Author: completebodyneeds

Australia’s industrial umpire has approved new minimum standards requiring food and grocery delivery workers to be paid hourly rates above the national minimum wage and covered by injury insurance while on the job. Gig workers will be paid at least A$31.30 ($22.11) an hour, above Australia’s minimum wage of A$26.44, while remaining responsible for maintaining third-party insurance for vehicles used for deliveries, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) said in an order issued late on Tuesday. Companies will be required to provide “a reasonable minimum level of cover” for personal accident insurance, although the order did not specify a minimum level…

A specialty homeowners program serving high-value homeowners is coming to California and Colorado. Green Shield Risk Solutions is expanding its Guardian Elite Home, a non-admitted homeowners program for affluent primary and secondary residences, in California and Colorado. The rollout is occurring alongside the launch of Compass, an agent portal the company said is designed to simplify quoting, submissions and account management. The Guardian Elite Home program offers expanded capacity across all ZIP codes in California and Colorado, Coverage A limits of up to $7 million and total insured values of up to $10 million. The program, which is backed by…

Firefighters who responded to a fire at a Maine lumber mill used tactics that inadvertently contributed to a massive explosion that killed three people, according to a report from federal investigators. The fire companies tried to extinguish the May 15 fire inside a silo at the Robbins Lumber mill in rural Searsmont, Maine, by injecting it with water — unaware of warnings from the manufacturer that doing so would be dangerous. The silo then blasted skyward like a rocket as flames and a shock wave from the explosion hurled workers and firefighters away. The firefighters didn’t know, the National Institute…

Lindsay Clancy messaged one of her caregivers less than two months before she killed her three young children in 2023 to say she was having “intrusive thoughts I never had before,” “feeling completely hopeless” and worried about becoming addicted to some medications. Rebecca Jollotta, a psychiatric nurse practitioner at South Shore Health Perinatal Behavior Health Program, testified at the trial Tuesday she exchanged messages with Clancy regularly on a patient portal throughout in late November and December 2022. Much of their conversations revolved around Clancy reporting trouble sleeping, depressive symptoms she was having and her search for the right mix…

The Florida Surplus Lines Association installed its new officers and directors this week at what the association said was a record-breaking annual convention in St. Petersburg. “Our industry plays a vital role in helping Florida businesses and consumers find coverage for unique and evolving risks, and I’m excited to build on the strong foundation laid by those who came before me,” said new FSLA President Tonya Rivera, who is vice president of Southeast sales for the Johnson & Johnson wholesale brokerage. Other officers and directors installed this week include: President-Elect: Bresch Kilday – Starwind Community Associations and personal lines Treasurer:…

Amynta Group, an insurance services firm and managing general agent based in New York, said it has acquired Southern States Underwriters and SSC Insurance Agency, based in Richmond, Virginia. The underwriter and agency are the insurance operations of Southern States Cooperative, a 103-year-old agricultural retail and service co-op that supports farm and related operations in six Southern states. Southern States Underwriters is a managing general underwriter offering property and liability coverage for suppliers and distributors in agriculture, the companies said in a news release. It also is the attorney-in-fact for Southern States Insurance Exchange, a reciprocal insurer for the agribusiness…

West Virginia is one of the deadliest states for house fires, killing an average of 32 people per year between 2009 and 2023. An audit of the State Fire Commission in December of 2025 noted that the commission hadn’t compiled a state-mandated plan to prevent these deaths. Testifying before a Government Organization Committee in December, State Fire Marshal, Ken Tyree Jr. said that he did not realize his agency was supposed to produce one comprehensive plan before the recent audit. He said his office is drafting the document now and plans to finish it in the Fall of 2026. It…

The world’s busiest airport is coming to market with a more than $1 billion municipal bond sale, boosting issuance in the lagging airport sector. Atlanta’s borrowing will help finance infrastructure improvements at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, a cornerstone hub for Delta Air Lines, Inc. The city plans to issue about $699 million of bonds subject to the alternative-minimum tax, and roughly $391 million of non-AMT bonds, according to bond documents. The jumbo sale, expected to price Tuesday, comes as muni issuance in the airport sector hovers at roughly $10 billion so far this year, about 28% lower than at…

New research from S&P Global Market Intelligence looks to suggest that homeowners insurers are reaching rate adequacy, but certain marketplace factors are creating what it called a “fragmented phase.” Nationally, the US effective approved homeowners rate change declined from about 13.6% in 2024, to about 6.3% in 2025, to now about 1.8% through July 2026. “This downward trend suggests carriers have largely completed the national adequacy reset and are now looking for price change as needed or as necessitated by jurisdiction, peril mix and regulatory timing,” said S&P GMI. S&P GMI said rates in some high-loss exposure areas are rising.…

American International Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Eric Andersen said that while the artificial intelligence buildout presents a “great opportunity” for the insurance industry, it’s also pushing property and casualty providers to their limits. AI data centers “need everything from project finance all the way through to operations,” he told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday. “That’s construction, that’s cyber, that’s property, that’s liability.” AIG CEO Eric Andersen AIG has a competitive advantage because it offers products in all of these areas, he said. “But it is absolutely maxing out the P&C insurance industry in terms of the limits that are required,”…