Financial Results
The Hartford’s quarterly profit jumps on rising business insurance demand
The Hartford posted a 36% rise in first-quarter profit on Thursday as the property and casualty insurance firm benefited from strong growth in premiums.
Insurance spending has held up despite a choppy environment as individuals and businesses sought coverage to safeguard against risks such as natural disasters.
Property and casualty written premiums rose 4% in the quarter from a year ago, driven by 6% premium growth in the business insurance segment.
Core earnings from the business insurance arm, which accounts for more than half of Hartford’s revenue, surged 17% to $551 million in the quarter.
CEO Christopher Swift said growth in the personal insurance business was impacted by a competitive market.
Core earnings stood at $866 million, or $3.09 per share, in the three months ended March 31, versus $639 million, or $2.20 per share, in the year-ago period.
Net investment income before tax jumped to $739 million in the reported quarter from $656 million a year earlier, benefiting from a rise in income from alternative investments and a higher level of invested assets.
Neptune Flood revenue jumps 29% in debut public quarter
AI-powered firm’s first full quarter on the NYSE delivered highs across the board
Neptune Insurance Holdings, parent of Neptune Flood Incorporated, reported a near 29% jump in first-quarter revenue in its debut full quarter as a public company, even as stock-based compensation linked to its October listing dragged reported profit lower in the insurance group's latest results.
Revenue rose to $37.8 million in the three months to March 31, from $29.4 million a year earlier. Written premium climbed 26% to $86.7 million, and policies in force hit 295,000, according to a regulatory filing summary.
Chief executive Trevor Burgess described it as a record first quarter with strength across the business.
Net income fell 26.1% to $7.3 million, weighed down by a surge in share-based compensation to $6.9 million from just $84,000 a year earlier. Stocktitan's filing summary tied the drop to the stock-award jump and front-loaded public-company costs.
Driven Brands Misses 10-K Filing Deadline, Receives Nasdaq Deficiency Notice -
Driven Brands Holdings Inc. will not meet its April 26 target to file its 2025 annual report and has received a notice of deficiency from Nasdaq, the company said on April 21. The release included preliminary, unaudited results for Q4 and full-year 2025 and for Q1 2026.
It is the first financial information from Driven Brands since its Feb. 23 audit committee conclusion that previously issued financial statements contained material errors, triggering the restatement that has delayed the 10-K. Driven Brands is parent to collision and paint brands CARSTAR, Fix Auto USA, Abra, and Maaco, along with Auto Glass Now.
PRELIMINARY 2025 AND Q1 2026 NUMBERS
For fiscal 2025, Driven Brands reported revenue between $1.85 billion and $1.86 billion, adjusted EBITDA between $440 million and $450 million, and net unit growth of 175 locations. Same-store sales across the portfolio excluding Take 5 grew between 0.95% and 1.00% for the year, with Q4 between 0.3% and 0.5%.
Erie Indemnity Reports First Quarter 2026 Results
Erie Indemnity Company (NASDAQ: ERIE) today announced financial results for the quarter ending March 31, 2026.
Net income was $150.5 million, or $2.88 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2026, compared to $138.4 million, or $2.65 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2025.
Operating income before taxes increased $15.4 million, or 10.2 percent, in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the first quarter of 2025.
Climate/Resilience/Sustainability
$50 Billion in Losses and Minutes to Hit; Why Hail Season Demands Early Action
As severe weather season ramps up across the U.S., Mercury Insurance (NYSE/NYSE Texas: MCY) is urging homeowners and drivers to prepare now, as hailstorms remain one of the fastest and most expensive threats to property.
While storms may pass quickly, the damage they leave behind can be significant. In recent years, severe convective storms, which include hail, have driven more than $50 billion in insured losses in multiple years, with hail accounting for a substantial portion of those costs.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), thousands of hail events are reported across the country each year. Individual storms can produce widespread damage in minutes, impacting roofs, vehicles, siding, and outdoor property with little warning.
"Hail is one of the most frequent sources of catastrophic weather damage we see," said Steve Bennett, Head of Climate Science and Catastrophe Modeling at Mercury Insurance. "Unlike hurricanes or wind driven fires that might affect a community once in a generation, hailstorms can strike the same town again and again. That frequency adds up, which is why it's so important for homeowners and drivers to take simple, practical steps to reduce their hail risk before storms are in the forecast."
State News
California legislator wanted to guarantee home insurance. Companies fought back
Insurance companies on Wednesday beat back the latest effort to force them to sell homeowner policies to Californians who take certain steps to make their properties less likely to burn, over the urging of wildfire victims and efforts to make a proposed bill more agreeable to the influential businesses.
The measure, Senate Bill 1076, would have created a pilot program to identify areas of the state where residents would be guaranteed coverage if they met certain wildfire mitigation goals both as individuals and also as a larger community.
It was seen as a way to help give certainty to those rebuilding after last year’s Los Angeles-area fires, and other disasters, that they will be able to secure coverage if they pay for expensive efforts to make their new homes less likely to go up in flames.
“If we want Californians to build back safer, we must also ensure they have a pathway to stay insured,” its author, state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Alhambra, said of the bill before it died in the Senate Insurance Committee.
The proposal originally would have required companies to cover the homes of individuals who take specific steps to make their homes more fireproof, an idea that advocates and legislators have pitched for years.
Companies have adamantly opposed efforts to do so, arguing that work on individual homes here or there does not substantially reduce the risk of a major blaze, and remained against the bill even after Pérez agreed to an array of changes that included calling for the pilot program.
Seren Taylor, a lobbyist for the Personal Insurance Federation of California, an industry trade group, called the measure a “direct threat to insurance solvency” because it would force companies to take on much more risk without requiring that their rates be high enough to prepare for potentially large claims.
Florida Needs More – Much More – Wind Mitigation, Say Experts at OIR Summit
Florida has the largest wind-mitigation grant program in the country, providing more than $300 million to homeowners over the last few years and resulting in insurance premium discounts for thousands of people.
But it’s not enough. The program is not targeted at enough properties that would produce the most benefit for insurers, homeowners and state interests. And too many insureds and builders fail to see the return from retrofitting their homes or building stronger structures in the most hurricane-prone state.
That was the word from Florida professors, actuaries and insurance interests who participated in a panel discussion at the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation’s Insurance Summit, held last week in Tallahassee.
Announcements
Root & Freeway Insurance Expand Integrated Coverage Options Through New Partnership - The Globe and Mail
Root (NASDAQ: ROOT), the leading technology company in car insurance, and Freeway Insurance, the nation’s largest personal lines insurance distribution platform, today announced a collaboration designed to expand customer access and enhance the overall insurance experience across Freeway’s national network.
Through this partnership, Root’s technology and insurance products will be integrated into Freeway’s multi-carrier marketplace, expanding the range of coverage options available to customers. This addition enhances Freeway’s ability to deliver more competitive options, faster quoting, and a better overall fit for customers’ needs and budgets through a seamless, omnichannel experience.
“Freeway has built incredible scale and trust across a wide variety of markets by meeting customers exactly where they are,” said Jason Shapiro, SVP of Business Development at Root. “By combining Root’s technology with Freeway’s distribution platform, we’re simplifying the insurance experience and making it easier for customers to find high-quality, easy-to-quote coverage.”
The partnership expands access to additional coverage options while introducing a competitive new option across customer segments. As part of Freeway’s multi-carrier approach, Root complements an extensive network of insurance partners, reinforcing the platform’s ability to deliver choice across a broad spectrum of customer profiles and risk needs.
New Donan App Speeds Up Engineering Input for Roofing Claims
A new method for assessing asphalt shingle roofs will speed up the insurance claims process without sacrificing licensed engineering expertise.
Donan Engineering, which is part of Alpine Intel and leverages technology and decades of experience to provide scientific insight into property losses nationwide, has released the mobile application Donan On Demand. The app guides adjusters, or their preferred delegates, through a compliance-driven field inspection protocol based on engineering best practices. Focusing exclusively on hail and wind damage to roofs, the app enables insurance carriers to receive comprehensive, engineer-stamped reports that verify cause of loss without the time and expense of an on-site assessment.
"Policyholders expect hail and wind claims to be resolved quickly and efficiently, placing added pressure on carriers to deliver timely, informed outcomes," said Alpine Intel Chief Revenue Officer Reza Nikrooz. "Donan On Demand gives adjusters a streamlined way to obtain comprehensive professional engineering reports in an average of three business days—80% faster than traditional on-site methods—so they have the critical information needed to make confident claim decisions."
Liberty Mutual taps insurtech Ethos to launch instant digital life insurance
Ethos Technologies, a U.S.-based insurtech company focused on simplifying how individuals buy life insurance online, partnered with Liberty Mutual to expand access to direct-to-consumer life insurance through a fully digital experience.
The collaboration brings Ethos’ underwriting engine and platform into Liberty Mutual’s distribution model.
Ethos uses a fully digital application flow, automated underwriting, and partnerships with established insurers to offer term and whole life coverage with minimal friction, typically without in-person medical exams.
Ethos operates as a technology-driven life insurance platform rather than a traditional carrier. It is a licensed agency and third-party administrator that works with multiple insurers, using its own data and underwriting engine to price and bind policies.
Customers complete a short online questionnaire; most policies are issued same day, often without physical exams.
The company primarily offers term life policies with various coverage amounts and durations, alongside some permanent and final-expense products, branded as simple, accessible coverage for middle-income families. It also bundles digital estate-planning tools such as online wills and trusts, some of which are included as perks with policies.
InsurTech/M&A/Finance💰/Collaboration
Cytora and LexisNexis Risk Solutions announce strategic relationship to enhance risk selection and automation for U.S. commercial insurers
Cytora and LexisNexis® Risk Solutions have announced a strategic relationship to embed best-in-class data and advanced analytics from LexisNexis Risk Solutions directly into the Cytora platform to help U.S. commercial insurance companies scale their ability to assess, predict and manage risk.
For U.S. commercial insurers, a centralized and automated approach to underwriting can help deliver unparalleled insight into risk selection. Commercial insurers leveraging Cytora's configurable, LLM-powered platform can tailor essential information from LexisNexis Risk Solutions to their own unique underwriting criteria, helping to enhance speed and accuracy in critical processes such as submission triage and entity resolution.
This approach empowers commercial insurers to automatically enrich submissions with crucial external information, minimizing manual lookups and reducing friction across underwriting workflows.
As a result of the collaboration, commercial insurers can substantially improve the speed of their risk decisioning.
People
PartsTrader Announces Leadership Transition as Mark Lindner Named Executive Vice President and General Manager
PartsTrader, an Enlyte company and an industry leading parts procurement marketplace, announced a leadership transition as Mark Lindner steps into an expanded role as Executive Vice President and General Manager, leading the PartsTrader organization into its next phase of growth and innovation. In this role, Lindner will also serve as a member of Enlyte's executive leadership team.
This leadership transition follows the retirement of Steve Messenger, who has served as Chief Executive Officer of PartsTrader and played a pivotal role in the company's growth and success.
“Steve has been instrumental in shaping PartsTrader into the trusted platform it is today,” said Lindner. “His leadership helped build a strong foundation focused on transparency, efficiency, and measurable outcomes across the collision repair ecosystem. I’m honored to build on that legacy and lead PartsTrader forward as we continue to innovate and deliver value to our customers.”
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