Specialty Lines Markets FOCUS ON BOATING: CALM BLUE OCEAN OR THE PERFECT STORM? Despite expected growth, claims severity increases as boat technology advances By Lori Widmer Based on sales alone, you’d never know there was any pressure on the boating industry. The 2018 tariffs on steel and aluminum caused plenty of manufacturers and insurers alike to hold their collective breath. Yet the tariffs have done little to impact sales, and
Specialty Lines
D&O INSURANCE Is the market really starting to harden? By Joseph S. Harrington, CPCU Today’s agents, brokers, and underwriters have seen enormous growth and change in the frequency, severity, and nature of claims against directors and officers of both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. They’ve also seen corresponding changes in the scope and application of directors and officers liability policies. What they haven’t seen, unless they were in the business in
SPECIALTY LINES MARKETS FOCUS ON THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY Construction insurance sector keeps pace with the general market By Lori Widmer When 2018 began, all signs pointed to increased construction costs. The Trump Administration tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico were poised to raise raw materials costs as each country imposed its own retaliatory tariffs. Almost immediately, such action had impact. From 2012 through 2015, construction starts increased between 11% and
SURETY BONDING Business is great, so how do we get people to join? By Joseph S. Harrington, CPCU What’s the best business to be in today? Not many people would answer “surety bonding,” but it definitely deserves a place on the proverbial “short list.” The devastating losses of the Enron era are an increasingly distant memory for an industry that exceeded $6 billion in direct written premium in 2017—more than
CANNABIS INSURANCE Carriers and intermediaries don’t want to be too far out front or left behind By Joseph S. Harrington, CPCU “This is the new gold rush.” So says Matthew Porter, vice president of Brown & Brown Insurance Services of California, regarding the surge of investor interest in the production and distribution of cannabis and products derived from cannabis. “A lot of people are pouring a lot of money into
