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March 2010
Marsh and Aon should be more vocal about whether they will accept contingent commissions now that their ban has been lifted.
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Fac players are bullish about their business offering in the uncertain economic climate. But with fierce competition among brokers and softening rates there the picture is not as rosy as it may seem.
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US insurance broker Marsh has announced the appointment of Jonathan Zaffino as US global risk management (GRM) casualty practice leader.
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Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) is looking to sell Kroll, its corporate investigations division, for about $1.3bn, reports the Financial Times.
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Marsh & McLennan Agency, a unit of Marsh, has added three executives to its senior leadership team.
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Guy Carpenter has appointed senior executives in its Buenos Aires office. The company has named Roberto Glogau as country head in Argentina.
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After the ban on contingent commissions was lifted for the world’s three biggest three brokers, Reactions spoke to Pat Gallagher, chairman, president and CEO of the fourth-largest US broker Arthur J Gallagher & Co to see what his opinion is on the controversial payments.
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Marsh, the international insurance broker and risk adviser, has announced it is aggressively targeting emerging growth opportunities in the global construction industry this year.
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Brown & Brown has purchased the insurance agency and brokerage business-related assets of Seattle-based DiMartino Associates.
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Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) said Tuesday that 2009 pre-tax profits rose 10%, beating analyst expectation owing to the strong performance of its risk and insurance businesses.
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US insurance broker Marsh has appointed two senior executives as part of its aggressive US growth strategy.
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Independent insurance and reinsurance broker Miller has appointed Jeremy Mander to expand its treaty business.
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February 2010
Oamps Insurance Brokers has hired former Axa Australia state manager, Michael Meysztowicz, as head of its life insurance advice division.
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Reactions speaks to brokerage veteran Pat Ryan, who built Aon into a global powerhouse, about his plans for new firm Ryan Specialty Group.
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With Aon, Marsh and Willis now able to accept contingent commissions again, the market is abuzz with questions about which of them will accept the controversial payments, how much business this could bring and what buyers’ reaction will be.
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The Spitzer-era ban on contingent commissions for the world’s biggest insurance brokers, Aon, Marsh and Willis, has been lifted. An equity analyst believes Aon and Marsh could now receive as much as $200m a year in contingent commissions.
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The Risk and Insurance Management Society today announced its dismay at a decision by the New York insurance department and attorney general to allow the big three brokers to resume taking contingent commissions.
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RiskProNet International has appointed Gerry O’Connor as president. Most recently, he was senior vice-president with AAI, a unit of Old National Insurance.
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Lloyd’s of London’s decision to broaden its product range as part of its strategic plan will not harm the market’s position in its core lines, Sean McGovern, Lloyd’s general council, has told Reactions.
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US insurance broker Aon Corporation has today announced that it has reached an amended and restated agreement on the issue of compensation business practices with three states.
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Arthur J Gallagher & Co has announced the acquisition of Brazilian broker Securitas Re, from Estater Gestao de Investimentos
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Insurance agency and brokerage firm, Brown & Brown, has reported $23.65m net income for the fourth quarter of 2009.
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Insurance broker Willis Group Holdings today entered into agreement with the attorney general and the superintendent of insurance of the state of New York to amend and restate its 2005 Assurance of Discontinuance and Stipulation (the AOD).
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The British Insurance Brokers' Association (Biba) has reacted angrily to the UK Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) plan to hike insurance broker’s fees by 122%.
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Lockton International has appointed Robert Barron to its accident, health, sports & contingency team.
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Reinsurance pricing softened at the January 1 2010 renewals. Reactions asks what this will mean for pricing for the rest of the year.
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The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York (IIABNY) association will go ahead with legal action to stop a new piece of producer compensation disclosure regulation that has been proposed by the New York state insurance department.
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Former Aon chairman and CEO, Patrick Ryan, has launched Ryan Specialty Group (RSG).
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Fierce pricing competition is prompting investors to choose their stocks carefully this year. We reveal which stocks equity analysts are tipping to outperform.
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MMC today reported a decline of net income to $38m in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared with net income of $80m in 2008. Marsh’s revenue for the quarter fell 4% while Guy Carpenter’s revenue for the year was up 23%.
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Insurance broker, Aon, will buy back $2bn in shares, Bloomberg reports.
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Marsh has appointed Eleni Petros as a senior vice-president in its financial and professional (Finpro) practice.
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Aon Corporation surpassed expectations in the fourth quarter as the company saw the benefit of restructuring savings and favourable foreign currency translation.
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Willis Group Holdings said Wednesday that 2009 net income increased 44% on greater commissions and fees.
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Fitch ratings has delivered a downbeat outlook for the US broking industry.
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Insurance broker Marsh has appointed Martin Clark as UK leader of its energy claims team.
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Willis Group Holdings has appointed Stephen Wood, the company’s global group financial controller, as interim chief financial officer.
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US insurance broker Arthur J Gallagher & Co reported a net income for the fourth quarter of $19.4m compared with $11.7m in the same period last year.
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Insurance broker, Brown & Brown, has purchased the commercial, personal property and casualty books of business from a New Mexico agency.
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As part of its strategy to acquire high-quality independent agencies in every region of the US, Marsh & McLennan Agency today announced it has acquired Haake Companies, one of the largest independent insurance agencies in the mid-west.
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Insurance broker Aon has made six new appointments to its general aviation team, specialising in industrial aid and commercial aircraft.
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The world’s national oil companies could benefit from lower costs of risk in the next few years as a result of a lack of natural catastrophes, plentiful insurance capacity and more sophisticated risk management techniques.
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US president Barack Obama’s proposed budget unveiled today eliminates nearly $250m in federal subsidies to insurance companies for terrorism insurance, according to the AIA.
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January 2010
XL plans to redomicile to Ireland and the remaining Lloyd’s players headquartered in the UK are also considering leaving. We ask why firms are looking to move and to where.
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Specialist broker THB Group has announced an18% increase in fee and commission income and a 43% year-on-year increase in broking profit for the year to October 31, 2009.
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Travelers’ fourth quarter underwriting performance does not bode will for brokers’ ongoing commissions and organic growth, an analyst at Atlantic Equities has warned.
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Aon Benfield Tuesday announced the launch of FAConnect, a proprietary facultative broking platform.
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US insurance broker Arthur J Gallagher & Co reported a net income for the fourth quarter of $19.4m compared with $11.7m in the same period last year.
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Last year was one of the least active of the decade for M&A of US insurance brokers and the first year that the number of M&A deals dipped below 200 since 2003, according to Hales & Company.
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Willis North America has promoted Alastair Swift to chief placement officer.
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New York’s Insurance Department will prioritise making the city a place where insurance companies want to do business by launching the New York insurance exchange, said James Wrynn, the department’s superintendent, at a Reactions US Business Club held in New York last week.
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Lloyd’s insurer Amlin has completed the transfer of the insolvency practitioners’ insurance business in the UK from broker Lockton.
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Lockton has obtained a large equity holding in South Korean insurance broker IMI with options to purchase an increased shareholding, the privately held broker said Friday.
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Insurance broker Marsh has appointed Andrew Herring as leader for the Americas of its London-based wholesale energy practice.
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Willis Group has renewed the contract of its chairman and CEO, Joseph Plumeri. He will stay on at global insurance broker until July 7, 2013.
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US broker Lockton has obtained an equity holding in South Korean insurance broker IMI with options to purchase an increased shareholding.
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Global insurance broker Willis Group Holdings has extended the contract of its chairman and CEO, Joe Plumeri.
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US brokerage firm Marsh & McLennan Companies announced today that it has elected Edward Hanway as a director.
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Specialist fraud police are hunting for a UK-based insurance broker who was expelled from the financial services industry for defrauding doctors’ surgeries in a £400,000 scam, UK newspaper The Times reports.
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The British Insurance Brokers’ Association (Biba) has appointed Brendan McManus, CEO of Willis UK & Ireland and Ken Davidson, chairman of Crispin Speers, to its board.
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The UK government is failing exporters by refusing to underwrite the issue of bonds needed to win overseas orders and guarantee the performance of export contracts, according to Susan Ross, director of Aon Trade Credit and chair of the British Exporters Association.
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The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned Stephen Allen, a director of insurance broker, Fabien Risk Services, for failing in his duties as a director of a regulated firm.
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The US insurance industry must act with a unified voice to improve the industry’s reputation, concludes a McKinsey & Company report, Building a Talent Magnet.
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The property/casualty insurance unit of wholesale insurance broker Crump Group is making key management changes.
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Read a selection of stories from the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Reactions.
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Reactions canvassed executive search firms worldwide to produce a list of who they believe will be the top leaders of the future. Here are the names they came up with.
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Finex National, a division of the financial, executive and professional risks unit of insurance broker Willis Group, has entered into a strategic alliance with Dominion organisations.
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International brokerage Arthur J Gallagher & Co today announced that Scott Hudson has joined its property/casually subsidiary, Gallagher Bassett Services, as its president and chief executive officer.
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Cooper Gay, the global independent reinsurance and specialist retail insurance broker, has announced the appointment of Sam Hovey as chief financial officer of the group’s UK subsidiary, Cooper Gay & Co.
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Thompson Heath & Bond, THB’s Lloyd’s broking arm, has enhanced its international treaty platform by hiring three senior brokers specialising in the Latin American, Caribbean, Middle Eastern and Asia/Pacific territories.
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After the announcement that US Risk Insurance Group has expanded into the specialty reinsurance brokerage marketplace, Reactions quizzed Randall Goss, chairman and chief executive officer of US Risk Insurance Group about his intentions for 2010.
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A subsidiary of Brown & Brown Insurance has acquired the assets of San Antonio, Texas-based Alamo Insurance.
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US insurance broker Brown & Brown has announced Jim Henderson, its vice-chairman and chief operating officer and a member of its board of directors, will retire in August of this year.
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Insurance broker Willis said Tuesday that it is expanding its UK Willis Commercial Network (WCN) business model into Northern Ireland with the addition of three new independent brokers.
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Privately owned reinsurance broker Lockton Re has expanded its presence in the US with the appointments of three new executives at its offices in New York and Kansas City.
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Reinsurance rates across most lines of property-catastrophe business declined at the January 1, 2010 renewal, according to a briefing released by Guy Carpenter.