Today's Headline
Sompo holdings to acquire Aspen Insurance for $3.5 billion in westward push | Reuters
Sompo Holdings said on Wednesday that it would acquire New York-listed Aspen Insurance Holdings (AHL.N), opens new tab for about $3.5 billion, joining a number of Japanese financial firms that are investing in overseas assets to drive growth.
Sompo has offered $37.50 for each share of the U.S. firm, which is majority-owned by Apollo Capital Management, representing a 35.6% premium to Aspen's unaffected share price. Aspen shares rose 13% to $36.40 in morning trading.
Dwindling growth in the domestic financial market has prompted Japanese companies, including insurers, brokerages and banks, to explore overseas options.
Some of the recent deals include Nippon Life Insurance buying Resolution Life Group Holdings for about $8.2 billion and Nomura's decision to acquire Macquarie Group's U.S. and European public asset management businesses for $1.8 billion.
Sompo plans to integrate Aspen's operations with its overseas insurance business to strengthen its presence in major markets, including the Americas and the UK.
"Strategic acquisitions have been a key part of our growth plan to build a robust and diversified global P&C (property and casualty) platform, and Aspen represents an excellent opportunity at the right time in the market cycle," Sompo P&C CEO James Shea said.
News
State of Florida Secures 15th Property Insurer Entering the Market Since Historic Legislative Reforms
Viceroy Preferred Insurance Company joins 14 other property and casualty insurers that entered Florida’s market since the passage of the state’s historic legislative reforms
Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky have announced that Florida has secured another property and casualty insurer. The new company, Viceroy Preferred Insurance Company, marks the 15th insurer to enter the market since Florida’s historic legislative reforms. Viceroy is domiciled in Florida and has now been approved to write insurance in the state for homeowners’ multi-peril and dwelling fires.
Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia said, “Florida’s insurance market continues to strengthen and improve because of the legislative reforms we have put in place. Floridians now have more choices for their insurance carriers. More options allow competition in the marketplace and help to drive costs down. As your Chief Financial Officer, I will continue to work to bring even more insurance companies to Florida while holding them accountable to the policyholders they serve.”
Commissioner Mike Yaworsky said, “Competition in Florida’s property insurance market is booming, and I am thrilled to announce a new Florida-domiciled insurance company approved to write business in our state — Viceroy Preferred Insurance Company. We have now approved 15 companies to enter the market since our historic legislative reforms, and I do not see any signs of competition slowing down.”
The company and its affiliates have senior leadership with over 100 years of experience in the Florida market. The company plans to offer products focused on high-value homes, with an initial geographic emphasis on the East Coast of Florida.
Financial Results
Progressive Reports Personal Auto Policies in Force Set New Record in July - CollisionWeek
The Progressive Corporation (NYSE: PGR) reported its total personal auto insurance policies in force were 25,902,000 in July, an increase of 3,893,700 or 17.7% from 22,008,300 in July 2024. The July total personal auto policies in force set another new record for the company, continuing a streak that began in early 2024.
The growth in Progressive’s policies in force year-over-year continues at a very high level, though has slowed on a percentage basis given the strong growth performance last year. July 2024 had been 12% above July 2023, the first double-digit percentage growth since October 2023.
The latest increase, at 17.7% higher than July 2024, is below the recent peak 21.9% increase in March and 20.9% increase in April, and the 19.7% increase in May and 19.2% in June versus the same month the previous year. The comparison versus the previous year had been above 21% from November 2024 through March.
Research
LexisNexis: Auto insurance shopping growth positive in Q2 | Repairer Driven News
U.S. consumer auto insurance shopping growth remained positive in Q2 2025, according to the latest U.S. Insurance Demand Meter from LexisNexis Risk Solutions.
The meter serves as a quarterly analysis of shopping volume and frequency, new business volume, and related data points. Shopping rates registered as “hot,” rising 9.4% year-over-year (YoY). New policies grew 3.6% YoY, reaching a “warm” reading on the meter.
What's Happening in Personal Lines in the Second Half of 2025? Q3 2025 --- Insurance Personal Lines Trends and Perspectives Report
Consumers are still shopping for both auto and property insurance, but the composition of those shoppers is changing — and carriers are adjusting their strategies accordingly. Those are two findings in our new Q3 2025 Insurance Personal Lines Trends and Perspectives report.
Auto insurance is entering a new phase of marketing and retention
Auto shopping was up 17.6% year over year in Q2,1 driven largely by higher-risk customers seeking relief from rate increases. While shopping activity peaked in March, it remained elevated through April before retreating slightly in May and June, and we’re seeing new cross-line pressures emerge: Homeowners facing rising property premiums are revisiting their bundles, leading to continued auto shopping activity as consumers look for savings across both lines.
Carriers are responding with bigger marketing budgets (Q1 saw a 22.9% YoY increase in spend2 ) and greater channel diversity — with an emphasis on direct mail and video. But with many insurers chasing similar customer profiles, return on marketing investment hinges on one thing: clean, robust data.
Clean data isn’t optional anymore — it’s foundational
One of our case studies looked at the impact of cleansing just two contact fields (email and phone) for 2.4 million records. The result was $1M saved in direct mail and nearly $5M in new revenue.3
We also found combining even two selection criteria (say, credit-based insurance score and recent auto loan activity) can improve advertising ROI by up to 3.6x. The more refined the audience, the greater the upside — and the bigger the risk of misfires if the underlying data isn’t sound.4
Patrick Foy, Property & Casualty Insurance Strategy Leader at TransUnion
AI in Insurance
Terra, Gradient AI Partner on Workers’ Comp Claims Intelligence | Insurance Innovation Reporter
Terra (College Station, Texas) has announced a partnership with Gradient AI (Boston) to integrate predictive analytics into its cloud-native workers’ compensation claims platform.
The collaboration embeds Gradient AI’s risk modeling tools into Terra’s automation suite, which includes optical character recognition and AI-based claim summarization. The integration enables adjusters to identify high-risk cases earlier, prioritize workloads, and support faster, more informed decisions.
“Claims adjusters today are buried in paperwork and struggling to keep up with caseloads,” says James Benham, CEO, Terra. “With Gradient AI, Terra empowers adjusters to quickly identify the most critical claims and act decisively.”
“Workers’ compensation adjusters are under constant pressure to make fast, accurate decisions with limited resources,” says Stan Smith, CEO, Gradient AI. “By embedding our AI claims intelligence into Terra’s platform, we’re helping teams pinpoint high-risk claims earlier and prioritize the cases that need attention most.”
The integration addresses persistent inefficiencies in workers’ compensation systems, many of which rely on outdated infrastructure. According to the companies, the joint platform reduces manual tasks, streamlines triage, and improves outcomes for injured workers.
How insurers can deploy agentic AI with confidence
As insurers begin to deploy agentic AI, there is an emphasis on keeping humans in the loop, ready to monitor or override AI decisions as needed. But in a highly regulated industry that demands nuanced judgment and full accountability, reactive oversight isn’t enough.
Effective control of AI means adopting a human-above-the-loop model — where business experts define the AI’s boundaries, guide its learning, and embed oversight into the system from the start. Agentic AI assistants can adapt, learn in context, and adjust their reasoning with agility — but only when human architects purposefully shape their operating framework.
Rather than observing from the sidelines or approving decisions post hoc, human leaders must proactively set standards for accuracy, ethics, compliance, and transparency. The AI operates independently, but only within a governance structure built and maintained by those who understand the stakes.
This approach is essential for insurers, MGAs, brokers, and distribution partners to ensure trust with policyholders, regulators, and the broader ecosystem. The following six practices illustrate how human-above-the-loop design can drive responsible AI use in commercial underwriting workflows:
- Establish a dynamic base of truth—AI is only as strong as its source material. Build a centralized, continuously updated knowledge base that includes risk-quality datasets, underwriting rules, policy forms, internal procedures, and regulatory standards. By credentialing access based on AI assistant roles, both accuracy and appropriate information handling are ensured.
The foundation? Secure, AI-enabled access to both real-time and proprietary risk and exposure data sources feeding role-specific AI assistants. When these practices and principles work in concert, insurers can confidently deploy agentic AI, knowing transparency, governance, and accountability are embedded in every step of standard or complex workflows.
The human-above-the-loop paradigm doesn’t just keep AI in check. It makes AI teachable, trustworthy, and transformational — elevating insurance operations while putting expert judgment exactly where it belongs: in charge.
Marcus Daley is the technical co-founder of NeuralMetrics
Fraud
The State of Claims Fraud Detection | Insurance Thought Leadership
While carriers rely on conventional detection methods, fraudsters increasingly leverage AI to orchestrate sophisticated, undetectable insurance schemes.
Insurance fraud is caught in an endless game of cat and mouse. When fraudsters up the game, insurers get smarter about detection. But now, fraud is outpacing detection capabilities at an alarming rate. While carriers cling to conventional detection methods, fraudsters are already exploiting AI and advanced analytics to orchestrate undetectable schemes. The window for insurers to get ahead of the problem is rapidly closing.
To help carriers better understand the current impact of fraud and how it might evolve in the coming years, my team compiled the Online Fraud Insights report. By combining both quantitative data analysis and qualitative insights from our subject matter experts, we identified trends, patterns, and anomalies in fraudulent behavior related to injury claims, helping insurers evolve alongside tech.
Tom Rasmussen is the vice president of product for claims at Carpe Data
InsurTech/M&A/Finance💰/Collaboration
Sola raises $8 million
Sola Insurance, an Atlanta-based startup offering a supplemental insurance policy to cover deductibles for damage caused by tornadoes, wind, and hail, has raised $8 million in Series A funding, bringing total funding to $11.7 million. The round was led by FINTOP Capital and JAM FINTOP, with participation from 10vc and Georgia Tech.
Founded in 2022, Sola has partnered with several companies including Tokio Marine Kiln, Canopy Weather, Crawford & Company, Spinnaker, and Costero Brokers to offer a policy that reduces out-of-pocket expenses for homeowners with high deductibles. The startup is a Lloyd’s of London coverholder.
“Insurance companies are known for outsourcing core parts of their business. We rebuilt and vertically integrated our policy forms, modeling, claims, and internal tools from scratch, creating a better buying, coverage, and claims experience for customers and agents.” – Wesley Pergament, Co-founder and CEO of Sola.
Awards
Huntington Insurance, Inc. Named 2025 Best Practices Agency
Huntington Insurance Inc., a licensed agency and wholly-owned subsidiary of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated, earned the 2025 Best Practices Agency status, joining an elite group of independent insurance agencies from across the United States. This is the third consecutive year Huntington Insurance has maintained its status as a Best Practices Agency.
This designation is awarded to participants in the Best Practices Study, which analyzes and documents the business practices of the highest-performing insurance agencies in the industry. This year, 1,146 independent U.S. agencies were nominated to compete for this designation, while only 348 agencies scored high enough to qualify as a Best Practices Agency.
"This recognition represents our colleagues' deep expertise and commitment to providing innovative insurance solutions and exceptional customer support," said Angie Klett, president of Huntington Insurance. "As we continue to grow, we intend to bring our scale and expertise to new markets and customers, allowing us to make an even greater impact on individuals, families and businesses nationwide."
Since 1993, the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA or the Big "I") and Reagan Consulting, an Atlanta-based management consulting firm, have joined forces to study the country's leading agencies in seven revenue categories.
Best Practices Agencies are selected every three years through a rigorous nomination and qualifying process. Each agency must be among the 35-45 top-performing agencies in its revenue category to be awarded Best Practices status.
Announcements
Hagerty Introduces Complimentary Severe Weather Storage Service for Florida Members
Hagerty Safe Storage Concierge provides parking garage storage for classic and enthusiast vehicles
Hagerty members love their classic and enthusiast vehicles, but when severe weather threatens there is often not enough time to arrange for safe, secure parking before water, wind and debris do their damage.
Hagerty Introduces Complimentary Severe Weather Storage Service for Florida Members Hagerty, in partnership with Way, has launched Hagerty Safe Storage Concierge, which will provide five days of secure, enclosed storage above the estimated surge line during severe weather. There is no additional charge for Hagerty insured members.
Recommended Events
Insurtech on Tap ITC 2025 | Tue, Oct 14, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Insurtech on Tap ITC 2025 by Socotra
Join us for an unforgettable evening of networking and innovation at Insurtech on Tap following the first day of ITC Vegas
Date and time: Tuesday, October 14 · 5 - 8pm PDT
Location: Rí Rá Irish Pub, South Las Vegas Boulevard Las Vegas, NV 89119
3 hours
In person
About this event Science & Tech • High Tech
Step into a world where innovation, technology, and hospitality intertwine at Insurtech on Tap, an exclusive networking event that kicks off ITC Vegas. Co-hosted by Andersen Consulting, AWS, Cloverleaf Analytics, Five Sigma, GhostDraft, and ManageMy, this event promises an evening of delightful experiences and meaningful connections.
Raise your glass to innovation as you enjoy an open bar, passed appetizers, and a buffet dinner that will leave you energized and ready to take on ITC Vegas!
Podcast Sponsor
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