E&S/Specialty

Legislation repealing the antitrust exemption afforded health insurers through the McCarran-Ferguson Act, but keeping the shield intact for medical malpractice carriers, was approved overwhelmingly last week by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Carriers and brokers selling Side-A D&O liability insurance coverage by delivering warnings about the increasing severity of shareholder derivative lawsuits may be overstating the trend, according to one attorney involved in a major case.

With high-profile cases such as ChoicePoint and TJX acting as a lure, plaintiffs' attorneys are increasingly interested in generating class-action lawsuits for data security breaches.

Professional liability brokers repeatedly receive requests from policyholders to add the buyer's clients onto errors and omissions policies as additional insureds.

Crop insurance carriers and independent agents say the U.S. Agriculture Department's latest proposed cuts in subsidies in the program as well as a "soft cap" on agents' commissions are both unwarranted and hurtful.

Although making acquisitions is a prudent strategy for forward-thinking surplus lines insurance executives seeking to build their organizations, potential sellers are unlikely to agree to lower the deal prices offered, experts recently warned.