View the video here on your mobile device. Insurers whose agents are highly satisfied tend to receive a considerably greater share of business from those agents, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Insurance Agency Satisfaction Study—Personal Lines. The study of US agents and insurers finds that, on average, there is more than a [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. The Canada Revenue Agency is warning taxpayers to beware of a recent scam where some Canadians are receiving a letter fraudulently identified as coming from the CRA and asking for personal information. The letter is not from the CRA. The letter claims that there is “insufficient information” [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. Billionaire Warren Buffett’s company has reduced its holdings in Johnson&Johnson, Proctor&Gamble, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil Corp. during the last three months of 2009. Berkshire Hathaway disclosed those investments and several other changes to its roughly $58-billion U.S. stock portfolio in documents filed with the U.S. Securities and [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. Fairfax Financial Holdings is buying U.S.-based workers’ compensation insurance specialist Zenith National Insurance in a deal that values Zenith at about $1.4 billion. Toronto-based Fairfax says it will pay $38 per share for the stock in California-based Zenith it doesn’t already own. Zenith operates the Zenith Insurance [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. Disgraced financial adviser Earl Jones has received an 11-year sentence for orchestrating a massive Ponzi scheme. The 67-year-old pleaded guilty in January to running a pyramid scheme that lasted more than 20 years. His criminal proceedings heard that he never invested a penny of the money he [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. The average Canadian family’s household debt climbed to $96,100 last year, according to a study released by the Vanier Institute of the Family. The study estimated the average debt-to-income ratio for families at 145 per cent. The institute said that’s the highest ratio ever recorded by the [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. Catastrophe modeler EQECAT has estimated that the two winter storms that raked the mid-Atlantic region of the US this month has caused more than $2 billion in insured losses. Washington, D.C. saw more than 30 inches of accumulated snow between the two storms, the first of which [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. One of Canada’s largest car and home insurers, Intact Financial, is raising quarterly dividends to shareholders by 6.25 per cent following a $96.7-million net profit in the fourth quarter. The profit amounts to 81 cents per share and represents a big a turnaround from the $64.1-million loss [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. The Vancity credit union says its net income last year was $50.3 million, up seven per cent from 2008. It also said more than $15.2 million, or 30 per cent of its net profits, will be distributed to members and communities through dividends, patronage payments, grants, sponsorships [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. The U.S. government has received new complaints alleging 34 deaths in Toyota vehicles due to sudden acceleration since 2000. Many of the complaints have been filed in the past three weeks. A government database on February 15 showed that the government has received complaints alleging 13 additional [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. ScanSafe, a provider of web security, issued its Annual Global Threat Report, revealing that critical infrastructure such as energy, pharmaceutical and government assets are more than twice as likely to be targeted by cybercriminals than other organizations. The report is based on an analysis of more than [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. A San Francisco man who had more than 1.8 million stolen bank and credit card numbers on his computers has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison and $27.5 million in restitution. Thirty-seven-year-old Max Ray Vision pleaded guilty in June to his role in an online [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. "Distracted driving" may have been Webster’s Dictionary’s "Word of the Year" for 2009, but in 2010, businesses that provide their employees with mobile devices should keep a related phrase in mind: "vicarious liability." According to risk prevention specialists at Zurich Services Corporation, employers could be held vicariously [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. The main development bank for Latin America says the January 12 earthquake that ravaged Haiti’s capital might have caused nearly $14 billion in damage. The preliminary study released on February 16 says the magnitude-7 earthquake could be the deadliest and costliest disaster on a list that dates [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is tightening mortgage rules to crack down on speculators and discourage homeowners from taking on too much debt. He is responding to growing concerns that Canada’s housing market is overheating, although he stresses that there is no bubble in Canada’s real-estate market – [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. PartnerRe has made some organizational changes, following the acquisition of Paris Re. Among the changes, the company will maintain its existing business unit-based operating structure, consisting of three major operating units – PartnerRe North America (formerly known as PartnerRe U.S.), PartnerRe Global and PartnerRe Capital Markets – [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. Many organizations have made submissions to the Superintendent of Insurance as part of the Nova Scotia government’s Minor Injury Cap Review process. The Atlantic Provinces Trial Lawyers Association – APTLA – have made their submission, stating that it believes that “no cap should be placed on pain [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services says it earned record net income of $67.4 million or 83 cents per share in the fourth quarter, reversing a year-earlier loss. Revenue for the quarter was $1.4 billion, compared with $1 billion a year earlier, when Industrial Alliance saw a [...]
