Tax refunds fuel insurance shopping spree & AI gets personal

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Big week in Risk-Land: tax refunds are jump-starting auto sales, Florida’s property market is finally catching its breath, and med-mal profits are slipping on courtroom banana peels.

Meanwhile, quirky U.S. risks are padding Lloyd’s pockets and retirees keep gobbling up annuities like it’s 2021.

Dive in for the numbers, the twists, and the takeaways that’ll keep your clients (and your book) ahead of the curve.

What you’ll learn:

• 🚗 Tax-refund car-and-coverage dash

• 🌴 Florida property comeback

• ⚖️ Med-mal margins thinning

• ✈️ London market loves E&S risks

• 💰 Annuity appetite still hefty

• 🙎‍♂️Lots of dad memes for Fathers Day

Tax-Refund Cash Sends Drivers Car/Insurance Deal-Hunting

The Gist: Americans are flipping their IRS checks into car buys—and racing to lock in auto insurance coverage before looming import tariffs tack up to $15k onto sticker prices. LexisNexis reports new-policy counts popping across the map, led by Nevada’s 39% surge as even higher-income “sticky” customers start shopping around.

Why It Matters: Agencies enjoy the rush of fresh business now, but tariff-driven cost inflation is on the horizon, meaning carriers must revisit rate models while consumers scramble for savings.

Read more HERE

Florida Insurers See Sun After the Storm

The Gist: Lawmakers slashed lawsuit bloat in 2022, and Florida’s property market is finally exhaling. Leaner legal costs and prettier loss ratios are luring insurers—and their capital—back into the hurricane bullseye.

Why It Matters: More carriers chasing policies could broaden coverage choices and keep renewal hikes from turning into another category-five wallet hit.

Read more HERE

Medical Malpractice Profits Feeling the Squeeze

The Gist: Lawsuits keep getting pricier and jury awards fatter, so AM Best says med-mal underwriting margins are shrinking fast. Once-reliable gains are now on life support as claim severity and legal bills stack up.

Why It Matters: Insurers will likely raise rates or trim coverage before this former cash cow flat-lines.

Read more HERE

London Loves America’s Quirky Risks

The Gist: U.S. excess-and-surplus deals are fattening Lloyd’s ledgers as specialty rates spike stateside. Brokers are crossing the pond for capacity, and London’s gladly cashing the checks.

Why It Matters: When standard carriers say “hard pass,” agents can still place tricky accounts thanks to the London market’s bigger risk appetite.

Read more HERE

Annuity Appetite Slows, Still Stuffed

The Gist: Q1 sales clocked in at $98.2 billion—only 1.9% off last quarter’s record haul and still towering over pre-pandemic norms. Fixed-indexed contracts remain the crowd favorite, sucking up most of the premium pie.

Why It Matters: Boomers’ hunger for guaranteed income isn’t fading, so agents can keep serving up annuities—and cashing the commissions.

Read more HERE

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AI Gets Personal — and Folks Don’t Flinch

The Gist: Nearly half of consumers say they’re cool with insurers using AI to monitor risks and fire off real-time alerts—think a hail-storm ping that saves your paint job. Younger buyers cheer loudest, but 64 % of all ages still want a clear explainer on how the bots work before fully trusting them.

Why It Matters: Carriers can lean into AI-powered loss prevention, but the win only sticks if they spell out exactly what data they’re crunching and why.

Read more HERE

Half of Underwriting Ready for Bots

The Gist: Insurtech Convr says carriers figure roughly 50 % of manual underwriting work can be handed to algorithms. The bots will handle risk triage, data pre-fill, and vanilla pricing while human underwriters focus on edge-case weirdness.

Why It Matters: Expect lightning-fast quotes—if you feed the machines squeaky-clean submissions—as underwriters shift from clerks to cyborg supervisors.

Read more HERE

Bear Suit Bandits Maul Luxury Cars for Cash

The Gist: Four Californians donned a life-size bear costume and staged claw-slash videos on a Rolls-Royce and two other high-end rides, angling for $140K in payouts. Fraud cops—backed by a wildlife biologist—spotted the party-store paws and charged the crew in “Operation Bear Claw.”

Why It Matters: Outlandish claims still cost real money, so sharp adjusters and forensic checks remain the best defense against six-figure scams.

Read more HERE

Hospital’s UM Money Grab Hits a Wall

The Gist: A California appeals court ruled Dameron Hospital can’t sidestep Medi-Cal and tap a crash victim’s uninsured-motorist coverage at Progressive for a $2.7 k bill. The judges said the admission-form assignment doesn’t override policy terms or state law, so the tab stays with Medi-Cal.

Why It Matters: The decision shuts down a billing loophole that could have spiked auto claim costs—and premiums—if hospitals started double-dipping.

Read more HERE

That’s a wrap for this week’s intel drop! We hope these nuggets help you conquer the chaos and maybe even share a laugh (or a groan) with a colleague.

We’ll be back next week with another killer issue!