The impact of second-quarter catastrophes on insurers is beginning to be seen, as four separate companies cited cat losses as the primary reason for their drop in net income.

While there are doubts about whether the property and casualty insurance industry is getting set to enter a hard-market cycle, it increasingly looks like rates are beginning to stabilize in many lines, according to observations by an industry report and some chief executives.

Bill Pritchard, president of Beacon Hill Associates Inc., a wholesale insurance broker and program administrator specializing in the placement of environmental insurance and other specialty products, provides his perspective on a number of crucial areas in the environmental-insurance market.

American International Group Inc. says a federal judge has given preliminary approval to a $450 million settlement it reached with a handful of companies that alleged AIG cheated a workers’ compensation program.

To compete in a marketplace flooded with competition, environmental insurance carriers to better stand out from the pack are developing new products—built on a growing familiarity with and sophisticated grasp of the unique coverage requirements of specific industry classes.

A Texas-based workers’ compensation insurer has asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit it filed against Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty.

Florida Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, is calling for a repeal of this year’s massive property-insurance bill, SB 408, following the state insurer of last resort’s decision to file for an average 400+ percent rate increase for sinkhole coverage.

The first quarterly earnings conference call with new Liberty Mutual Group President and CEO David H. Long involved the reporting of a net loss of $170 million for the 2011 second quarter, driven by nearly $1.3 billion in catastrophe losses.