Today's Insurance Pulse
Heritage trims reinsurance program, saving $63.2M
Heritage Insurance Holdings renewed its 2026 reinsurance and catastrophe‑bond program with a total limit of $2.2 billion, down from $2.5 billion placed in 2025. The renewal includes $712 million of multi‑year coverage, $550 million from cat bonds and $162 million from private markets. Pricing softness allowed Heritage to cut renewal costs by $63.2 million.
Also developing:
Insurance Carriers Quietly Back Away From Covering AI Outputs
Major U.S. insurers are quietly pulling back from covering AI‑generated outputs in cyber‑risk and errors‑and‑omissions policies. While some carriers are outright declining to write such coverage, others are imposing steep premium hikes or carving out explicit exclusions for AI‑related liabilities. The shift follows earlier regulator‑seeking filings by AIG, Great American and W.R. Berkley to exclude AI tools, and reflects growing discomfort with the opacity of AI decision‑making. Insurers are also differentiating between AI vendors and companies that merely use AI, tightening underwriting questionnaires around governance.
What Will You Learn At A Defensive Driving Course (That Could Also Save Money On Your Insurance)?
Defensive driving courses teach techniques like the five‑step Scan‑Identify‑Predict‑Decide‑Execute process and the three‑second following‑distance rule, improving situational awareness for everyday motorists. The National Safety Council and state‑approved programs offer both online and in‑person classes, with typical online fees around $25...
Origami Risk to Power Core Systems for Tokio Marine HCC Specialty Group
Origami Risk has been chosen by Tokio Marine HCC Specialty Group to replace its core insurance systems with a cloud‑native property and casualty platform. The solution will cover policy administration, billing, claims, analytics and reinsurance modeling across the insurer’s global...
Cytora Platform to Support Arch’s London Market Risk Processing
Cytora has broadened its AI‑driven risk processing partnership with Arch Insurance to include the insurer’s London Market operations. The deployment will digitise intake and enrichment of complex commercial risks, aiming to speed up broker and client responses. Building on a...
New Federal Medicaid Rules Require One Month of Work. Some States Demand More.
Under the federal Medicaid work‑requirement law signed by President Trump, most states must verify that applicants have worked, studied, or volunteered for at least one month. Republican‑led states such as Indiana and Idaho have pushed the bar to three consecutive...
Cat Bond Market Fundamentals Are Tremendous. Growth Absolutely Expected & Sustainable: John Seo
John Seo, co‑founder of Fermat Capital, said the catastrophe bond market’s fundamentals are "tremendous" and that recent growth is both expected and sustainable. He highlighted the surge in US catastrophe insurance risk and a shifting institutional mindset that now treats...
Galapagos Capital SSPE Issues R$13.5m LRS, Its Second Under the Brazilian ILS Regime
Galapagos Capital’s Brazil‑based SSPE has issued a second Letra de Risco de Seguro (LRS) worth R$13.5 million (≈ $2.7 million), this time to guarantee a tax‑contingency that enabled an agribusiness M&A deal. The transaction was completed in just 20 days, underscoring the speed...
Call for Public Inquiry Into Handling of Raac Crisis
A petition presented to Parliament is demanding a public inquiry into the 2023 reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) crisis and urging new legislation for a high‑risk building register, mandatory defect reporting, and a 60‑year developer liability period. The Department for...
Duck Creek Named Leader in Everest Underwriting Software Ranking
Duck Creek Technologies has been named a Leader in Everest Group’s 2025 Underwriting Orchestration for Property & Casualty PEAK Matrix assessment. The firm ranked among 24 global providers for market impact, vision and capability, highlighting its end‑to‑end workflow that spans...
Intelligent AI Launches US Underwriting Platform to Bridge 40‑50% Data Gaps
Insurtech startup Intelligent AI has entered the US market via the Connecticut InsurTech Corridor, debuting a cloud‑based platform that supplies high‑resolution COPE data to close the 40‑50% of incomplete property submissions. The move targets insurers seeking faster, more accurate underwriting...
Marsh McLennan Agency Deploys Unified Data Platform and AI to Boost 2,800 Producers
Marsh McLennan Agency (MMA) is rolling out a single agency‑management platform, Applied Epic, and a targeted AI suite to streamline operations, cut a legacy sprawl of roughly 600 systems and lift the productivity of its 2,800 producers. The effort includes...
New Bill Seeks to Lower Out-of-Pocket Drug Costs
Rep. Greg Murphy (R‑North Carolina) introduced the Every Dollar Counts Act, requiring that out‑of‑pocket spending on covered prescription drugs count toward patients' deductibles and annual out‑of‑pocket limits regardless of purchase channel. The bill targets the current practice where many health...
Taiwan Insurers’ Hedging Pivot Cements Global Bond Prowess
Taiwan’s life insurers are reshaping the management of their roughly $700 billion overseas bond portfolio, a move that solidifies the island’s standing as a major global fixed‑income investor. New accounting standards introduced this year require insurers to seek higher foreign returns...
Mamdani To Launch City-Backed Insurance Program For Affordable Housing
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a city‑backed property and liability insurance program aimed at rent‑stabilized and affordable‑housing landlords. The initiative, led by the Economic Development Corp and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, will target 20,000 homes...
State Bill Targets 9.11% Cut to Nursing Home Medicaid Payments Linked to Outdated Methodology
New Hampshire nursing homes are confronting a 9.11% Medicaid reimbursement cut, roughly $26.43 per resident per day, after a legacy case‑mix index formula produced outdated payment rates. A Senate‑passed bill would establish a MedPAC‑style working group to overhaul the state’s...
Progressive Leads Insurance Stocks to Beat S&P 500 Over 10 Years
Insurance equities have delivered superior returns, with Progressive (PGR) outpacing the S&P 500 over the past decade. The carrier posted EPS growth from $14.40 to $19.23, a combined ratio under 90% in 2025, and a $13.50 per‑share dividend, underscoring the...
N.Y. Judge Backs Insurer in Staged-Crash Scheme
A New York Supreme Court judge granted summary judgment to Integon National Insurance, finding that eight collisions between March and July 2023 were deliberately staged by an Ecuadorian fraud ring. The court determined the crashes did not qualify as legitimate...
Stablecoins vs Tokenized Deposits: How New Rules Shape U.S. Payments
Brookings' latest analysis contrasts payment stablecoins, governed by the 2025 GENIUS Act, with tokenized bank deposits that sit inside the traditional banking framework. The piece highlights divergent backing, insurance and regulatory oversight, underscoring how each model could reshape U.S. payments.
AI Transforms Workers Comp for Brokers
Workers’ compensation brokers are moving from pure quoting to strategic risk‑advisory roles as employers demand deeper insight into safety and cost control. Surveys show 69% of employers now prefer advisory relationships, while 56% of claims professionals feel overloaded by claim...
PBGH Survey Finds Employers Bracing for Higher Health Premiums in 2026
The Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH) reports that U.S. employers anticipate a 6‑7% rise in health insurance premiums for 2026, with some individual‑market plans climbing over 20%. To counteract cost pressure, 37% of members are issuing medical requests for...
Ohio Appeals Court Revives Worker’s Claim over Disputed Subrogation Fee
An Ohio Court of Appeals revived Lamar Thomas’s challenge to a $6,044 subrogation lien imposed by the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. The court held that the $120 fee for an independent medical exam was not a recoverable subrogation interest...
Africa Trade Insurer Seeks $500 Million to Help with Iran War Cost Hike
Africa’s leading multilateral trade‑risk insurer, African Trade & Investment Development Insurance (ATIDI), is seeking roughly $500 million in new capital to raise its balance sheet from about $1 billion to $1.5 billion. The push follows the February U.S.–Israeli airstrikes on Iran, which have...
Five Carriers Got Breached. They Wouldn't Insure Themselves
Over the past year ransomware group Scattered Spider breached five major insurers—Beacon Mutual, Farmers, Erie, Philadelphia Insurance Companies, and Aflac—by exploiting help‑desk social engineering, incomplete multi‑factor authentication, and weak endpoint monitoring. Those same control failures are now non‑negotiable requirements in...
Tesla Intertwines FSD with In-House Insurance for Attractive Incentive
Tesla has linked its Full Self‑Driving (Supervised) suite to its in‑house insurance, launching Safety Score 3.0 that automatically awards a perfect 100 score for every mile driven with FSD enabled. The update removes penalties for brief manual interventions, allowing drivers...
Enstar and Artex Partner on Exit Solutions for ILS Structures, Aim to Solve Trapped Capital Issue
Enstar and Artex Capital Solutions have teamed up to embed structured exit options within Artex‑managed insurance‑linked securities (ILS) vehicles. The partnership introduces forward‑exit and retrospective solutions designed to free up trapped capital that often locks investors’ funds in legacy reinsurance...
Standard Life to Acquire Aegon UK for £2 Bn, Gaining 15% Stake in Deal
Standard Life has signed a £2 billion agreement to purchase Aegon’s UK life‑insurance and pensions business, paying £750 million in cash and issuing 181.1 million new shares to Aegon. The transaction, expected to close by end‑2026, gives Aegon a 15.3% stake in Standard...
Hamilton Launches Casualty Reinsurance Sidecar
Hamilton Insurance Group announced the launch of its first casualty reinsurance sidecar, targeting roughly $300 million of ceded premium over several years. The sidecar will be capitalized by investment firm Sixth Street, which will also shape the overall asset strategy. Concurrently, Hamilton...
Aon Expects Market Dynamics to Accelerate Legacy Activity at Lloyd’s
Aon’s April 2026 Lloyd’s Legacy Report predicts a surge in legacy transactions as disciplined capital allocation and a softer reinsurance cycle reshape the market. Since 2010, specialist firms have assumed nearly $15 bn of reserves through Reinsurance‑to‑Close (RITC) syndicates, highlighting growing...
Fleet Safety as a Business Strategy for Construction Companies
Construction firms face high roadway risk, with vehicle crashes ranking second among causes of worker deaths—75 fatalities in 2020. Multimillion‑dollar jury verdicts and soaring insurance costs make fleet safety a financial imperative. Implementing a written safety policy, driver screening, telematics,...
Moody’s Seeks Feedback on Pooled Structures of Insurance-Linked Securities (ILS)
Moody’s Ratings has released a discussion paper seeking market feedback on pooled structures of insurance‑linked securities (ILS). The agency wants input on investor appetite, risk‑assessment data needs, modeling approaches, and legal considerations for ILS‑backed securities that bundle multiple cat bonds...
More Insurance Claims Denials Are Being Overturned upon Appeal, Study Finds
A new JAMA study of roughly 51,000 New York claims shows denial overturn rates climbing from 38% in 2019 to nearly 53% in 2025. Overturn percentages differ sharply by service type—more than 78% for home‑health claims and just over 50% for...
IMO Hazardous Cargo Compensation Rules Move Closer
The International Maritime Organization’s 2010 Hazardous and Noxious Substances (HNS) Convention is now one step from activation after Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden ratified it, bringing the total to the 12 states required for entry into force. The treaty...
Record Buyout Conversions Fail to Reduce Growing Insurer Backlog: Barnett Waddingham
Barnett Waddingham’s 2026 survey of the 11 bulk‑annuity insurers shows that while buyout activity hit a record 160 defined‑benefit schemes in 2025 – a 30% rise on 2024 – the overall backlog is swelling. The firm projects roughly 300 buyouts...
House Eyes Bill to Allow Drug Expenditures to Count Toward Insurance Deductibles
Rep. Greg Murphy introduced the Every Dollar Counts Act, a bill that would require out‑of‑pocket spending on prescription drugs—regardless of purchase channel—to count toward a patient’s deductible and maximum out‑of‑pocket limit. The legislation targets a gap where many health plans...
FMCSA Balancing the Scales for Fleets Challenging Bad Safer Data
On April 16, 2026, the FMCSA issued a sweeping overhaul of its DataQs system, creating a mandatory three‑stage appeals process for carriers contesting safety violations or crash records. States receiving Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program funding must open requests within...
Workplace Assaults Rose 5.3% Annually Over the Past Decade, With Health Care Bearing the Brunt
Nonfatal workplace assaults rose at a 5.3% annual rate from 2011 to 2021‑22, pushing the assault rate per 10,000 full‑time equivalents up 62%. Health care and social assistance dominated the trend, reporting roughly 18,860 assaults in 2023‑24—about ten times more...
Maersk Hikes Cargo Insurance Rates up to 450%
Maersk announced a dramatic increase in cargo insurance rates, lifting premiums by as much as 450% for new contracts. The surge reflects heightened exposure to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, especially rerouting around the Strait of Hormuz, and recent...
Strategic Climate Risk: Quantifying Financial Impact and Building Resilience
Financial firms are increasingly quantifying climate‑related risks to gauge potential losses and protect assets. The adoption of the Task Force on Climate‑Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework now covers roughly 70% of major asset managers, driving standardized scenario analysis. Recent studies...
Web Domain Giant Forms Cayman Islands Captive
GoDaddy, one of the world’s leading web‑hosting firms, has established a captive insurance subsidiary in the Cayman Islands. The entity, GoDaddy Captive Cayman Islands Ltd, was added to the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority register and received a Class B licence on...
CMS Establishes New Billing Code for AI-Driven Calcium Analysis on CT Scans
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new national billing code under the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System, effective April 1, 2026, for AI-driven analysis of coronary artery calcium (CAC) and aortic valve calcium (AVC) on chest CT scans....
Banks Can Shut Your Account Overnight – How to Safeguard Your Money
Large banks are increasingly closing lawful customers' accounts over perceived reputational risk, as seen in the cases of Melania Trump and Nigel Farage. A new guide outlines how consumers can anticipate such moves and protect their finances with alternative banking...
Germany's Health Reform Aims to Save €20 Billion, Triggers Insurer Backlash
Germany’s federal health‑care reform plan seeks to trim €20 billion from the system by capping doctor fees, hospital spending and drug co‑payments. Health‑insurance leaders and opposition parties warn the measures will shift costs onto patients, igniting a political showdown over the...
Tryg A/S Q1 Profit Drops 14% to $134 Million, Rattles Nordic Insurers
Tryg A/S reported first‑quarter earnings of DKK958 million ($134 million), a 14% fall from the same period last year, while revenue grew 5.8% to DKK10.648 billion. The miss pressured the broader Nordic financial market and raised questions about the insurer’s pricing strategy and...
Only 25% of GLP‑1 Users Stay on Treatment After One Year, 74% Plan to Restart
A JAMA‑published analysis of insurance claims shows fewer than 25% of patients stay on GLP‑1 drugs such as Ozempic and Zepbound after 12 months. A separate Kantar survey reveals that 74% of those who stop intend to resume, prompting clinicians...
ECB Proposes Rules to Boost Cross‑Border Capital Mobility for European Banks
The European Central Bank announced new banking framework proposals that would let lenders move capital across borders more freely, aiming to improve resource allocation. The plan also revives a stalled push for a Europe‑wide deposit insurance system.
Millions of California Homeowners Face Flood Risk as only 1.4% of Properties Insured: Neptune Flood
A Neptune Flood report finds that 2.3 million California homes will be exposed to flood risk over the next 30 years, yet only 1.4% currently carry residential flood insurance. Modern flood modelling identifies more than twice as many at‑risk properties as...
How Construction’s Risks, Opportunities and Insurance Options Shape up for 2026
In 2026 construction firms grapple with volatile material costs—up 34% since 2020—and a chronic labor shortage that now affects roughly one‑third of companies, while rising rates for commercial auto and excess/umbrella liability add margin pressure. Stabilizing interest rates, a surge...
'Real Reckoning' Around Climate Risk 'Bottom Line' Impact
Amid a so‑called “sustainability winter,” firms are under mounting pressure to prove the bottom‑line impact of climate‑risk assessments, turning rigorous quantification into a market differentiator. Investors, regulators, and corporate clients now demand concrete financial metrics that link climate exposure to...
Executive Viewpoint: How AI Is Changing the Role of the Insurance Broker
Artificial intelligence is reshaping insurance broking from a transactional, renewal‑driven model to a continuous, data‑rich advisory practice. Large brokers are already using AI for benchmarking, coverage design and portfolio analysis, delivering faster, more consistent risk assessments and stronger client retention....
Inter‑Insurance Agency Warns Firms They only Grasp Coverage During Claims
Inter‑Insurance Agency says many businesses only fully understand their insurance policies after a claim is filed. President Timothy B. Derham warns that this timing prevents adjustments to limits or exclusions, and the firm is urging owners to treat coverage as...