Latest Trends Headlines
All the headlines from our Trends Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Oxendine Expresses Concerns About Ga. Insurance Market
Feb 27 2003 // Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine recently spoke out on the need for judicial reform as a way to encourage insurers to compete for business in the state. According to the National Association of Independent...
Dewhurst Says TX Homeowners Rates Are up to 18% Too High
Feb 27 2003 // Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst commented that homeowners insurance rates in Texas are running some 12 to 18 percent higher than they should be. According to the Houston Chronicle, Dewhurst made the remarks after Gov. Rick...
Swiss Re’ Expects $74 Million 2002 Loss; January Renewal Rates up 10%
Feb 26 2003 // Swiss Re indicated that it expects to post a net loss in the CHF 100 million ($73.7 million) range for the year 2002, due primarily to weakness in global equity markets, but the company also announced that the January...
S&P’s Report Examines U.S. Insurer Failures for 2002
Feb 25 2003 // Standard & Poor’s has published a report that examines failures among U.S. insurers in 2002. “Despite the hardening pricing environment in property/casualty and health insurance lines, the number of U.S....
AFG’s Fourth Quarter Earnings Up 40% Over 2001
Feb 20 2003 // American Financial Group Inc.’s (AFG) fourth-quarter net earnings were up 40 percent from a year earlier to $44.2 million, or 64 cents per share, from $31.5 million, or 46 cents per share, thanks to AFG’s focus...
S&P’s Affirms Employers Re Corp. Ratings, Off Watch; Outlook Negative
Feb 18 2003 // Standard & Poor’s has affirmed its ‘AA-‘ counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on Employers Reinsurance Corp. (www.ge.com) and its wholly owned subsidiaries. Standard & Poor’s...
Tillinghast Study Reports U.S. Tort Costs Jumped to $205B in 2001
Feb 12 2003 // The U.S. tort system cost $205 billion in 2001, or $721 per U.S. citizen, representing a 14.3 percent increase in tort costs since the year 2000, according to a study by Tillinghast- Towers Perin (Tillinghast) in U.S. Tort...
Travelers Affirmed; Outlook Neg.
Feb 10 2003 // S&P’s affirmed its “A-” counterparty credit and senior debt ratings on Hartford, Conn.-based Travelers Property Casualty Corp., following an announcement that the company will take an after-tax...
P/C Pricing Growth Fastest Since 1986, New York Analysts Told
Feb 10 2003 // The property and casualty industry is well into a rebound from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with premiums increasing aggressively for more than a year, a trend that will certainly continue throughout 2003 and...
TX WORKERS’ COMP COSTS RISE
Feb 10 2003 // A new study by the Workers Compensation Research Institute shows that workers’ compensation costs per claim in Texas continued to increase at double digit rates during recent years. According to WCRI, workers’...
Travelers Affirmed; Outlook Neg.
Feb 10 2003 // S&P’s affirmed its “A-” counterparty credit and senior debt ratings on Travelers Property Casualty Corp. following an announcement that the company will take an after-tax charge of $1.3 billion in...
Midland’s Fourth-Quarter P/C Premiums Up 8.9%
Feb 7 2003 // The Midland Co., a provider of specialty insurance products and services, reported fourth-quarter 2002 net income before capital gains/losses of $7.7 million, or 43 cents per share, compared with $9.3 million, or 51 cents...
S&P’s Revises Zenith National Insurance Corp Outlook
Feb 6 2003 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said that it revised its outlook on Zenith National Insurance Corp. and its subsidiaries to negative from stable after Zenith’s announcement on Jan. 20, 2003, that it has...
PIFC Explains Reasons for Recent Homeowners Insurance Premium Increases
Feb 5 2003 // Diane Colborn, vice president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California (PIFC), told the Assembly Insurance Committee earlier today that the most significant factor in recent homeowners insurance premium increases...
I.I.I. Forecast Presents Mixed Bag
Feb 4 2003 // Each year before Groundhog Day, the Insurance Information Institute invites a panel of Wall Street stock analysts and industry professionals to come out of their holes, look around for their shadow and forecast the outlook...
Moody’s Revises AXA Group’s Debt Rating Outlook from Stable to Negative
Jan 31 2003 // Moody’s Investors Service announced that it has changed its outlook to negative from stable on the A1 senior debt and A2 subordinated and junior subordinated debt ratings of France’s AXA group. Moody’s...
Benfield Report Notes “Capital Shortage” May Mean a Difficult Year for Reinsurers
Jan 30 2003 // A reinsurance market review prepared by the London-based Benfield Group, one of the world’s leading independent reinsurance intermediaries, has concluded that “despite the massive tidal wave of new capital...
P/C Pricing Growth Fastest Since 1986
Jan 28 2003 // The insurance industry is well into a rebound from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with premiums increasing aggressively for more than a year, according to the Chicago-based Raymond James Financial. Greg Peters,...
RenRe Already Looking to 2003 – Sees CWP Up 15%
Jan 28 2003 // Bermuda-based RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. doesn’t seem to have lost its touch. Prior to its appearance at conferences sponsored by the New York Society of Securities Analysts and Salomon Smith Barney this week, the...
Risk Retention Groups Owning Up to Success
Jan 27 2003 // Due to the restricted coverages available in the market today, risk retention groups (RRGs) have experienced a significant amount of rapid growth over the past year. At a time when the industry is facing what is perhaps...
