State Farm in Spotlight; Who's Stressed/Burned Out?
Welcome to the News Brief, our recap of the week's top stories in commercial lines.
- State Farm's struggling California unit has been in the spotlight this week, with a Wall Street Journal story describing an aggressive sales culture in the run-up to the wildfires this year. However, the California Department of Insurance has agreed to several interim property insurance rate increases, giving the carrier just what it had asked for.
- Markel, under pressure from renowned activist investor Jana Partners to raise the share price, says it is conducting a business review of strategy and operations. "We asked shareholders, including Jana, for feedback on what we're doing well and where we can improve," Markel says.
- CEOs need to have a thick skin and not worry too much about being liked. But it's interesting to see the CEOs who are gaining approval from their employees and those who are, well, getting the thumbs down. We looked at 20 mutual or private carriers to see how leaders were coming across to the rank and file.
- In the face of looming employee retirements, insurers might consider new ways of keeping their ranks filled by supporting existing employees who want to remain in the workforce longer or working to attract mature workers into the industry. Flexibility is key.
- Of course, retaining employees won't help much if they are all burned out. We took a look at how carriers can combat this in a year that has started at high velocity.
Table of the week
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