E&S/Specialty

The inland marine pie may be shrinking as two major target industries--trucking and construction--struggle in the current economic crisis.

Picture this. An employee laid off last year decides he was a victim of age discrimination. After receiving permission from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he files suit.

While comparisons to mold and asbestos are inevitable, liability insurance exposures arising from the installation of tainted Chinese drywall in Southeast homes will not grow to asbestos-like proportions, legal experts predicted recently.

Subcontractors and builders have not been frequent targets of the lawsuits over defective Chinese drywall so far, but that could soon change, a lawyer said recently.

Years before Warren Buffett suggested in early May that Berkshire-Hathaway might consider offering insurance coverage for flu pandemics, a specialty insurer developed the first property-casualty product related to disease outbreaks in 2006.

As we head into the summer months, the insurance market for the sports and recreation industries is stable, with submissions up, capacity plentiful and pricing remaining constant.

As consumers deal with the fallout from the recession, some are cutting back on coverage when insuring non-essential luxury items such as boats and other recreational watercraft--a short-sighted step that could come back to haunt them, carriers warn.

The American Association of Managing General Agents is gearing up for its annual meeting in Boca Raton, Fla., later this month, drawing its members to the gathering with the promise of networking opportunities.