Aftermath images of the Japan earthquake and tsunami demonstrate why insurance companies are looking at billions in losses, with one early estimate placing the figure as high as $35 billion.

None of Berkshire Hathaway's top executives received big raises last year, and the chief financial officer earned nearly twice as much as his more famous boss, Warren Buffett.

The Alabama Senate has voted to set up a computer database that would allow county tag officials and law enforcement to instantly check whether a vehicle has liability insurance.

Shares in some of the world's biggest reinsurance companies took a pounding Friday on fears that the earthquake in Japan and the subsequent tsunami will cost them dearly.

Photos of the Japan earthquake and subsequent 23-foot tsunami that was unleashed onto the country's eastern coast show the extent of devastation that occurred. Hundreds are feared dead.

Insurer Allstate Corp. gave its CEO a pay package in 2010 that was worth $8.6 million, a cut of about 8 percent from 2009, according to a company filing made Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The price Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is willing to pay for the remaining 19.9 percent of Wesco Financial it doesn't already own has grown $9 million to $556.6 million.

The company created by West Virginia to provide workers' compensation insurance no longer wants to cover state agencies, prompting lawmakers to consider alternative policy options.