Author: completebodyneeds

This article is part of a sponsored series by Amwins. For years, business auto coverage was quietly bundled into large commercial insurance packages where general liability, property and workers’ compensation took center stage. As loss ratios have worsened, however, insurers are rethinking this model, unbundling auto insurance from packages and pushing it into the specialty market. The shift is reshaping how transportation underwriters view business auto risk and raising the stakes for insureds seeking competitive monoline quotes – leading to widespread non-renewals of just the auto portion of packaged policies. Retail carriers are forcing insureds, particularly those with mixed fleets…

Sands Point Risk, a multi-program managing general agency platform, has acquired Launch Environmental Underwriters, a provider of environmental general liability insurance. Jersey City, New Jersey-based Launch focuses on complex risks across the energy, infrastructure, construction, chemical, mergers and acquisition, and industrial sectors. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Stamford, Connecticut-based Sands Point said Launch will serve as the cornerstone of its environmental practice. Sands Point Risk was itself launched in 2024 to serve the transaction liability insurance sector with the support of private equity firm Avesi Partners. Dennis Kearns, who founded the transaction risk program at DUAL, is…

The global oil bottleneck in the Strait of Hormuz has generated an enviable—and politically sensitive—financial windfall on the other side of the world in New Mexico, a rare Democratic-dominated state where fossil fuels are a bedrock of progressive social services. New Mexico produces more oil than any other state besides Texas, and the state’s revenue from taxes, royalties and lease sales helps cover the cost of college tuition, all school meals, health insurance and a new initiative for free universal child care. Now that oil prices are surging from the conflict with Iran, money is flooding into the state treasury…

Nearly nine-in-10 workers’ compensation treatment request denials in California were overturned by independent medical review, a new report shows. The California Department of Industrial Relations and its Division of Workers’ Compensation released the annual report on the department’s IMR program. The report summarizes IMR activity in 2025, the 13th year since the program was implemented. The report shows the organization that administers the program, Maximus Federal Services Inc., received 201,037 IMR applications and issued 152,351 final determination letters. Throughout the year, the organization issued decisions an average of six to seven days after receiving all required medical records, according to…

Municipal workers’ compensation insurance pools in South Carolina now have another firefighter health condition presumption to consider, after the state’s governor signed House Bill 3163 into law. The law, which took effect upon Gov. Henry McMaster’s signature last week, adds stroke to the list of conditions presumed to be work-related for some firefighters in the state. “…Any impairment or injury to the health of a firefighter caused by heart disease, stroke, or respiratory disease resulting in total or partial disability or death is presumed to have arisen out of and in the course of employment, unless the contrary is shown…

Scammers have been targeting Spanish-speaking workers, trying to trick them into paying fees to access workers’ compensation benefits around the South and West, officials said. The North Carolina Industrial Commission, which oversees workers’ comp in the state, warned in a bulletin this week about “a sophisticated fraud scheme targeting workers’ compensation claimants across multiple states through the use of official-looking communications and fake hearings.” The scammers have utilized phone calls, emails, texts, video calls and social media to impersonate judicial officials, government employees, attorneys and other comp professionals, the Commission explained. The goal is to convince injured workers to attend…

Three new property insurance companies have entered the Florida market this spring, bringing to 20 the number of new carriers since Florida lawmakers ended assignment-of-benefit agreements and one-way attorney fees in 2023. “To date, these new companies since the legislative reforms bring in more than $850 million in new capital to support additional growth in the state’s property market,” Florida Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky said in a bulletin Wednesday. Frontline Insurance, a stalwart of Florida’s insurance market in recent years, added a new reciprocal exchange company. The Office of Insurance Regulation granted a certificate of authority in April, authorizing the…

Two Democrats, one a longtime insurance agent, will face each other in a June 16 runoff election that will determine who will be on the November general election ballot for Georgia insurance commissioner. Mathis (Ballotpedia) Keisha Sean Waites, a former state legislator and Atlanta City Council member, was the largest vote-getter in the Democratic primary Tuesday, winning more than 427,000 votes and 42%. DeAndre Mathis, a State Farm insurance agent in Decatur, took home almost 20% of the vote in a field of five candidates, the Georgia Secretary of State reported. Since no candidate won a majority of the votes…

After a year of kidnappings, assaults and armed home invasions targeting cryptocurrency holders, the industry is racing to harden its defenses. Conferences are beefing up security. Private firms serving crypto holders say demand has surged. Exchanges are protecting their executives. The defensive stance was on display at the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas last month, where many of the highest-profile speakers moved through the venue trailed by personal bodyguards. A standing-room-only workshop taught attendees how to protect their crypto holdings during a home invasion. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, The Venetian Resort security team, external contractors and private…

As bank executives increasingly tout the promise of artificial intelligence to slim down workforces, regulators are warning them not to get carried away. The European Banking Authority, the rulemaker for financial firms operating in the region, has been meeting with national authorities to ensure human bankers are providing adequate oversight of processes increasingly handled by AI, according to Ruta Merkeviciute, head of digital finance at the EBA. The watchdog’s concerns extend to the kinds of repetitive tasks traditionally handled by bankers in middle and back office functions, she said. Read more: UK’s StanChart to Cut Over 7,000 Jobs, Boost AI…