Author: completebodyneeds

While a number of Florida-domiciled property insurers have begun rebuilding their policy portfolios in the last 12 months, Tampa-based Heritage Insurance has continued to shed policies in recent years. The selective underwriting strategy, along with other changes, appears to have made a difference: Heritage reported a Q2 profit of almost $62 million. That’s a 28.5% increase in net income for the second quarter of this year, compared to Q2 2025. The company also posted a microscopic 65% combined ratio as of the end of June this year. That’s eight points lower than what the insurer reported at this time last…

A judge approved a $106 million settlement Thursday that ends a yearslong legal battle over the deadly 2019 collapse of a Hard Rock Hotel that was under construction in New Orleans. The 18-story hotel project partially collapsed in October 2019, killing three people and damaging nearby property. A grand jury ultimately decided against indicting anyone in the deadly collapse, but lawsuits were filed, including one brought by the City of New Orleans in August 2020 naming the building owners, their partners and contractors. The various lawsuits were consolidated into one case that includes a total of 490 plaintiffs, such as…

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a lawsuit against Stony Island Reclamation Co., Land and Lakes Co., and J.L.W. Trucking LLC, which operated a facility under the name of Whole Earth Compost, alleging that the companies endangered the environment and public safety by allowing fires to break out at the Harbor View waste facility, a closed landfill site. Raoul’s lawsuit, filed in the Cook County Circuit Court, alleges how the companies allowed fires at the site and created an explosion risk at the facility that threatened the health and welfare of nearby residents. The facility, which was closed in 2003,…

The reinsurance industry’s robust earnings and abundant capital, evident since 2023, have led to increasing competition and a softening market. “The key question is whether reinsurers can maintain underwriting discipline or will irrational competition emerge, leading to another traditional soft market cycle,” said AM Best. The ratings agency says the “question is hardly a new one,” given the experience of reinsurance cycles over many years. “The next 12 months may ultimately determine whether the market is entering a new era of sustained underwriting discipline or continuing down the path of yet another traditional soft market cycle,” said AM Best in…

A major earthquake hit Colombia on Monday morning, burying people under rubble and causing severe destruction to buildings and infrastructure in the Pacific region and the central Andes. The magnitude 7.4 tremor struck at 7:34 a.m. local time near the town of San José del Palmar, Choco province, according to the US Geological Survey. There was at least one aftershock, but no tsunami warning. The event is the first major test for President Abelardo de la Espriella, who was sworn in on Friday in a ceremony in Cali. He said he would travel to the coffee-producing region of Pereira, which…

Virginia, the world’s largest data center hub, has released a long-delayed study that examined the state’s eastern region groundwater supply and the resource-hungry industry’s possible impact on it, finding declines are likely in a critical aquifer due to population growth and industrial use and urging stricter regulations. Produced by environmental scientists, the report — which the state for more than six months had refused to release — said regulators should have more authority to reject industrial water withdrawal permits, force entities to examine alternative sources of water and clamp down on users who might be using more water than they…

OpenAI and a subsidiary will pay $3.2 million to settle U.S. government claims that they favored foreign workers with temporary employment visas and discriminated against U.S. job applicants in recruiting and hiring, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday. The Justice Department in a release said that OpenAI and Statsig, which makes product development software, recruited foreign workers for some open positions and took various steps to discourage U.S. workers from applying. That included requiring them to mail paper applications instead of submitting electronic ones, advertising jobs on the radio late at night, and not posting the openings on an…

Eric Anderson, new CEO of American International Group (AIG), offered an in-depth view of the company during his first earnings call at the helm, referring to opportunities within current marketplace conditions. Anderson said the market is “transition from an extended phase of broad positive pricing into a more selective environment where profitability and growth are increasingly dependent on line-specific dynamics.” The dynamics include an influx of capacity in some spots, from excess & surplus lines carriers, delegated underwriting authority structures, and other sources, he told analysts. While these entrants have increased competition and put pressure on pricing – particularly in…

New Jersey sued Amazon.com last week, accusing the online retailer of abusing its market power over independent delivery drivers in the state. Amazon used its dominance to impose low pay and poor conditions on thousands of New Jersey workers who deliver for the company via its Delivery Service Partner program, the state alleged in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Newark, New Jersey. “This complaint is not grounded in fact,” said Steve Kelly, an Amazon spokesperson. Attorney General Jennifer Davenport’s office said it was the first lawsuit in which a state has accused a company of illegal conduct to…

Two drivers of Mercedes AMG cars have filed a class action lawsuit against the luxury car company, claiming that the AMG logo on their driver’s seat gets so hot that it literally brands them and causes burns. Gabriel Lahijani and Karendeep “Karina” Bath allege the front seats of certain Mercedes AMG vehicles have a design defect where the raised metallic AMG logo is “reasonably expected to contact an occupant’s upper back, neck, or shoulder,” according to the court document filed earlier this week in the U.S. District Court of California’s Western division. The plaintiffs want Mercedes to compensate them for…