Global insurers Manulife Financial Corp (MFC.TO), Metlife (MET.N) and Prudential Financial Corp (PRU.N) are among suitors expected to place first-round bids on Friday to buy ING Groep's (ING.AS) Asia life insurance unit in a deal worth about $6.5 billion to $7 billion, sources familiar with the matter said.

A sale topping $7 billion could rank as Asia's top insurance M&A deal and would help the bailed-out bancassurer repay the 3 billion euros ($3.81 billion) of state aid plus the 50 percent premium it still owes the Dutch government.

ING has turned into a divestment machine since receiving the state aid and has sold 15.2 billion euros worth of assets across the world. The Asian sales would figure among the top two deals from ING's stable.

As part of the Asian divestment, ING received about 10 initial bids for its Asian asset management business this week. The asset management business, expected to fetch between $500 million and $600 mill
Read More..

Dog bites man does not get a lot of attention in the news, but it costs insurance companies hundreds of millions in claims every year.

State Farm Insurance, one of the nation's largest home insurers, paid more than $109 million on about 3,800 dog bite claims nationwide last year, spokesman Eddie Martinez said Wednesday. In 2010, there were about 3,500 claims and $90 million in payouts.

The Insurance Information Institute estimated that nearly $479 million in dog bite claims were paid by all insurance companies in 2011, spokeswoman Loretta Worters said. In 2010, it was $413 million.

It's no surprise that California – home to more dogs and people than any other state – led the way in 2011.

Martinez says 527 claims were filed in California and victims received $20.3 million, a jump of 31 percent over 2010.

State Farm is still working to determine reasons for the spike, Martinez said.

About 4.7 million pe
Read More..