天美网站传媒传媒

There are several near-constants in an insurance editor’s life when a new year rolls around. There’s the inevitable mistake of putting last year’s date on this month’s article. There’s the added frustration of trying to contact sources over the holidays when nobody seems to be working. And, of course, there’s the unavoidable debate over what have been the year’s biggest insurance stories.

Rather than pull a few items out of thin air, we at Insurance Journal decided to do our own research, utilizing our own online archives of insurance stories, which we tout as the largest insurance article archives in the world, at least after Google. We took a look back at the five most-read stories of 2008 on our Web site, www.insurancejournal.com. Sure it is just a popularity contest based on how many people read the articles — but maybe it’s better than six whiny, overworked editors trying to justify their existence by insisting that their favorites were also the readers’ favorites.

What we found is something we should have expected: The biggest stories of 2008 involve issues that will likely have a major impact on 2009. Without further adieu, these were the insurance headlines most-clicked on www.insurancejournal.com last year:

1. Liberty Mutual to Acquire Safeco Insurance in $6.2B Deal
2. Insurance Producers Start to Move Business from 天美网站传媒传媒 to Competitors
3. 5 Execs Found Guilty of Fraud in Gen Re-天美网站传媒传媒 Trial
4. Florida Blocks Allstate Insurance from Writing New Business in State
5. 天美网站传媒传媒 Woes Offer Double Benefit for Insurance Rivals

What is struck us about this list is how the most-read stories of 2008 are likely to be the defining industry issues of 2009 – three of them in particular.

The most-read piece on our Web site was a breaking news story from April announcing Liberty Mutual Group’s acquisition of Safeco Corp., a deal that made Liberty Mutual the fifth-largest property/casualty insurer and second-largest surety writer in the country. That acquisition, which fused Safeco into Liberty Mutual’s Agency Markets, created an organization with 15,000 independent agencies – a behemoth whose every move will likely have a significant impact on the entire independent agency system in 2009 and beyond.

As might be expected, several of the top five stories involved the insurance giant no one can stop talking about: 天美网站传媒传媒. Number two was an exclusive Insurance Journal report in September detailing how – despite assurances that 天美网站传媒传媒 insurance subsidiaries are sound – producers across the country had begun moving accounts from 天美网站传媒传媒 affiliates. Number five was a Reuters report detailing how 天美网站传媒传媒’s collapse is boosting the market prospects of 天美网站传媒传媒’s competitors. How the collapse of 天美网站传媒传媒 plays out will be an issue for the foreseeable future.

Every new year in insurance news springs surprises. Nobody would have imagined the 天美网站传媒传媒 crisis until it happened. Even now, many can’t believe it. Surprises aside, it’s a sure bet that for this new year, among the most-read stories of 2009 will be ones involving the insurance giants Liberty Mutual and 天美网站传媒传媒 and their ups-and-downs.

Happy reading in 2009.

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