Finance Blog number 1

Brown & Brown has acquired another insurance company.

In the wake of its recent acquisition of a Connecticut-based agency, the company has announced that one of its subsidiaries has acquired the assets of HBA Insurance Group Inc.

No financial details regarding the deal were disclosed in a release announcing the acquisition.

HBA is the result of a 1999 merger between the Head Beckham Agency and Amerinsurance, two South Florida firms. HBA has offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Vero Beach. Its annualized revenue is approximately $18.6 million.

The company will continue operating out of its current locations as Brown & Brown profit centers but will retain the name "HBA Insurance Group."

Brown & Brown (NYSE: BRO), along with its subsidiaries, provides insurance and reinsurance products and services fast cash advance loan. The company serves business, public entity, individual, trade and professional association clients throughout the nation. It is based in Tampa and Daytona Beach.

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Sales at U.S. retailers probably rose in May as Americans started spending tax rebate checks and record gas prices inflated service-station receipts, economists said before reports this week.

Purchases rose 0.5 percent following a 0.2 percent drop the prior month, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey before the Commerce Department's report on June 12. Other reports may show rising food and fuel prices pushed up the cost of living and the housing slump showed no sign of abating.

Retailers have started benefiting from about $57 billion in tax-rebate checks the government has sent out so far in a bid to revive the economy. Still, the improvement may be short-lived as tighter credit, plummeting property values and a weakening labor market signal consumers will retrench.

“It's temporary good news,'' said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse Holdings Inc. in New York. “It's tax- rebate induced and that is a transitory stimulus. There is a laundry list of factors working against the consumer right now.''

Retail sales excluding automobiles increased 0.7 percent last month after a 0.5 percent rise in April, according to the Bloomberg survey median. More spending at service stations, reflecting the jump in gasoline prices, probably boosted the figure, economists said.

The cost of gasoline has risen 31 percent so far this year, reaching a record $3.99 a gallon last week for regular unleaded, according to AAA. Food prices are also surging, prompting shoppers to frequent discount stores searching for bargains.

Cashing Checks

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, had a 3.9 percent jump in same-store sales last month, as consumers bought cut-rate staples and took advantage of promotions linked to the tax rebates.

“Many of our customers need to live from paycheck to paycheck,'' Wal-Mart Chief Financial Officer Thomas Schoewe told reporters last week. “The amount they're spending on basics is a big portion of the total basket.''

Consumers cashed $350 million in rebate checks at Wal-Mart stores, Schoewe said. The retailer doesn't know how much of that was spent at the chain payday loans.

“Consumers should start to respond to the additional cash by increasing spending,'' said Michael Hanson, an economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in New York. “The rebate will act like a shot of caffeine,'' even as its effects “will be temporary.''

Consumers aren't spending on big-ticket items like automobiles, reflecting slumping confidence and weakening household finances. Cars and light trucks sold at a 14.3 million annual pace in May, the fewest since July 1998, according to industry data.

Smaller Gain

Spending may grow at an annual rate of 0.5 percent this quarter, down from a 1 percent pace in the first three months of the year that was the weakest since the 2001 recession, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News last month.

The bulk of the tax rebates will probably be spent from July through September, giving third-quarter growth a lift, before the economy decelerates again in the last three months of the year, the poll also showed.

With gasoline surging, consumer prices rose 0.5 percent last month, the most since November, according to the median forecast ahead of the Labor Department's June 13 report. Excluding food and energy, prices probably rose 0.2 percent after a 0.1 percent rise in April.

Price increases fueled by the jump in commodity costs will probably prompt the Federal Reserve to hold rates steady at its June 25 meeting, according to trading in the futures market.

Trade Deficit

The rising cost of oil probably caused the trade deficit to widen to $59.9 billion in April from $58.2 billion the prior month, according to the survey median ahead of the June 10 report from the Commerce Department.

Another report on June 9 may show contract signings to buy existing homes continued to slump. The National Association of Realtors may report pending home resales fell 0.5 percent in April following a 1 percent decline the prior month, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists.

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The Hawaii Department of Health announced Wednesday that the state will implement a voluntary checkpoint screening process for international visitors to detect flu-like illness at Honolulu International Airport.

The program will span a one-year period and was made possible through a cooperative agreement between the Hawaii Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the amount of $289,000, the department said.

The Department of Health will collaborate with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CDC, the Hawaii Department of Transportation and Hawaiian Airlines, the health department said.

"During [severe acute respiratory syndrome] other countries screened for flu-like illness at airports," said Chiyome Fukino, director of the Health Department, in a statement. "It makes sense for the U.S. to investigate this strategy, given the very real concerns for a potential influenza pandemic low fees payday loan. Being a global travel destination, Hawaii is a good place to start. We hope to share what we learn here with the rest of the nation."

The screening process will include a questionnaire, which includes basic demographic information, recent travel history and illness history. Travelers who feel feverish will be asked to go through a voluntary checkpoint process. Those passengers will then be checked for illness. If they have a fever, the traveler will be tested voluntarily for the flu.

The program builds upon the illness surveillance procedures that the Department of Health began at Honolulu International Airport in November 2005, which was designed to detect influenza-like illnesses and identify infection by new flu strains, including avian flu.

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The number of adults without health insurance dropped by almost half in the

first year of the Massachusetts Health reform law, according to a new study

released Tuesday.

The Urban Institute found that the uninsurance rate among adults dropped

from 13 percent to 7.1 percent, according to the study, which was released

by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation.

Researchers compiled the data by conducting telephone interviews with random

Massachusetts adults ages 18 to 64 in the fall of 2006, just before the

reform law began, and again in fall 2007.

Some of the biggest insurance gains came among low-income adults who made

less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level. Those adults are

eligible for subsidized insurance created by the law under the Commonwealth

Care label, and their uninsurance rate dropped from 23.8 percent in fall

2006 to 12.9 percent a year later.

Adults with incomes below 100 percent of federal poverty level saw their

uninsurance rate drop to 10 percent in fall 2007, a decline of about

two-thirds payday advances.

The Urban Institute also determined that the new health care law helped

low-income adults find regular access to health care, and employer-sponsored

health coverage remained stable.

More people were able to find health insurance, in part because the new

health reform law increased their options. The measure, enacted in April

2006, expanded MassHealth, or Medicaid options. The law also created

subsidies to enable more people to buy insurance and a mandate that

individuals obtain insurance.

The new law also requires employers with more than 10 employees to either

provide insurance or pay into a state fund.

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