October 2007/4

After spending more than two years behind bars after pleading guilty to offences that helped bring down Australian insurer HIH, Rodney Adler has been freed from prison.

Bermudian start-up insurer Ironshore Inc has appointed former Lloyd’s CEO Ron Sandler to its board.

Bermudian reinsurer Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited is to launch a global excess casualty underwriting unit based in Dublin.

Benfield Group Ltd has bought Canadian specialist energy brokers Beaufort International Insurance Inc and Beaufort Insurance Services Inc.

Florida’s chief financial officer has proposed giving the state’s governor and cabinet the authority to set the reinsurance levels and pricing of the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund’s optional coverages.

The recent surge in war, political violence (WTPV) and terrorism and an explosion of global business expansion, could cost businesses dear if they fail to appreciate the risks they face, a leading Hiscox underwriter in the sector has warned.

US property/casualty insurers are expected to pay homeowners and businesses an estimated $1.125bn for third-quarter property losses, according to preliminary analysis by ISO’s Property Claim Services (PCS) unit.

US insurance giant, American International Group (AIG), is a partner in a consortium, led by Richard Branson’s Virgin Money, to buy stricken UK mortgage bank, Northern Rock.

The £800mn pledged by the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling in his pre-budget report has been criticised as insufficient by the insurance industry.

Steven Schulman has become the second former Milberg Weiss LLP partner to plead guilty in a long-running federal probe into the making of improper payments to clients in an alleged kickback scheme.

The jury in the trial of three former Independent Insurance executives was sent out to consider its verdict on 12 October.

The UK’s non-life run-off liabilities decreased 14 percent last year while Lloyd’s open year liabilities were down by more than 30 percent, according to the Association of Run-Off Companies’s (ARC)’s most recent survey.