Insurance

Buffett's Berkshire Profit Triples on Market Advance, Fewer Storm Claims Billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said third-quarter profit tripled on the gain in derivatives tied to stocks and bonds.

AIG Taps $4.2 Billion From Treasury for Mortgage Insurer, Plane-Lease Unit American International Group Inc., the insurer rescued by the U.S., tapped the Treasury Department for another $4.2 billion to help restructure its money-losing mortgage guarantor and the plane unit it’s trying to sell.

AIG Plunges as Sales Decline at Property-Casualty, Life Insurance Units American International Group Inc., the insurer bailed out by the U.S., fell the most in two months in New York trading after posting sales declines at its property-casualty and life insurance divisions.

Buffett's `Wake-Up Call' to Berkshire Managers May Signal More Cost Cuts Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s managers may deliver more cost cuts to Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett after the billionaire replaced Richard Santulli as the head of a money-losing plane-leasing unit.

Citigroup's Primerica May Have Initial Value of $1.6 Billion, Trone Says Primerica Financial Services, the life insurance business that Citigroup Inc. plans to sell in an initial public offering, may have a starting value of $1.6 billion, according to an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Waller.

House Democrats Seek Health-Care Majority as Hoyer Says Delay is Possible Democrats sought to ease lawmakers’ concerns over funding for abortion and illegal aliens on the eve of a health-care floor debate as House leader Steny Hoyer raised the possibility tomorrow’s planned vote may be delayed.

No Financial Firm Should Be Too Big to Fail, Senators Sponsoring Bill Say No large financial firm should be too big to fail, said two members of the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

Insurers Win Capital Relief From U.S. Regulators on Home-Loan Securities MetLife Inc., the biggest U.S. life insurer, and smaller rivals won capital relief as regulators agreed to disregard ratings by firms such as Standard & Poor’s when evaluating holdings of securities tied to home loans.

RBS Has Quarterly Loss on $5.5 Billion Bad Loans, Credit-Market Writedown Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain’s biggest government-controlled bank, had a third- quarter loss after 3.3 billion pounds ($5.5 billion) of provisions for bad loans and credit-market writedowns.