Category: Business Insurance

Vantage Group Holdings Ltd. said Thursday it is introducing new products in health care and excess and surplus casualty insurance in the United States and Bermuda.

Hamilton, Bermuda-based Vantage said in its statement its Bermuda team, which is headed by Denise Watkins, works with wholesale distribution partners to provide insurance and captive reinsurance on occurrence, claims made and integrated occurrence policy forms, as well as punitive damages and punitive damage wrap coverage.

It said the excess casualty portfolio will target classes of business including transportation, construction, consumer products, real estate, retail, hospitality, manufacturing and chemical.

In health care liability, its clients are primarily hospital systems and facilities, including academic medical facilities, specialty medical centers and managed care facilities, the statement said.

Vantage’s U.S. health care team, headed by Ray Pernsteiner, provides health care excess liability coverage for captive insurance and reinsurance.

It said clients include health systems and integrated delivery

A federal appeals court Thursday reversed a lower court and ruled a Hartford Financial Services Insurance Group Inc. unit must indemnify a financial services company that was victimized by a scammer.

In January 2015, Austin-based HM International LLC’s chief financial officer received an email from a fraudster purporting to be client Greg Geib instructing the company to wire transfer $1 million to another bank account, according to the ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans in HM International, LLC v. Twin City Fire Insurance Co.

HMI executed the order, which caused Mr. Geib and his wife to lose the $1 million, much of which they have been unable to recover, according to the ruling. The fraud was discovered two days later when the scammer tried the scheme a second time without success.

Three months later, the Geibs’ attorney sent HMI a letter accusing it of

Moody’s Investors Services Inc. cautioned Monday that it could take “months” to assess the magnitude of Ida’s impact on the property/casualty sector after the Category 4 hurricane barreled into the Louisiana coast on Sunday.

After making landfall at Port Fourchon, Louisiana, south of New Orleans at about 1 p.m. ET Sunday with maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour, Ida remained a Cat 4 for about six hours, then was downgraded to a Cat 3 with winds about 120 mph by 7 p.m. ET. It is expected to become a tropical depression over Mississippi by late Monday, according to a note Monday from Morgan Stanley.

Ida tied with the Last Island Hurricane in 1856 and Hurricane Laura in 2020 for the strongest maximum sustained winds for a Louisiana landfalling hurricane on record, Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist with Colorado State University’s Tropical Meteorology Project in Boulder, wrote on his

If your small business sells, serves or distributes alcohol, you may need liquor liability insurance. A liquor liability insurance policy covers claims of property damage or bodily injury that a drunk person causes after being served alcohol by a business.

Liquor liability insurance is also called dram shop insurance.

If your small business get sued, a liquor liability insurance policy can help by covering:

• Legal costs, settlements and judgments
• Medical bills
• Repair costs to fix damaged property

Who Needs Liquor Liability Insurance?

In most states, liquor liability insurance coverage is required for businesses that sell or serve alcoholic beverages. And depending on your state, you

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently has cracked down on companies it deems to have breached securities laws by making inadequate cybersecurity disclosures, and it’s expected to continue to pursue enforcement activity.

To avoid SEC actions, experts advise that companies establish clear internal communications strategies on cybersecurity issues and examine their directors and officers liability insurance and cyber liability policies to determine whether they have adequate coverage if the issue arises.

Some recent examples of the SEC’s stepped-up cyber disclosure actions include:

• On June 15, without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, Santa Ana, California-based First American Financial Corp., a title insurance services company, agreed to pay a $487,616 penalty for allegedly failing to disclose a cybersecurity vulnerability.
• On June 21, the SEC said London-based educational publishing company Pearson PLC agreed to pay $1 million to settle charges it misled investors about a 2018 intrusion.  
• The

Businesses that create, manufacture, distribute and sell products should consider product liability insurance. This type of coverage protects your business from costs if a product doesn’t work properly and causes harm to a third party.

Defects in your company’s product could cause injury or property damage. Even if a product is used incorrectly by the customer, a business could be liable for any damage caused by the product.

Product liability insurance also covers legal fees, medical costs and compensatory damages brought forth in third-party lawsuits. The potentially high cost of lawsuits makes product liability insurance a vital component of a small business insurance plan.

How

(Reuters) — Peloton Interactive Inc. said on Friday U.S. regulators were investigating the company, adding to the exercise bike maker’s woes as it deals with a backlash over reports of accidents involving its treadmills.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security have subpoenaed the company for documents and information over injuries from its exercise machines, the company said in a filing with the U.S. securities regulator.

Peloton recalled its Tread+ product in May, just weeks after saying there was “no reason” to stop using the exercise machine despite reports of the death of a child and multiple injuries.

Its public disclosures related to the reports are also under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Peloton said.

Chief Executive Officer John Foley publicly apologized in May for Peloton’s early response to the accident reports, and the company also laid out steps to improve safety of

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Financial Corp. has spent $30 million on lawyers in the last year, as it fends off 169 lawsuits aimed at forcing it to pay business interruption claims by companies forced to close during the coronavirus pandemic.

One of those lawsuits was filed by Taste of Belgium owner Jean Francois Flechet, who remains a Cincinnati Financial customer as he pursues a class-action lawsuit against the company.

“We just disagree on the interpretation of one paragraph on the contract,” Flechet said. “They’re protecting their interest. I’m protecting mine.”

Flechet’s lawsuit is on hold as the Ohio Supreme Court prepares to rule on a central legal question in business interruption cases.

In the meantime, the WCPO 9 I-Team has been analyzing another kind of legal spending.

For more than a

Home insurance company Hippo has announced the expansion of its technology, product and marketing operations with the opening of its first international office. The new office will be located in Tel Aviv, Israel, a global technology hub, and will be a center of innovation for the company.

The new office will focus on the development of talent and technologies to drive products and services across Hippo’s business, the company said. The office will be led by general manager Shahaf Shakuf, who previously established the Israel subsidiary for online learning company Chegg.