E&S/Specialty

Less than a month after Max Capital and IPC Re announced their boards had approved a merger deal, Validus Holdings presented the IPC board with a second offer to merge with the property-catastrophe reinsurer valued at $1.68 billion.

Vince Lombardi Jr. will give a talk on "How To Be Number One" when the Pennsylvania Surplus Lines Association will hold its annual membership meeting beginning Wednesday.

While insurance brokers say they are starting to detect signs of firming in the commercial insurance marketplace, buyers on average are still seeing premium rates decline.

Marsh announced today that its captive management practice has been recognized by the State of Connecticut Insurance Department as the first firm eligible to provide captive management for captive insurance companies domiciled in the state.

The Target Markets Program Administrators Association announced that its midyear meeting will take place on April 27-29 in Baltimore, with keynote speaker Ben Stein on hand to take a critical look at the state of the economy.

"The market has no choice but to take account of where we truly are. It will harden by fourth-quarter 2009."