John Talaba: 53, managing director, Tampa Bay, for Acordia Insurance
By JEFF HARRINGTON
Published September 15, 2003
Q. Two years after the Sept. 11 attacks, how has the insurance industry recovered?
Sept. 11 really sent some powerful shock waves through our economy and certainly through the insurance industry. The financial fallout from that is awful: the largest losses ever for our industry, and it's still not over . . . We had to deliver some huge premium insurance increases to our customers.
But ours is a very large industry, and it's really driven in cycles by supply and demand. As the insurance company results have improved, coverage is becoming more readily available. The prices are starting to level out . . . Our ability to secure higher limits (for coverage) is improving. Overall the insurance industry is doing much better than it was a year ago.
Q. How are you dealing with the lines of business suffering the most these days?
One of the toughest things in our state is for physicians to find reasonable malpractice coverage. We're currently working in conjunction with several bay area hospitals to find a reasonable answer . . . and that's going very well. We're administering a program for eight bay area hospitals and their physicians.
Another area that continues to be tough is employee benefits. The relentless rise in medical costs . . . is forcing a lot of companies to make some tough choices in benefits provided to employees. I don't see any easy answer to that one.
Q. Your company announced three acquisitions last week - in Texas, Nebraska and Pennsylvania - and your CEO said you're again seeking acquisitions after becoming integrated as part of Wells Fargo. What's in store for Florida and the Tampa Bay area?
We're actually seeking companies to acquire. We're in discussion with several right now . . . We took a breather from that a year or so after Wells Fargo acquired us, but we're back in the game.
