of back muscles to limit strain, fatigue and discomfort, the company said in a statement this week. The suit did not shift injuries to other body parts, overcoming a longstanding concern about exoskeleton systems. The suit was tested at five distribution centers, including food and beverage, retail, manufacturing and warehouse sites for more than 311,000 work hours. That’s equivalent to 155 full-time employees working for more than a year, the company said. Back injuries and strains and sprains have produced some of the most-often seen workers’ compensation claims, accounting for about 23% to 30% of all U.S. claims, according to Work Health Solutions and the National Safety...

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Sweeping US Winter Storm Threatens Blackouts and Snarled Travel

Article 0 Comments A vast swath of the US — sweeping east from the Southern Rockies to the Mid-Atlantic and New England — is on alert for winter-storm conditions that could last days, disrupting travel and threatening blackouts. By Friday evening, a mix of freezing rain and snow is expected to arrive in Texas, raising the risk of widespread power outages from ice buildup and as electricity demand jumps to keep homes warm. Through the weekend, the storm will barrel toward the US Northeast, leaving a glaze of ice and sleet in its wake. At least 170 million people are in the areas likely to impacted, said Brian Hurley, a meteorologist for the Weather Prediction Center. “It’s going to create a lot of inconvenience and hazard,” he said. Prices for electricity and natural gas — the No. 1 power-plant fuel also used for home heating — have already started to rally leading into the extreme conditions. There’s the potential for local disasters as heavy ice accumulations raise the chances of prolonged power outages that will cut some homes off from their source of heat. Heavy snow will likely fall across New York City early Sunday, with more than 14 inches...

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Pacific Life Seeks to Dismiss Kyle Busch’s $8.5M Lawsuit Over Insurance Policies

Article 0 Comments Pacific Life Insurance Company on Thursday asked a federal court to dismiss the $8.5 million lawsuit filed by NASCAR champion Kyle Busch and his wife over policies the Buschs claim were sold to them under false and negligent representations as tax-free income for retirement. The filing in the Western District of North Carolina — the same court that just heard the Michael Jordan-led antitrust suit against NASCAR — alleges the Buschs purchased five separate Indexed Universal Life policies between 2018 and 2022 to provide more than $90 million in insurance protection for the two-time NASCAR champion. The IUL policies were intended to provide immediate death benefit protection and “the opportunity to accumulate cash values when the policies are held for the long term.” Pacific Life claims Busch failed to fully fund the policies, let some lapse and surrendered the others. Busch has claimed he is out $10.4 million and filed suit in October alleging Pacific Life failed to reveal the true risks of the policies. Pacific Life countered in its request to have the suit dismissed that both Buschs signed multiple documents acknowledging they understood the policies, including one that indicated the couple would pay planned premiums...

ResearchAndMarkets.com Shares Insurance Telematics Outlook Through 2029 0

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ResearchAndMarkets.com Shares Insurance Telematics Outlook Through 2029

Europe and North America Insurance Telematics Report 2025-2029: Insights from 30 New Executive Interviews with Leading Companies, Case Studies of 58 Insurance Telematics Initiatives – from ResearchAndMarkets.com Dublin, Ireland (Jan. 12, 2026) – ResearchAndMarkets.com is pleased to announce the availability of its latest report, Insurance Telematics in Europe and North America – 9th Edition. Insurance Telematics in Europe and North America is the ninth strategy report in the series analysing the latest developments on the insurance telematics market. This strategic research report provides you with 220 pages of unique business intelligence including 5-year industry forecasts and expert commentary on which to base your business decisions. The introduction of telematics technology in the context of automotive insurance is commonly referred to as usage-based insurance (UBI) or insurance telematics. Solutions of this type generally enable automotive insurers to improve pricing mechanisms based on actual driving data, gain better control of claims and differentiate their offerings to current and prospective policyholders. Variants of insurance telematics which have been popularised over the years include behaviour-based pricing models such as Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD), Pay-How-You-Drive (PHYD) and Manage-How-You-Drive (MHYD). The addressable market for insurance telematics is significant. A total of around 339 million vehicles were in use...

CyberCube Forecasts AI Reality Check Amid Rapid Change in Cyber Insurance 0

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CyberCube Forecasts AI Reality Check Amid Rapid Change in Cyber Insurance

London, UK (Apr. 15, 2024) – Artificial Intelligence (AI) will continue to dominate boardroom conversations — not just as an enabler, but as a disruptive force that reveals who has embraced disciplined adoption and who risks falling behind, according to a new CyberCube report. Each year, CyberCube’s experts analyze emerging trends across technology, threat intelligence, insurance market behaviour, and the broader regulatory environment. Their most recent output is a set of predictions for 2026 designed, not only to forecast what lies ahead, but to equip the industry with the insight required to navigate it with confidence. Pascal Millaire, CEO of CyberCube, predicted that AI will reward the disciplined. “In 2026, I predict we’ll see a period of AI disillusionment. The enthusiasm of boardrooms and conferences will meet the reality of legacy systems, data silos, and regulatory caution.” Bob Petrie, President & CEO of Origami Risk, and CyberCube Board Member, reinforced this theme, predicting that AI will deliver much more radical efficiency gains in the claims handling process. “AI will reduce repetitive manual tasks and deliver relevant insights, while humans will make all the critical decisions in a claim. 2026 will transform the way claims shops operate, leading to better claims...

WTW and Bettercomp announce strategic partnership 0

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WTW and Bettercomp announce strategic partnership

Arlington, VA (Nov. 17, 2025) – WTW, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company, and Bettercomp, a market leader in compensation benchmarking software, are pleased to announce a strategic partnership. Through this partnership, WTW will combine its renowned compensation advisory expertise and compensation benchmarking reports with Bettercomp’s leading-edge technology to support the design and evaluation of pay structures. Clients will gain access to Bettercomp’s intuitive software, which integrates survey data from multiple sources and aligns it with advanced analytics and AI-driven automations to enable sound pay decisions. WTW advises organizations on pay program design that aligns with both business objectives and talent strategies. Bettercomp codifies companies’ compensation philosophies to streamline benchmarking workflows and surface data-driven insights. The partnership will deliver enhanced flexibility, speed and scalability to support informed pay decisions for WTW and Bettercomp customers. “Today’s HR professionals need intuitive technology, data and analytics to support decision making and navigate complex compensation programs,” said Mark Reid, Global Head of the Work & Rewards business at WTW. “Our strategic partnership will integrate Bettercomp’s market-leading software with WTW’s leading advisory services and benchmarking data, delivering better integration and faster innovation.” “We created Bettercomp to manage the intricacies of global compensation at...

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Kentucky DOI Warns Agents to Be Careful Giving Investment Advice

Article 0 Comments The Kentucky Department of Insurance is reminding insurance agents to be careful when advising clients on securities transactions. State law requires that investment advisors be registered with the state. And when an insurance agent advises a consumer to “sell, surrender, roll over, or otherwise liquidate a securities product (e.g., 401(k) plans, IRAs, mutual funds, and brokerage accounts) in favor of an insurance or annuity product, and is compensated in connection with that advice, the agent may be acting” as an investment advisor, the department said in a bulletin this month. In such cases, the agent may be subject to registration and compliance with the Securities Act of Kentucky. Unless registered as an investment advisor, agents should avoid: Recommending the liquidation or transfer of securities to purchase insurance or annuity products, especially when profiting from that advice. Providing opinions or forecasts about securities or comparative performance between securities and insurance products that could be interpreted as investment advice. The DOI did not say what prompted the reminder, or if the DOI has received complaints from consumers. Questions may be directed to the Department of Financial Institutions at KFI@ky.gov. Topics Agencies Kentucky Was this article valuable? Thank you! Please...