A Pennsylvania court – for the first time – rejected a Pennsylvania insurance regulator’s plan to liquidate two long-term care insurance companies.

Some of the most valuable insights often come from unusual and unexpected encounters. In her chairman’s remarks at National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies’ (NAILBA) 2011 annual meeting, Christi M. Daughenbaugh told of talking to her hairdresser, a 24-year-old mother-to-be, about life insurance.

A Costa Rican insurance company pleaded guilty April 20 in federal court in Richmond, Va., to a $670 million insurance fraud scheme, while its majority owner’s trial began this week.

A North Carolina insurance agent and his client were each charged with insurance fraud for an alleged life insurance scheme.

MetLife, because of its ownership of MetLife Bank, an online retail unit, was forced to submit to the Federal Reserve’s stress testing and failed, possibly because it was “unfairly penalized” by regulators.

A group of insurance associations is concerned about the implications that new taxes included in President Obama‘s 2013 budget proposal, introduced Feb. 13, will have on the life insurance industry.

A Virginia father was sentenced after pleading guilty to defrauding his adopted daughter and an insurance company to collect the proceeds of a $500,000 life insurance policy on his deceased wife.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. acquired Capital Bauer Insurance Agency, an Albany, N.Y.-based retail insurance broker allowing it to significantly expand its Upstate New York presence.

With the federal estate tax exclusion at $5 million through 2012, a vast number of estates will not incur any federal tax. Even if the exclusion drops back to the $1 million dollar limit in 2013, the majority of estates will have little or no federal estate tax liability.

The organization representing state insurance commissioners is promoting life insurance as an “overlooked” potential source of immediate funds.