Today's Headline
New USAA CEO makes structural, leadership changes
[Ed. Note: Per the San Antonio Express-News:...."Four top executives are out and Andrade is creating a new department focused on improving services for the San Antonio-based insurance and financial services giant’s 14 million customers. "The 'member value organization'... "The new unit will be led by Clyde Douglas, a Coast Guard veteran who oversees claims at USAA, and will report directly to Andrade. It will include veterans in senior leadership roles, Andrade said.
"Top leaders also are departing. Brandon Carter, president of USAA Life Insurance Co.; Amala Duggirala, executive vice president and chief information officer; Tom Troy, executive vice president and chief transformation officer; and Ameesh Vakharia, executive vice president and chief strategy and brand officer, have all left USAA."]
CEO Juan Andrade came to USAA from Everest Group Ltd, where he had served as president and CEO since 2020.
In early 2025, USAA announced that Juan C. Andrade would become the company’s new president and CEO upon the retirement of then-CEO Wayne Peacock in April. Upon his appointment, Andrade outlined his goals for the company’s direction under his leadership, placing emphasis on his commitment to improving the customer experience for their members. Now, Andrade is making some sweeping changes to the company’s structure and leadership that are intended to move USAA closer to that goal.
“I’m excited to build upon USAA’s legacy and continue innovating to add value to our members’ experiences and help more military families achieve financial security,” Andrade said in a January press release. “I admire the association’s dedication to the military community and their families. Witnessing firsthand the outstanding service the team provides to our courageous service men and women, I am honored to lead USAA in its second century of service.”
News
Global property and casualty insurance market has increased efficiency, capacity and resilience, finds Swiss Re Institute
P&C premiums projected to grow in line with global GDP over the next decade, driven by rising natural catastrophe losses and asset accumulation, economic and litigation claims inflation pressures Maturing of the market characterised by entry of smaller players, outsourcing of underwriting and new ways of risk transfer
Strong reinsurers and alternative risk solutions, such as captives and risk pools, enhance capacity, affordability and insurability for harder-to-cover risks
The global P&C insurance market has doubled in size over the past 20 years to USD 2.4 trillion. Two decades of innovation resulted in broader access to coverage through a blend of conventional and alternative structures than 20 years ago, according to Swiss Re Institute's latest sigma report. A growing number of smaller, specialised players drive efficiency gains, while robust reinsurers and alternative risk solutions help improve capacity in view of a riskier world.
Jérôme Jean Haegeli, Swiss Re's Global Chief Economist, says: “The rapid expansion of the P&C market is not only about scale, but also about greater capability and resilience. Insurers have become more efficient at pricing, managing and transforming risk, supporting capacity even in times of heightened uncertainty. At the same time, insurers are passing on a larger share of the risk to reinsurers. This is a recognition of the demand for risk transfer and a trend that is set to continue given the risk landscape. A key pillar for reinsurers to fulfil their indispensable role as a shock absorber is a strong capital base. Robust reinsurance and alternative risk solutions are further broadening capacity and helping keep protection accessible and affordable in an increasingly uncertain world.”
California home insurer to drop 37,000 policies as part of nationwide withdrawal
QBE Insurance is pulling out of the homeowners market. (Jessica Christian/The Chronicle) QBE Insurance is pulling out of the homeowners market. (Jessica Christian/The Chronicle) An insurer is planning to drop 37,000 California customers as it exits the entire U.S. home insurance market - though a deal with an out-of-state insurer could keep the majority from losing coverage.
Last month, QBE Insurance Corp. stopped writing new homeowners insurance policies in California in anticipation of its withdrawal, it informed the California Department of Insurance in a recent regulatory filing. As of April, the insurer had 37,774 home insurance customers in the state. They were set to be dropped over the next year following the insurer's decision to "narrow its market focus."
More than half of those customers could avoid losing coverage through a prospective deal with a Texas insurer seeking to enter the California market, according to the filing.
Builders Reciprocal Insurance Exchange is applying to enter the state of California and take on the majority of QBE Insurance's customers, QBE wrote in its filing. Neither QBE nor BRIE immediately responded to requests for comment.
State Farm Expands Estimating Platform Options Nationwide for Select Service Network
[Ed. Note: The more things change the more they remain the same! This is a major shift in policy back to the days when State Farm multi-sourced its estimating platform providers and allowed shops choice. The Total Loss valuation sourcing guidance is less clear. In the near term, we expect the total market for estimating software to rise. Longer term disruption could include use of parts procurement solutions. Auto carriers, MSOs and OEs may change strategies as well].
State Farm announced September 8 that it will expand estimating platform options for its Select Service collision repair network nationwide, building on a successful pilot program launched in 2024.
The nation’s largest private passenger auto insurer will now allow all Select Service repairers to choose between CCC One and Mitchell Cloud Estimating (MCE) platforms for writing estimates, marking a significant shift toward greater flexibility for its preferred provider network.
Legal System Abuse/Social Inflation
It’s Time to Close the Anti-Consumer Litigation Funding Loophole – Case for Consumers
It’s a disturbing trend that’s only getting worse. America’s courtrooms are being converted into casinos, and the high rollers aren’t friendly visitors from Dallas or Chicago, but foreign adversaries in Moscow or Beijing, Wall Street hedge funds, and politically connected trial lawyers cashing in on jackpot lawsuits. Meanwhile the payouts for their stacks of chips are coming straight from the pockets of U.S. workers, businesses, consumers, and taxpayers.
Recent investigations have shown that Russian billionaires with ties to Vladimir Putin are exploiting litigation funding to bypass sanctions, manipulate our courts for profit, and gain access to sensitive corporate information—all without paying U.S. taxes. To make matters worse, Congress had an opportunity to stop this by including the Tackling Predatory Litigation Funding Act (TPLF) in President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Instead, lawmakers punted, leaving the courtroom casino wide open for predatory high rollers.
Behind the Wheel of Legal Inflation: More Than $42.8B in Excess Auto Tort Cases Uncovered, New Triple-I Analysis Finds
An analysis published today by the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) revealed an estimated $42.8 billion in excess litigation value from motor vehicle tort cases filed between 2014 and 2023 in both federal and state civil courts across the United States.
Drawing on data from the Federal Judicial Center and a curated sample of state court systems, the study highlights a sharp rise in motor vehicle-related litigation and emphasizes how incomplete and inconsistent state-level civil court data hinders transparency and reform.
"Triple-I’s latest research uses data to illustrate that the big business of U.S. law is only getting bigger, and it’s increasing insurance costs for all Americans,” said Triple-I CEO Sean Kevelighan. “Billboard attorneys and their billions spent on advertising to exploit and drive consumers toward litigation are not just annoying, they are making everyone victims of legal system abuse."
Key Federal Court Findings
- Tort cases grew to 33.8% of all federal civil case filings in the period 2014 to 2023, up from 18.8% in the 1994 to 2003 period.
- Motor vehicle tort filings rebounded sharply from previous declines, rising at a 4.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2014 to 2023.
- A majority of these cases (52.8%) were resolved through settlement, with just 7.4% resulting in a formal judgment.
- The total excess value of federal court filings for motor vehicle torts is estimated at $984.6 million during this period.
State Court Insights
- An estimated 5 million motor vehicle tort cases were filed in state civil courts from 2014 to 2023. Based on extrapolated data from 18 states covering 62% of the U.S. population, the excess value in state courts is projected at $41.8 billion.
- Cases in no-fault insurance states carried an average amount in controversy of $725,000, compared to $650,000 in other states.
Federal Tort Cases Surge Nearly 20% in Past Two Years: Report
Increases in motor vehicle tort cases and premises liability lead the rise in cases filed, while medical malpractice lawsuits in federal courts decline, Lex Machina finds.
Federal district courts saw nearly 20% more tort cases in 2023 and 2024 compared to the 2021-22 period, with motor vehicle and premises liability claims leading the surge while medical malpractice lawsuits dropped to their lowest levels in more than 15 years, according to Lex Machina’s latest litigation analysis.
The comprehensive report analyzes tort cases filed in U.S. federal courts from 2015 through 2024, detailing trends such as the number and type of cases filed, as well as the most active venues, judges, parties and law firms, among other data.
Rising Tide of Traditional Tort Claims
The Lex Machina report shows a clear upward trajectory in federal tort litigation, with 17,320 cases filed in 2024, down from 18,112 in 2023, but higher than 14,045 in 2022.
Motor vehicle tort cases have shown particularly strong growth, climbing to 6,456 cases in 2024 from 5,902 cases in 2023 and 5,253 in 2022. Premises liability claims followed a similar pattern, jumping to 5,623 cases in 2024 from 4,516 cases in 2022.
Meanwhile, medical malpractice claims have moved in the opposite direction, declining steadily from 1,256 cases in 2021 to just 699 in 2024 — the lowest volume since at least 2009.
Inflation Added $4 Billion to Medical Malpractice Losses, The Doctors Company Study Finds
The Doctors Company, the nation's largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer, part of TDC Group, today released new research indicating that inflation—both economic and social—has added an estimated $4 billion in insured losses and expenses to the medical malpractice insurance market over the past decade.
The study, Nuclear Verdicts and Rising Costs: How Inflation Is Impacting Medical Malpractice Claims, found that the $4 billion in losses from inflation represent 11 percent of booked losses for the decade ending in 2024. This was a significant increase from the $2.4 to $3.5 billion (8 to 11 percent) that was found in the company's 2023 research report that addressed the impact of social inflation on medical malpractice claims for the decade ending in 2021. The latest research confirms that inflation is not only persistent—it's accelerating.
"Nuclear verdicts continue to increase at a drastic rate: The average of the top 50 medical malpractice verdicts was $32 million in 2022, $48 million in 2023, and an alarming $56 million in 2024," said Robert E. White, Jr., President of TDC Group. "Physicians are facing rising premiums driven by both economic pressures and the continued increase in large settlements. We will continue to research and raise awareness of this concerning trend that affects physicians and patients."
InsurTech/M&A/Finance💰/Collaboration
Top insurtech funding rounds, August 2025
There were about 50 funding events in the insurtech sector in August 2025, according to a review by Digital Insurance. What follows is a selection of these, focusing on those in the insurtech and property & casualty sectors that are part of the venture-capital financing model. (Other funding events, such as private-equity infusions, are included in the overall count.)
A portion of the data was sourced from Crunchbase. Other information, including quotes from investing VCs, comes from company announcements. For our previous edition, which covered July, click here. These updates will continue monthly.
These summaries were crafted using AI and then reviewed by the Digital Insurance editorial team.
Elysian - Funding: $6 million seed round - Type of company: AI-native third-party administrator (TPA) for commercial insurance - Investors: Portage, American Family Ventures, TenOneTen Ventures
"Elysian is bringing purpose-built innovation to the core of commercial claims operations. Their platform provides adjusters with the tools to deliver better outcomes, and we're excited to support the team in their next phase of growth," said Ricky Lai, General Partner at Portage in a statement. MORE FUNDING
Direct Home Insurer Kin Raises $50M in Series E Financing
Direct-to-consumer homeowners insurer Kin said it has raised an oversubscribed $50 million Series E financing, at a pre-money valuation of $2 billion.
The digital insurer also closed on a $200 million debt facility, $145 million of which was used to repay an existing debt facility. The debt and equity financings together result in $105 million of incremental capital for the company to fuel growth, fund the launch of an additional reciprocal exchange, and enable investment in new products.
JVP Closes $290 Million Continuation Vehicle in Partnership with TPG to Power Earnix's AI Transformation of the Global Insurance Industry
Transaction delivers 8.7x returns to early investors and positions Earnix for next phase of global expansion; JVP, together with Insight Partners, strengthens leadership of company as it scales to advance InsurTech category leadership
JVP, a leading global venture capital firm, announced today the close of a $290 million single-asset Continuation Vehicle in partnership with TPG GP Solutions, TPG's dedicated U.S. and European GP-led secondaries strategy. The transaction supports the continued global expansion of Earnix, a category leader in Dynamic AI that is redefining the insurance industry, while delivering substantial liquidity to early JVP investors.
JVP has a three-decade track record of building companies into international category leaders through the JVP Way, a repeatable approach to company-building that has led to 42 of the largest exits out of Israel and New York, such as CyberArk, where JVP held a 47% stake at IPO and was recently acquired by Palo Alto Networks for $25B, Cogent Communications' $3.5B sale, Qlik's $3B sale, and many others.
The Continuation Vehicle reinforces JVP's conviction in Earnix's global potential. Earnix is redefining the insurance industry by delivering a cloud-native, AI-driven platform for real-time decisioning in pricing, underwriting, and product personalization across the insurance and banking industries, resulting in significantly reduced costs and increased revenue. Already operating in more than 35 countries and across six continents, Earnix has been adopted by over 100 of the largest tier-1 insurance companies in the world such as AXA, Assicurazioni Generali, Tokio Marine, Banco Santander, IAG, Toyota Financial Services, and Munich Re.
Pathwork Raises $3.5M to Replace Decades-Old Insurance Workflows with AI
Pathwork, an autonomous distribution platform modernizing the $160 billion life and health insurance market, has raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Costanoa, with participation from Logos Fund, American Family Ventures, Meridian Ventures, and prominent industry angels. The funding will help accelerate adoption among brokers and carriers nationwide.
Life and health insurance touches millions of Americans, but the way policies are sold hasn't meaningfully changed in decades. Distribution remains fragmented, manual, and error-prone, leaving brokers bogged down by outdated software systems and left to chase paperwork and decipher underwriting rules. In the U.S. alone, life and health premiums exceed $1.1 trillion annually, an enormous market where speed, accuracy and service make the difference.
Pathwork turns these complex, manual workflows into intelligent systems that help brokers and carriers move faster, quote more accurately, reduce costly back-and-forth, and deliver a better customer experience.
"The last 20 years of digitization made insurance distribution more complex, not less," said Ian Levinsky, CEO and co-founder of Pathwork. "AI will reimagine everything from how the work gets done to the tools professionals rely on. Pathwork is shaping this future so the people behind every policy can focus back on creating impact and building trust."
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