Risk Management

N.Y. Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo has begun an inquiry into whether Allstate Corporation engaged in illegal participation in unregulated insurance markets, after the insurer's CEO wrote an opinion piece calling for federal regulation.

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.

The head of a Senate committee working on health care reform said details of a "public option" proposal utilizing Medicare and Medicaid resources to provide competition to private health insurers' products are still in the works.

In response to the New York insurance superintendent's inquiry into its possible illegal participation in unregulated insurance markets, Allstate has provided an affidavit that it is operating legally.

A coalition of five producer trade groups representing the life, property-casualty and health insurance industries wrote key members of Congress yesterday urging them not to rush through health care reform.

The European Parliament yesterday approved a Solvency II agreement that would take effect in 2012, providing a broad legal framework strengthening insurer capital requirements and supervision.

A coalition of insurers and other groups announced a seven point plan they said could cut hurricane losses dramatically, if public officials and the private sector see to its adoption.

Allegations that American International Group and other insurance companies are improperly handling injury and death claims of workers employed by war zone contractors have sparked a demand for a congressional probe.