Former Corvus Insurance chief operating officer Mike Lloyd has launched a new personal insurance agency called Pine View Insurance Group.

The growing volume of $10mn+ homes, fine art collections and other valuable assets destroyed by wildfires raging in and around Los Angeles means the profile and distribution of a rapidly escalating industry loss is likely to be atypical compared to other recent catastrophic events.

Using replacement cost instead of sales price and factoring in contents and loss of use coverage points to residential property insured losses of around $9bn from the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires, which could get to a $15bn to $20bn range once commercial and auto claims are included, according to Juniper Re.

Insurers will further re-examine their appetites for wildfire risk following the outbreak in Los Angeles, AM Best has commented, with carriers facing “significant” losses that could affect the policyholders’ surplus and risk-adjusted capitalisation of those concentrated in California.

Analysts at rating agencies and investment banks as well as other industry sources suggest the Los Angeles wildfires will rank among the most destructive in California’s history – and will possibly be the largest ever insured loss from the peril, with JP Morgan doubling its estimate to $20bn.

Thousands of properties are at risk from a wildfire in Los Angeles which will likely become the first major insured loss event of 2025.

Venbrook Group has expanded its private risk practice with the opening of a new West Coast office and the hire of Christina Oakes from USI as executive vice president of the division.

Private Client Select Insurance Services (PCS) has signed a distribution agreement with Ryan Specialty for the broker to act as its exclusive wholesaler in the high and ultra-high net worth markets in the US, with capacity from AIG’s newly formed E&S carrier Marbleshore Specialty Insurance Company.

Two years after stating it would move homeowners and potentially other high-net-worth (HNW) products to the non-admitted market, and a year after the spin-off of its HNW business as a new MGA, AIG is creating a new E&S carrier to provide exclusive paper to support the portfolio.

Private Client Select Insurance Services (PCS) – the $1.4bn high-net-worth MGA spun out by AIG to Stone Point last year – has parted ways with its chief field executive Eric Pruss,