Marsh & McLennan Agencys mid-Atlantic region will have expanded employee-benefits services with its acquisition of KSPH LLC of Glen Allen, Va.

Financial terms of the KSPH deal were not disclosed.

The employee-benefits firm, which annual revenues of about $5 million, is the third acquisition for Marsh since its acquisition of its mid-Atlantic hub, Rutherfoord in Richmond, Va., in March 2010.

Marsh officials said in a statement the acquisition of KSPH will help it expand its Rutherfoord divisions market position in the Richmond, Va., area, while at the same time increasing its employee-benefits capabilities.

“Adding KSPH to Rutherfoord enables us to offer greater resources and a broader platform to serve the needs of our clients throughout the mid-Atlantic,” said Thomas R. Bro

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With the two year anniversary of ObamaCare this Friday and oral arguments before the Supreme Court next week, the following American Enterprise Institute (AEI) experts are available:

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• AEI public opinion expert Karlyn Bowman has just released a comprehensive analysis of polling on health care. . Bowman can be reached at .

For help reaching any AEI scholars and for all other media requests, please contact Jesse Blumenthal at or 202.862.4870.

AEI’s in-house ReadyCam TV studio may be booked by calling VideoLink at 617.340.4300. For radio interviews, please e-mail to reserve AEI’s ISDN facilities.

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Insurance companies reported a record number of questionable claims to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) last year, with the annual volume of referrals surpassing the 100,000 mark for the first time in the NICB’s history, according to a report released Tuesday.

The NICB regularly works with insurers and police to investigate claims referred to it by the 1,000 property/casualty insurers that fund the not-for-profit organization.

Last year, that meant taking a look at 100,450 claims, which represents a 9.4 increase in referral volumes from the year before and a 19 percent increase since 2009, when just over 84,400 claims were reported as questionable.

Most of the referrals–about 78,000–fell under the “miscellaneous” category in 2011.

Vehicle claims was the third-largest category, accounting for over 35 percent of the more than 100,400 referrals lodged.

Referrals for vehicle claims increased 7.5 percent between 2009 and 2011, with there being a total of about 35,650 last year.

The most common referral related to vehicles was questionable theft, with 11,451. That acco

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Insurance agents and financial service professionals may face additional threats from banks based on new research, which shows that financial institutions who allow investment and insurance products create a stronger relationship with their members.

People who buy insurance and investments from financial institutions are among the most profitable for the banks and credit unions, according to the LPL Financial study.

Those who buy insurance and investments from their banks are most apt to continue to work with that institution, said the study, drawn from the analysis of 1,500 affluent households through MicroMonitor.

The authors, Kenneth and Christine Kehrer, and Peter Bielan, say financial institutions that are “under-investing” in their investment and insurance services businesses are “missing the opportunity to increase the stickiness of these highly desirable customers,” according to a statement from LPL on the research.

Intuitively, many executives at financial institutions have believed in the strategic importance of the investment and insurance services customer.  But until now there has not been a source of industry data to test this belief, and this appears to have led to under-investment by banks and credit unions in their investment and insurance services capabilities, added Kenneth Kehrer, founder of Kehrer-LIMRA and co-author of the study.

The appeal to banks and credit unions is that customers who buy insurance and investments from them have checking account balances 16% higher than those who dont buy the products, and brokerage customers at banks and credit unions have savings account balances on average 85% higher than non-brokerage customers.

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You have been renewing your van insurance for years and years and you are still loyal to your current insurance company. It might be that you feel your insurance agent is giving you the best rates on the market. On the other hand, it might also be that you feel this is the most convenient thing for you to do. After all, you have so many other responsibilities that you need to handle.

It is such a simple thing to just keep on renewing your van insurance every year. However, do you realise that you might actually be losing money this way? Being complacent about comparing insurance policies for your van might mean that you are paying more than you really should on your premiums. Full Article…

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