Bermuda front-runners. (Bermuda Angle).
Of the dozen large companies formed in Bermuda after 9/11, four have emerged as front-runners. The 2001 market leaders are Arch, AWAC, AXIS and Endurance. Each was started with $1 billion or more and is pursuing a different market niche. Of the four, AXIS Specialty keeps the...

Trustees ponder the question of trust.
Robert L. Dilenschneider, founder and chairman of New York-based The Dilenschneider Group Inc. counsels high-ranking executives at companies around the world. He is hearing a growing concern among trustees of nonprofit groups about how well- or ill-protected their own personal financial assets would be in case any charges of...

Endurance banks on Bermuda. (Special Report: Insurance Executive).
One of the bermuda newcomers, endurance specialty insurance, talks with risk & insurance about how it will compete in a marketplace that is quickly becoming crowded with those looking to take advantage of a tighter insurance market. They come looking for, if not gold, then golden opportunities...

Risk & Insurance's Fourth Reinsurance Roundtable: challenge in a changed world. (Reinsurance Special Report 2002).
The trauma of September 11, 2001, has left its mark in myriad ways--but the fact remains that the reinsurance market was already in flux and hardening well before 9/11. As we reconvene our exclusive panel of reinsurance leaders, the questions loom larger and seem more difficult: How to face...

Wholesalers feel the heat; standard-lines carriers deepen their foray into the client base held by managing general agents as rates soften. With a price war in the offing, it's a great time for buyers to shop around.
Wham! That's what Charles T. McCloskey Jr., vice president of a New Jersey-based wholesaler, heard when, just months ago, a $100,000 cosmetics account up and left his Ridge field Park managing general agency for carrier One Beacon. He felt the sting. "I got cut out," he says....

Scorching results: Bermuda companies go "gangbusters" and turn in stellar results in the first half.
The Ancients believed that when planets aligned, magic ensued. The alignment of the planets has little influence in an industry driven by computer models, but what happened to insurance companies in Bermuda in the first half of 2003 was magic. Just about all the most desirable business conditions were...

Bermuda outlook: though a good place to do business, insurers and reinsurers will not hesitate to go elsewhere--Cuba, for example--should the need or the opportunity arise, executives say.
In July, Risk & Insurance brought together a group of key players in the Bermuda reinsurance market to assess the state of the industry. They included W. David Brining, executive vice president of Max Re; James P. Bryce, president and CEO of IPC Re; Dwight R. Evans, president of...

The E&S market softens up: the E&S market is softening, but a consensus as to whether it's gone soft is lacking. The biggest profits are expected to come from property-catastrophe areas.
The overall property/casualty insurance market has been showing signs of softening, but insiders in the excess and surplus lines market are cautiously optimistic about the state of the industry for 2007. In 2005, the surplus lines market remained fairly stable, despite the decline of the bull market...

On alert: Terror coverage prompts concerns; although some commercial insurers are responding to the need for terrorism coverage, much about the risk remains unknown. (Special Report: Insurance Executive).
Nature abhors a vacuum, and insurers abhor uncertainty. Since September 11, uncertainty about if and when additional terrorist attacks might occur has led the insurance industry to cancel or limit terrorism coverage, causing ripple effects throughout the rest of the economy. Many sectors--such as real estate, construction,...

Hanover acquires specialty insurer; Maryland company aids chemical firms.
Byline: Bob Kievra WORCESTER - The Hanover Insurance Group Inc. yesterday said it would acquire a Maryland company that insures manufacturers and distributors of chemical products, broadening its suite of offerings to independent insurance agents. Hanover, which last year acquired a professional liability insurer for...