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Heavy Rainfall Floods Homes, Businesses in East Mississippi, West Alabama 0

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Heavy Rainfall Floods Homes, Businesses in East Mississippi, West Alabama

Article 0 Comments New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! Extreme rainfall flooded roads and property in east-central Mississippi Thursday, leading authorities to rescue three people from vehicles and homes. Water pushed a car into a ditch, and the driver escaped before the car submerged, local public media and the Associated Press reported. The man stood was rescued by law officers, the Winston County Sheriff said. Muddy water also rose into homes and businesses in and around Louisville. Some 17,500 people live in Winston County. Louisville is about 95 miles northeast of Jackson. The sheriff said the last time this much rain fell in the area was in 1977, when he was a child, he told the AP. Streets in Louisville, which had never been flooded, were underwater from the storm system that has battered much of the South for days. The Mississippi Department of Transportation issued flash flood warnings on a few state highways in Winston and Neshoba counties. Roadways were also flooded in nearby Choctaw and Noxubee counties, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said. In Sumter County Alabama, just southeast of Louisville, more than 10 inches of rain fell in a few hours. Flooding in the...

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New Air Bag Death Prompts ‘Do Not Drive’ Warning for 2003 Dodge Ram Pickups

Article 0 Comments New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! Chrysler-parent Stellantis has warned 29,000 owners of 2003 Dodge Ram pickups to immediately stop driving pending repairs after one person was killed when a Takata air-bag inflator exploded. The fatality in May is the first reported involving a Takata passenger-side bag, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in a statement. The “Do Not Drive” warning applies to 29,000 2003 Dodge Ram pickups believed on the road, the automaker said. In November, Stellantis urged owners of 276,000 other older U.S. vehicles to immediately stop driving after three other crash deaths tied to faulty Takata air bag inflators were reported in 2022. Related: Stellantis Recalls Over 354,000 Jeeps Worldwide Over the last decade, more than 67 million Takata air bag inflators have been recalled in the United States and more than 100 million worldwide, in the biggest auto safety callback in history. More than 30 deaths worldwide, including 26 U.S. deaths, and hundreds of injuries in various automakers’ vehicles since 2009 are linked to Takata air bag inflators that can explode, unleashing metal shrapnel inside cars and trucks. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Tuesday confirmed the...

Economic Uncertainty Presents Opportunities for Agency & Carrier Partnerships 0

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Economic Uncertainty Presents Opportunities for Agency & Carrier Partnerships

By Heather Turner, ReSource Pro — We all know of the traditional carrier/agent relationship – it may, in fact, be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of insurance distribution partnerships. But rapid technological advancements, changing customer expectations, and economic headwinds are reshaping how insurance products and services are distributed. Today, many agency executives are forging new partnerships and expanding existing ones. While some choose to pare back their number of channel partners and focus on their most successful ones, others are selecting to partner with niche carriers that focus on specific industry verticals. New research reports from ReSource Pro examine retail agencies’ current channel partnerships, their future channel plans, and their expectations for changes to insurance distribution in both commercial and personal lines based on a survey of agency executives. The number one change that more than half of distributors across the P&C industry agree will happen over the next five years is an increase in agent/broker consolidation. This is despite a decline in M&A transactions in 2022 amid widespread economic uncertainty. Although much of this uncertainty remains in 2023, deal volume may rebound this year due to decreased annual inflation rates and less aggressive interest...

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Raymond James Pride Network Continues to Grow in Third Year

What You Need to Know Raymond James’ annual Business of Pride Symposium was held June 28-30. The firm says that the event provides the opportunity for attendees to learn about topics important to the LGBT+ community. Raymond James gives advisors a lot of freedom to brand themselves, the co-chair of the Pride Network says. The Raymond James Pride Financial Advisors Network has continued to grow since it was created in June 2020, according to Robbie Moseley, vice president of AdvisorChoice Consulting and national co-chair of the Pride Inclusion Network. Attendance at PFAN’s annual Business of Pride Symposium has also grown over the past three years, he said, noting the third event was held June 28-30, at Raymond James headquarters and The Karol Hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida. “We had over 200 advisors and allies join us and about 80 individuals from the home office” this time, he told ThinkAdvisor in an online interview. “We’ve seen that number grow from 40 to about 65 to 80 [advisors] that are registered and take part in the Symposium.” Therefore, “we are just really excited that it continues to grow as an organization,” he said. “We have two pride organizations: One is our Pride...

Bill to Make Big Companies in California Disclose Emissions Worth Watching in All States 0

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Bill to Make Big Companies in California Disclose Emissions Worth Watching in All States

Article 0 Comments New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! A bill to make large companies in California disclose their emissions is worth a watch in all states. The moving through California Legislature – it passed the Assembly Natural Resources Committee this week – could set a stage in other states for similar proposals. the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission already has proposed rules require public companies to spell out their own direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, but the California bill appears to go further. Senate Bill 253, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, would require the State Air Resources Board to develop regulations requiring specified business entities with total annual revenues over $1 billion doing business in California to disclose greenhouse gas emissions starting in 2026. SB 253 would also require the board to contract with an academic institution to prepare a report on the disclosures made by reporting entities, and it would create a small annual fee to fund to oversight of regulations that would seek administrative penalties for violations of the bill’s provisions. “The people, communities, and other stakeholders in California, facing the existential threat of climate change, have a right to know about...

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Allianz U.S. Unit Ordered to Pay $6B in Securities Fraud Case

Gregoire Tournant, the former chief investment officer and co-lead portfolio manager of the funds, was charged with fraud and conspiracy in connection with the funds’ meltdown. He has pleaded not guilty and is fighting the charges. Two other executives with the funds, Stephen Bond-Nelson and Trevor Taylor, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud last year and are cooperating with prosecutors. In the July 5 letter, both sides agreed that AGI did not voluntarily disclose the alleged misconduct to the government but has since cooperated with its investigation. AGI U.S.’s Structured Alpha funds were marketed as providing protection against a market crash. Instead, they ended up losing $7 billion during the tumultuous early days of the pandemic in 2020, spurring multiple lawsuits from pension plan investors. Under the sentence, AGI was ordered to pay fines of $2.3 billion, $3.2 billion in restitution and to forfeit $463 million. It will receive credit for $1.9 billion already made over to victims of the fraud and for a $675 million civil penalty paid to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As the judge read through all the payment numbers, down to the cent, she added a $400 mandatory court assessment that is required when...

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Insurers Sue Energy Corporation Blamed for Helping Start Colorado Wildfire

Article 0 Comments Dozens of insurance companies are suing Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy to recoup money paid out to homes and businesses lost in Colorado`s most destructive wildfire in 2021. The lawsuit was filed Thursday, a few weeks after investigators announced that a sparking power line owned by Xcel was one of the causes of a fire that, fanned by high winds, destroyed nearly 1,000 homes and left two people dead. Embers from a smoldering scrap wood fire set days on a nearby property used by a Christian religious communal group was also found to have been another cause. The two fires combined to cause a blaze fanned by high winds that is blamed for causing $2 billion in damage in a suburban area between Denver and Boulder. Xcel did not immediately respond to a phone call or an email seeking comment. More than 150 insurance companies allege in the lawsuit that Xcel, which operates in eight states in the Midwest and West, failed to properly design, construct, inspect, maintain, repair or operate its electrical equipment before the Marshall Fire broke out on Dec. 30, 2021. The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, said Xcel failed to de-energize its electrical equipment before...

Generative Microapps Can Augment the Human Workforce: Gartner 0

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Generative Microapps Can Augment the Human Workforce: Gartner

Gartner Q&A with Nader Henein Stamford, CT (July 3, 2023) – Generative artificial intelligence (AI), and specifically large language models (LLMs), will change how organizations design jobs, resource tasks and allocate responsibilities across the enterprise. However, LLMs come with a unique set of risks when compared with other AI implementations. Generative microapps are an emerging technology that can enable organizations to demonstrate the value of generative AI while minimizing the business’s risk exposures. Generative microapps are applications that act as a proxy between a user and an LLM, such as ChatGPT or Bard. We spoke with Nader Henein, VP Analyst at Gartner, to learn how enterprises can leverage microapps to augment knowledge workers using generative AI and boost employee productivity. Q: How could generative microapps augment the human workforce? A: Gartner predicts that by 2026, 50% of office workers in Fortune 100 companies will be AI-augmented in one form or another, either to boost productivity or to raise the average quality of work. For example, consider an LLM that is supplemented with a proprietary research database. As an author drafts a new piece of research, a microapp embedded in the word processing program would read each section and use its...

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Taxable Accounts Are Wrong for These Holdings: Christine Benz

Focusing on high dividend payers, however, helps ensure investors will have to pay taxes on their investments year in and year out, even if they reinvest the distributions, she noted. “Focusing on total return without reaching for dividends gives you more control over your tax bill; that provides the opportunity to realize gains in years when the investor has less income or realized losses,” Benz said. Benz listed several other securities that may best be avoided in taxable accounts: Taxable Bonds and Bond Funds “Generally speaking, bonds will tend to be less tax-efficient than stocks,” she wrote. Because most of the returns are income, they’re taxed at the ordinary income tax rate, which is higher than the capital gains and dividend tax rates that apply to gains from most stock holdings, she explained. High-yield bond funds and funds holding Treasury inflation-protected securities are especially poor fits for taxable accounts, Benz noted. High-tax-bracket investors who want to keep bonds in taxable accounts for short-term needs might consider municipal bond funds and municipal money market funds, she suggested. Multi-Asset Funds Multi-asset funds, such as target-date and balanced funds, generally are better held in tax-sheltered accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s, Benz wrote. They...

Accenture and AWS Extend Generative AI Capabilities to Accelerate Adoption and Value 0

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Accenture and AWS Extend Generative AI Capabilities to Accelerate Adoption and Value

New York, NY (July 4, 2023) – Accenture is pleased to announce an extension of their strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help clients leverage the value of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI for faster business transformation, utilizing the most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud. With a 15-year relationship, and as part of its existing strategic collaboration, Accenture and AWS—through the Accenture AWS Business Group—will make a series of strategic investments to develop new industry-specific and cross-industry solutions, pre-built models and trainings to help clients move rapidly from experimentation to scaled, responsible deployment of generative AI technologies within their organizations. These strategic investments will help clients accelerate innovation and value, efficiency, resilience, and improve interactions with customers and employees, transforming work across industries. Built around AWS’s advanced machine learning (ML) and AI technologies, these investments will span across arenas, including financial services, life sciences, customer support, supply chain, cybersecurity, and more. “With the rise of generative AI, more and more organizations are looking to accelerate their use of all forms of AI across their enterprises,” said Julie Sweet, chair and CEO, Accenture. “Our expanded relationship with AWS will bring our clients across industries new, rigorously developed...