Would You Let a ‘Cat’ Cross your Path This Halloween?

On October 24, 2009

Would You Let a ‘Cat’ Cross your Path This Halloween?

They were downright spooky last year, but Wall Street and the insurance industry seem to have gotten over their fright and are now ready to embrace "cat bonds" again. A report from Guy Carpenter, the reinsurance broker for Marsh & McLennan, says that insurers may issue $1.2 billion to $2.2 billion in new catastrophe bonds during the fourth quarter, bringing the total to about $3 billion to $4 billion for the year. Catastrophe bonds are an alternative to reinsurance, the insurance that property casualty insurers like Allstate need to protect themselves from major disasters like a tsunami or a Cat-e-gory Four Hurricane. But instead of going to a Bermuda reinsurer, insurers can buy a bond that allows them to collect...


On October 24, 2009

Is It Right for Insurance Brokers to Make Money from Both Sides?

One of the slipperiest slopes in the insurance industry is the question of whether independent agents and brokers should take money from insurance companies while claiming they are "impartial" when they sell those insurers' policies to customers. This practice has led to charges, indictments, ruined reputations and fines for some of the biggest insurers in the business, such as Marsh & McLennan and American International Group. Opinions run the gamut from risk managers at major companies who say it's unethical, to brokers who claim it's an important part of their income. The three biggest insurance brokers - Marsh, Aon and Willis - are banned from taking these commissions due to settlements they made with then New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. But...
On October 24, 2009

Capmark Near Bankruptcy Amid CRE Storm

When a group of private equity firms bought Capmark Financial, then a part of GMAC, in March 2006, the commercial real estate lender possessed $276 billion in loans and an investment grade credit rating. Now the company is teetering on bankruptcy. The WSJ said today that Capmark may file for Chapter 11 protection as early as this weekend. Capmark's collapse comes as no surprise. The company, which provides financing, investment management and mortgage financing services to real estate, retail, industrial and other companies, warned in April that it might go bust. Still, the lender's predicament shows how the floor is starting to buckle for companies that specialize in making loans to buy commercial property. It's also a sign of things...
On October 24, 2009

Place Your Bets: Federal Insurance Regulation … Or Not?

Members of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) have been patting themselves on the back, secure in the fact that they have once again beaten back attempts to put in a federal agency  to oversee their multi-trillion-dollar industry. In Chicago yesterday, Illinois Insurance Director Michael McRaith told an industry gathering that while "State insurance regulation is under attack ... an optional federal charter won't happen." State regulators naturally oppose any attempt to limit their power. McRaith spoke on the same day that a House committee voted on an amendment to exempt insurance companies and products from federal oversight. The amendment was part of legislation to create a U.S. Consumer Finance Agency. But the commissioners shouldn't whoop it up too...
On October 24, 2009

BP’s Interest in Kosmos Raises Stakes for Ghana Oil Assets

BP has apparently joined the growing list of major energy companies -- that already includes ExxonMobil and China's CNOOC -- interested in oil assets offshore Ghana. The focus is Kosmos Energy, the private equity-backed U.S. company that is selling off its 23.5 percent stake in the Jubilee field offshore Ghana. Kosmos recently agreed to sell its Ghana assets to ExxonMobil for $4 billion. Exxon was close to finalizing the deal, but the super major's plans were scuttled when Ghana's government expressed disappointment in the deal and called the sale illegal. Another road block was added after Ghana National Petroleum Corp. appeared ready to team up with China National Offshore Oil Corp. to make a rival bid for the Jubilee stake. Now BP is examining whether it...
On October 24, 2009

Are Property Insurers Seeing the Twilight of the Gods?

The prevailing wisdom on Wall Street is that when stocks rise on bad news we're in a bull market, and when they fall on good news it's a reversal of fortune. So it was interesting to see that the day after property insurer Chubb reported  third quarter earnings had doubled, its shares dropped $3.15 or nearly six percent. And Travelers, which also reported that day, didn't fare much better. The brief euphoria when Travelers announced that profits had quadrupled didn't carry through to the weekend as its shares fell nearly one percent. One reason could be that Stifel Nicolaus analyst Michael Paisan lowered his opinion on Chubb to "hold" from "buy," according to Bloomberg News.  In analyst lingo, a "hold"...
On October 24, 2009

Bartz Ego: the Start of the End?

Power is intoxicating. But when you take it and yourself too seriously, you set the stage for a big fall. The departure of Carl Icahn from Yahoo's board says as much about CEO Carol Bartz as it does about the investor. What it's saying isn't good.
On October 24, 2009

How Good Are You At Making Profitable Business Decisions?

Every decision affects your business, even the super tiny small ones. I personally made a BIG decision to let go of the writing business. It took up so much of my time and I even had 2 assistants helping me with it. This has left me completely wide open to bring better resources to this [...]
On October 24, 2009

Nokia Throws the Book at Apple

Nokia announced on Thursday that it has filed a lawsuit against Apple, alleging that Apple's iPhone infringes 10 of Nokia's mobile technology patents. The suit asserts that the iPhone infringes Nokia patents for GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN standards covering wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption. At issue are all Apple iPhone models shipped since the device was introduced in 2007.


Next Page
Previous Page