Author: completebodyneeds

While condo sales across Miami have broadly slumped in recent years, one sector of the market is booming — ultra-luxury sales in apartments that haven’t even been built yet. The Residences at Mandarin Oriental Miami on Brickell Key, a manmade island next to the financial center, has sold $1.7 billion worth of condos before breaking ground on the project, David Martin, president of the developer Swire Properties, said in an interview. Those sales include two record-breaking penthouses for about $50 million a piece. The buyers are about 65% domestic, higher than is typical for Miami’s top end of the market,…

Denmark suffered a major data breach that gave unauthorized individuals access to names, addresses and personal identification numbers belonging to about 8.8 million people registered in the country’s central population database. The breach occurred after unidentified individuals misused a private Danish company’s legitimate access to search the Central Person Register, known as CPR, the government said in a statement Monday. The company has since been blocked from the system while police investigate the matter, with authorities saying it’s too early to determine who was behind the breach. “This is a deeply serious incident,” Digitalization Minister Christina Egelund said. She has…

Specialty managing general agent Banyan Risk said it launched Red Fox Risk Ltd, a new underwriting venture focused on wildfire-exposed property risk in the U.S. The business will be led by Brian Espie as CEO and Sarah Kennedy, chief underwriting officer. Red Fox will operate under the Banyan Risk umbrella to offer catastrophe, property, and excess and surplus underwriting together with Banyan’s data-driven, tech-enabled operating platform. The new venture will focus on disciplined risk selection, portfolio management and long-term capacity. Banyan Risk said Red Fox is designed to serve brokers and clients seeking specialist solutions in wildfire-exposed areas. It will…

The next financial crisis could originate from a source outside the world of finance, Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra said Saturday. “It may begin with a geopolitical event, or cyber attack or a technological failure that affects the financial system through multiple channels,” Malhotra said at an event in New Delhi. While India remains exposed to the effects of the war in Iran through higher commodity prices and “external sector pressures,” the economy is navigating this phase “from a position of strength,” he said. The governor was highlighting a new generation of systemic risks that are increasingly “exogenous”…

Most of our agency clients tell us they have a hard time finding producers. They want to know where to look and how to bring them into the agency. It is not an easy task to find someone who is experienced from another agency, especially someone who can come in free-and-clear with a book of business and easily fit into the agency’s culture. Every agency is different, has different levels of support staff, different markets, training, computers, perks, and contracts. The following are some of the ways an agency can find good people and be successful in this endeavor from…

Searchers found a “debris field” off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, from an air ambulance that was carrying six people when it vanished over the Atlantic on Saturday during a flight from Bermuda to Boston, the U.S. Coast Guard said. Four Canadians and two Bermudian nationals were aboard, and their next of kin were notified as the search continued, the Coast Guard said in a statement. It added that one of its cutters would keep searching the water overnight and into Sunday. According to the Coast Guard, the Federal Aviation Administration reported that the Gulfstream G100 lost contact very early…

USA Today Co., Daily Mail General and Trust Plc and a class of large publishers can seek more than $3.2 billion in damages for harm caused by monopolization of advertising technology markets by Alphabet Inc.’s Google, a New York federal judge ruled. In an opinion late Wednesday, US District Judge P. Kevin Castel in Manhattan said he will allow jury trials to move forward on how Google’s conduct related to its AdX advertising exchange harmed major publishers. A class of about 5,000 publishers can pursue about $1.7 billion in damages from Google, he ruled, rejecting a bid by the company…

The surplus lines and specialty commercial markets are becoming an increasingly competitive space, with supply outweighing demand in some lines of coverage and risk classes creating “micro-market” trends not experienced in previous softer markets. AM Best reported in its recently released State of the Market report that there remains an “abundance of capital and heightened competition among insurers, reinsurers, and managing general agents (MGAs),” which is shifting the landscape to a policyholder’s market when it comes to negotiating power. “More than ample market capacity–from insurers, reinsurers, and delegated underwriting authority enterprises (DUAEs) such as MGAs and program managers–is outpacing demand…

Affordability challenges are transforming the health benefits market, requiring brokers, carriers, and employers to make difficult decisions. In 2000, healthcare spending comprised roughly 13% of total U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Today, that figure is up to 18%. By 2033, it’s projected to reach 20%, which is $1 out of every $5 spent attributed to healthcare. As costs climb and market conditions tighten, brokers can no longer rely on rate shopping alone to find the right benefits package for employers and plan sponsors at renewal. Instead, brokers will need to identify and implement new strategies to help reduce the cost…

AM Best has revised the outlooks to positive from stable and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “bbb+” (Good) of RAM Mutual Insurance Company (RAM) based in Esko, Minnesota. The Credit Ratings (ratings) reflect RAM’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its marginal operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). The outlook revisions to positive from stable reflect improved underwriting and overall operating results in each of the past two years and through the first half of 2026. The improvement…