Insurance

Two months after the Village of Dorsey's Search received more than $100,000 from an insurance company to cover money that a former manager is accused of embezzling, the ex-manager and the insurance company have reached a settlement.The amount of the settlement could not be determined.A Howard County grand jury indicted Anne S. Darrin, 49, in May. She is charged with stealing more than $70,000 from the village between 1994 and 1998, prosecutors said.In February 1998, Darrin and her husband filed for bankruptcy protection in U.S. District Court.

After the failure of several major life insurers in the last year, regulators and members of Congress are seeking to restrict an increasingly widespread but little-known practice: the transfer of hundreds of thousands of annuities and life and health insurance policies from one company to another each year, leaving consumers with little or no choice about whether to switch.When it comes time to collect their money, consumers may find the company they chose has washed its hands of their business.

Charles Albert Wunder, a lifelong Baltimorean and avid supporter of the city's arts institutions, died Dec. 20 of complications from metastatic melanoma at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. The retired life-insurance salesman was 77. Mr. Wunder was born in Baltimore and grew up in a West Baltimore rowhome on Grantley Street with his family, which included two sisters. As a teen, he hitchhiked across town to attend Loyola Blakefield High School in Towson, and was among the members of the first ROTC class to graduate from Loyola College in 1955.

After state insurance officials detailed their skyrocketing liability, nearly 50 sedan service drivers and owners defended themselves at a public hearing in Baltimore yesterday and asked that annual rate increases of up to $15,000 be repealed.Many sedan service operators told the Maryland Insurance Administration they would go out of business if the agency did not repeal rate increases of up to 203 percent granted to the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund.MAIF, the state's insurer of last resort, underwrites 350 sedans that cruise Baltimore's streets -- mostly in low-income neighborhoods -- and charge $1 a mile.

The company that runs the Maryland lottery has obtained a new $30 million bond guaranteeing its performance here, ending weeks of concern that the state would be without such "insurance."The contractor, Automated Wagering International Inc. of Atlanta, said in October that the insurer would not renew the bond when it expires tomorrow because the amount was too high.But the lottery and state legislators had insisted that AWI ob- tain another bond, as its contract requires.Yesterday evening, lottery Director Buddy W. Roogow said he had received a fax of a one-year, $30 million bond that takes effect tomorrow.

The Ravens made a roster move after their final walk-through practice before tomorrow's playoff game against the Houston Texans, signing linebacker Josh Bynes from their practice squad to their 53-man roster, and waiving offensive tackle D.J. Jones. Bynes, who was originally signed by the team last July as an undrafted free agent out of Auburn, was on the Ravens' active roster for their game against the San Francisco 49ers on Nov. 24. He was let go six days later when the Ravens claimed former New York Jets safety Emanuel Cook off waivers.

If you had asked Gary Countryman a year ago about the status of workers' compensation programs in the United States, he would have described a system plagued by rising costs, bickering factions and an uncertain future.Now the president of the Boston-based Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. says progress has been made and there are reasons to be hopeful. However, he said there are still problems with the nation's network of state-run workers' compensation programs.He and other participants in a two-day conference that concludes today in Baltimore pointed to an improved dialogue between representatives of labor, employers, insurers and health care providers.

FutureHealth, a Hunt Valley company that helps employers hold down health care costs, is being acquired by Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. of Columbus, Ohio, one of the country's largest insurance companies. Claire Rosse, founder and chief executive officer of FutureHealth, said it would operate as a subsidiary of Nationwide, keeping its staff of 190, its management and its name. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal was driven by two intersecting trends: employer efforts to control cost by keeping workers healthier; and the shift of more costs and decision-making to individual consumers, the companies said.

NEW YORK -- USF&G is among five major property and casualty insurers at risk if there is a severe economic downturn, Public Citizen, a Washington-based consumer interest lobby, said in a extensive report on the industry issued yesterday."

An online rant by a man whose sister was killed in a car crash in Baltimore went viral this week after he accused Progressive Advanced Insurance Co. of siding with the driver whose car hit his sister's vehicle in June 2010. Matt Fisher's Monday post on tumblr.com sparked international coverage and a barrage of outraged tweets and comments. "If you are insured by Progressive, and they owe you money, they will defend your killer in court in order to not pay you your policy," he wrote.