The National Association of Insurance Commissioners is ready to oppose any provisions in proposed health care reform legislation that would allow federal preemption of state insurance rate regulation, an official said. Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland, the NAIC Secretary-Treasurer, ... [full story]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Now, thanks to a long-awaited law that goes into effect Monday, you'll know that if you pay the minimum on a $3,000 balance with a 14 percent interest rate, it could take you 10 years to ... [full story]

OLDWICK, N.J.—A total of 36 commercial property/casualty insurers received rating upgrades in 2009 while 24 were downgraded, A.M. Best Co. said Friday in a special report. In the report, “Upgrades, Downgrades Moved at a Similar Pace in 2009,” Oldwick, N.J.-based Best ... [full story]

Are insurance carriers putting too much weight on the results of catastrophe models in underwriting risks and managing their concentration of exposures? Have insurers allowed rating agencies and reinsurers to bully them into an overreliance on the models, and do ... [full story]

Failure to achieve a binding agreement at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Copenhagen, Denmark last December has left insurers with no clear direction to address the growing risk from global warming, according to industry observers. ... [full story]

The risks confronting insurers appear to become more complex every day. Traditional risk, notably catastrophes, remains a core concern for underwriters. But newer risks, such as inflation and even advancing technology, must be taken into insurers' risk management calculations as well, ... [full story]