Does anyone ever feel shamed anymore? I would be so embarassed to come to your fellow citizen (The Fed) and ask for a hand out. They should all be fired and replaced with conservative stewards of the insureds funds. This country and our industry executives needs to have a little pride.
Today, I am ashamed to be an insurance reprsentative. I represent the Hartford, and this is flat out embarrassing. If Iran was handing out money to those willing to call themselves Islamist Freedom Fighters, I think the Hartford would put on a turban, hoist an AK-47 assault rifle in the air and scream “Ronald Reagan is a Cowboy”!
Enough is enough. Tell these scavengers to start competing price wise, sell insurance, and abandon these plans to be a “bank”. They had to borrow money from Allianz just to balance their books.
There are two ways in this world to get what you want: one is the economic way, wherein you interact with others in a system of voluntary exchange; I’ll pay you x if you give me y; or I’ll work for you for one year and you pay me z. If you don’t agree then fine, I’ll look for someone else who might be willing to make the exchange.
The second way is the political way which stated bluntly is: give me your property, I have guns (or men & women backing me with guns), if you don’t give it to me, I’ll take it or put you in jail or injure/kill you. We now know which method Hartford, et. al. have chosen.
Here is a letter cut and paste from the Hartford, If you are doing so well, Why are you soaking the taxpayers for Billions. Mr Ayer should be tared and feathered and given a wedgey in town square as far as I am concerned. Bill is right, they should be ashamed of themselves.
February 6, 2009
To our stakeholders:
Yesterday, The Hartford announced its financial results for fiscal-year 2008. The latter half of 2008 was clearly one of the most challenging periods for the U.S. economy, and The Hartford, since the Great Depression. But we finished 2008 well capitalized and well prepared to meet our commitments to our customers. Here are the details of our performance and our outlook for 2009 that we covered with our shareholders earlier today.
The Hartford Is Well Capitalized and Has Ample Liquidity
The Hartford finished 2008 well capitalized. Our P&C subsidiaries are capitalized at levels above those historically associated with AA level property casualty insurers and we expect to maintain those levels for 2009. The preliminary risk-based capital (RBC) ratio for the life company stood at 385 at year-end 2008. Moreover, we have $1.9 billion of excess capital at our holding company and property casualty company. Finally, we continue to maintain $2.4 billion of available capital resources in the form of our prefunded $500 million contingent capital facility and our $1.9 billion credit facility. Our statutory surplus exceeded $11 billion as of December 31, 2008, and we hold more than $13 billion in cash, short-term investments and treasuries as of December 31, 2008.
Insurance-based Businesses Performed Well
Our core insurance-based businesses had a strong 2008. Property and casualty operations ended the year with very good performance in the fourth quarter, including a 9 percent increase in core earnings and an outstanding ongoing operations combined ratio of 77.6 points. For our life operations, group benefits premiums increased 4 percent and individual life insurance in force increased 9 percent in the fourth quarter over the prior-year period. As would be expected, the capital markets proved challenging to our equity-based businesses, such as variable annuities, mutual funds and retirement plans.
Confidence in the Economic Value of Our Investment Portfolio
The capital markets significantly affected our investment performance this year, but we are confident in our portfolio’s long-term economic value. While the credit markets may create some headwinds, we expect that our unrealized loss position will substantially recover over time, even in a severe recession, and our commercial mortgage-backed securities portfolio is highly rated. In the fourth quarter, we focused on reducing portfolio risks and improving our liquidity position. For example, we sold $575 million of exposure to financial companies and increased our short-term securities and treasuries holdings by $6 billion.
Focus on Capital Preservation and Risk Mitigation for 2009
While we are optimistic about the resolve shown by the federal government in its efforts to stimulate the economy, the risks still appear severe. As a result, capital preservation and risk mitigation are at the forefront of our priorities for 2009. Our work to de-risk our variable annuity product portfolio is ongoing and we will look for additional opportunities to reduce risk in other areas. In addition, at our next Board of Directors meeting, we plan to recommend that the board reduce our quarterly dividend to $0.05 per share, resulting in a savings to the company of $350 million annually. Despite the actions we have taken, Moody’s announced today that it had lowered our long-term, senior debt rating one notch from A3 to Baa1 with a negative outlook. Moody’s also lowered the insurance financial strength ratings of our life and property casualty subsidiaries one notch from Aa3 to A1. We are disappointed with their decision. As we mentioned, we have already taken a number of actions to protect our statutory capital and reduce risk.
We are confident that we are taking the most important steps to effectively position The Hartford during this difficult period. I want to reassure you that we are well capitalized and well prepared to continue meeting our commitments to our customers.
Mr Ayer, Do you and all corporate officers plan on reducing your pay to $500.K along with reduction of your dividend. I guess you are more important than the stockholders of the company. I will answer the question for you. You beat the current legislation requirement for reduced salary by applying before the new law takes effect. Shame on you!
Lets just streamline our government. Instead of pumping money into all these insurance companies, lets just fire mr. Ayer and the like and roll AIG, Hartford, Genworth, Lincoln into one big pile of garbage. This way at least we keep all our money in one spot. And we can have the fun of firing all the corporate losers. Maybe we could have a dunking machine like in the fairs and we could all throw baseballs at them. That sounds like it might be fun at least I can get something for my money.
This is just disgusting…plain and simple. I don’t know about the rest of you but my bonus is tied to performance. As a result of certain companies questionable pricing, I was unable to retain business without contributing to a soft market. We did the ethical thing while other insurers slashed prices and gave away coverages while their parent companies got in over their heads with CDS’s and financial products they didn’t fully understand the risks of. They take huge risks and fail miserably and get bailed out by taxpayers dollars and STILL get bonuses. We practice ethical underwriting practices and lose business, our bonuses and in some cases our jobs. Where is the fairness in that? Maybe we should’ve just stooped to their level along with half the market. Maybe then we’d get tossed a lifeline from the fed in the form of billions in taxpayer funds….all for doing nothing more than acting like total creeps.
Frank, I like your idea. The only thing i’d change is that the dunking booth wouldn’t be filled with water. It’d be filled with honey and killer bees. Either that or HCl
We are going to be working for the Government very, very soon!!
Recently there is an investigation into the pricing of AIG. Hmmmmmm sounds good at first, but soon the Government is going to be involved through congress in underwriting, claims paying, etc.
Welcome to your new health insurer,(AIG/Hartfor/Lincon/Genworth) and underwriting does not matter because the government does not understand profit. Just look at what they are doing to “our” budget. THIS IS SCARY STUFF.
The economic mess was caused by the Republicans and led by Senor Cheney y Bush. Let’s all step back and take a deep breath. Surely the messiah will enlighten us in the ways of the Democrats. This too will pass. We shall overcome.
Osamba??? I guess you think the Dot Com Bust was Bill Clintons fault since you think the housing bust was Bush’s fault.
I certainly think we should not follow Obama if he thinks spending money on things that will not stimulate the economy will help. And I think Bush was wrong when he bailed out all these banks that we own now. Government is not the solution it is the problem. “Ronald Regan”
America needs to wake up and realize that we need to stop all this spending, cut taxes and programs, and balance the budget. Taxpayer money isn’t currently paying for all this crap because there isn’t any money! We already had an 8 billion, or whatever it is, deficit before Obama took office, and he seems content to just ignore that and carry doing what he wants to do in terms of spending. Right now the Gov’t is printing money in record amounts and borrowing from wherever it can. At some point they will have to raise taxes because we can’t keep printing money and borrowing without some show of good faith to repay some of the money. The spending won’t stop, so taxes will have to go up.
We tried this during the depression, which ultimately led to a great depression the U.S. while the rest of the world recovered. Other countries that have tried this have failed. Obama and company believe we can try it again and succeed because the failure of anyone else who tried it was that they didn’t spend enough.
The dirty of secret of all this spending that Obama wants to do is that regardless of whether it can or can’t fix economy, he’s taken the opportunity to slip into his stimulus package various aspects of a socialist agenda, such as nationalized healthcare.
Just for some perspective, Obama’s “stimulus” is larger than all U.S. wars combined.
I don’t car if you are a Democrat or a Republican. I don’t want to ever hear anybody else saying George W Bush couldn’t speak or sounded like a West Texas hick. OMG! Obama sounded so bad last night. Watch the stock market crater today as more people break the spell of the Lib messiah and wake up.
didn’t you hear me last night??? Uhhhh, Government needs to ACT NOW!! I know that, uhhhhhh, the stimulus bill isn’t perfect and has more pork in it than uhhhhhhh, a Weight Watchers Convention, but don’t you know that uhhhhhh, you need to spend more money in order to stop spending money? That’s it! Just for that uhhhhhh, you’re not invited to my next 6 inaugurations!
You’ll have to uhhhhhhh excuse me, I have to answer uhhhhhhh a very important phone call from my new buddy, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
State Farm. Mutual company owned by PROUD POLICYHOLDERS. No government bailout needed, thank you. Our portfolio took a small hit but kept on ticking. Maybe somebody should point that out to Charlie Crist. Sound fiduciary policy used to be the hallmark of our proud industry. Not anymore.
And who was the DUMBA55 who decided us honorable insurers needed to roll around in the mud with bankers? My old manager used to chide me for my refusal to do banking. Who looks smart now?
‘A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.’ – Thomas Jefferson
The stimulus will do nothing but further harm the economy. I also agree with Gil Finn. What about the companies that have done well. Were now rewarding failure!
Really now. If you put all us bees into this tub of honey, we’d suffocate and couldn’t buzz around. Get real!
Does anyone ever feel shamed anymore? I would be so embarassed to come to your fellow citizen (The Fed) and ask for a hand out. They should all be fired and replaced with conservative stewards of the insureds funds. This country and our industry executives needs to have a little pride.
Yes our plan worked. Check is in the mail!!!!
The Hartford!
Today, I am ashamed to be an insurance reprsentative. I represent the Hartford, and this is flat out embarrassing. If Iran was handing out money to those willing to call themselves Islamist Freedom Fighters, I think the Hartford would put on a turban, hoist an AK-47 assault rifle in the air and scream “Ronald Reagan is a Cowboy”!
Enough is enough. Tell these scavengers to start competing price wise, sell insurance, and abandon these plans to be a “bank”. They had to borrow money from Allianz just to balance their books.
There are two ways in this world to get what you want: one is the economic way, wherein you interact with others in a system of voluntary exchange; I’ll pay you x if you give me y; or I’ll work for you for one year and you pay me z. If you don’t agree then fine, I’ll look for someone else who might be willing to make the exchange.
The second way is the political way which stated bluntly is: give me your property, I have guns (or men & women backing me with guns), if you don’t give it to me, I’ll take it or put you in jail or injure/kill you. We now know which method Hartford, et. al. have chosen.
Here is a letter cut and paste from the Hartford, If you are doing so well, Why are you soaking the taxpayers for Billions. Mr Ayer should be tared and feathered and given a wedgey in town square as far as I am concerned. Bill is right, they should be ashamed of themselves.
February 6, 2009
To our stakeholders:
Yesterday, The Hartford announced its financial results for fiscal-year 2008. The latter half of 2008 was clearly one of the most challenging periods for the U.S. economy, and The Hartford, since the Great Depression. But we finished 2008 well capitalized and well prepared to meet our commitments to our customers. Here are the details of our performance and our outlook for 2009 that we covered with our shareholders earlier today.
The Hartford Is Well Capitalized and Has Ample Liquidity
The Hartford finished 2008 well capitalized. Our P&C subsidiaries are capitalized at levels above those historically associated with AA level property casualty insurers and we expect to maintain those levels for 2009. The preliminary risk-based capital (RBC) ratio for the life company stood at 385 at year-end 2008. Moreover, we have $1.9 billion of excess capital at our holding company and property casualty company. Finally, we continue to maintain $2.4 billion of available capital resources in the form of our prefunded $500 million contingent capital facility and our $1.9 billion credit facility. Our statutory surplus exceeded $11 billion as of December 31, 2008, and we hold more than $13 billion in cash, short-term investments and treasuries as of December 31, 2008.
Insurance-based Businesses Performed Well
Our core insurance-based businesses had a strong 2008. Property and casualty operations ended the year with very good performance in the fourth quarter, including a 9 percent increase in core earnings and an outstanding ongoing operations combined ratio of 77.6 points. For our life operations, group benefits premiums increased 4 percent and individual life insurance in force increased 9 percent in the fourth quarter over the prior-year period. As would be expected, the capital markets proved challenging to our equity-based businesses, such as variable annuities, mutual funds and retirement plans.
Confidence in the Economic Value of Our Investment Portfolio
The capital markets significantly affected our investment performance this year, but we are confident in our portfolio’s long-term economic value. While the credit markets may create some headwinds, we expect that our unrealized loss position will substantially recover over time, even in a severe recession, and our commercial mortgage-backed securities portfolio is highly rated. In the fourth quarter, we focused on reducing portfolio risks and improving our liquidity position. For example, we sold $575 million of exposure to financial companies and increased our short-term securities and treasuries holdings by $6 billion.
Focus on Capital Preservation and Risk Mitigation for 2009
While we are optimistic about the resolve shown by the federal government in its efforts to stimulate the economy, the risks still appear severe. As a result, capital preservation and risk mitigation are at the forefront of our priorities for 2009. Our work to de-risk our variable annuity product portfolio is ongoing and we will look for additional opportunities to reduce risk in other areas. In addition, at our next Board of Directors meeting, we plan to recommend that the board reduce our quarterly dividend to $0.05 per share, resulting in a savings to the company of $350 million annually. Despite the actions we have taken, Moody’s announced today that it had lowered our long-term, senior debt rating one notch from A3 to Baa1 with a negative outlook. Moody’s also lowered the insurance financial strength ratings of our life and property casualty subsidiaries one notch from Aa3 to A1. We are disappointed with their decision. As we mentioned, we have already taken a number of actions to protect our statutory capital and reduce risk.
We are confident that we are taking the most important steps to effectively position The Hartford during this difficult period. I want to reassure you that we are well capitalized and well prepared to continue meeting our commitments to our customers.
Best regards,
Ramani Ayer
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Mr Ayer, Do you and all corporate officers plan on reducing your pay to $500.K along with reduction of your dividend. I guess you are more important than the stockholders of the company. I will answer the question for you. You beat the current legislation requirement for reduced salary by applying before the new law takes effect. Shame on you!
I guess with Democrats taking office and a country full of whining entitlement hungry corporations and individuals, nothing should surprise you.
Lets just streamline our government. Instead of pumping money into all these insurance companies, lets just fire mr. Ayer and the like and roll AIG, Hartford, Genworth, Lincoln into one big pile of garbage. This way at least we keep all our money in one spot. And we can have the fun of firing all the corporate losers. Maybe we could have a dunking machine like in the fairs and we could all throw baseballs at them. That sounds like it might be fun at least I can get something for my money.
This is just disgusting…plain and simple. I don’t know about the rest of you but my bonus is tied to performance. As a result of certain companies questionable pricing, I was unable to retain business without contributing to a soft market. We did the ethical thing while other insurers slashed prices and gave away coverages while their parent companies got in over their heads with CDS’s and financial products they didn’t fully understand the risks of. They take huge risks and fail miserably and get bailed out by taxpayers dollars and STILL get bonuses. We practice ethical underwriting practices and lose business, our bonuses and in some cases our jobs. Where is the fairness in that? Maybe we should’ve just stooped to their level along with half the market. Maybe then we’d get tossed a lifeline from the fed in the form of billions in taxpayer funds….all for doing nothing more than acting like total creeps.
Frank, I like your idea. The only thing i’d change is that the dunking booth wouldn’t be filled with water. It’d be filled with honey and killer bees. Either that or HCl
We are going to be working for the Government very, very soon!!
Recently there is an investigation into the pricing of AIG. Hmmmmmm sounds good at first, but soon the Government is going to be involved through congress in underwriting, claims paying, etc.
Welcome to your new health insurer,(AIG/Hartfor/Lincon/Genworth) and underwriting does not matter because the government does not understand profit. Just look at what they are doing to “our” budget. THIS IS SCARY STUFF.
The economic mess was caused by the Republicans and led by Senor Cheney y Bush. Let’s all step back and take a deep breath. Surely the messiah will enlighten us in the ways of the Democrats. This too will pass. We shall overcome.
Osamba??? I guess you think the Dot Com Bust was Bill Clintons fault since you think the housing bust was Bush’s fault.
I certainly think we should not follow Obama if he thinks spending money on things that will not stimulate the economy will help. And I think Bush was wrong when he bailed out all these banks that we own now. Government is not the solution it is the problem. “Ronald Regan”
Add me to the list of those who think this whole thing is pathetic.
Oh, and Jake, I already work for the government as they are the single largest beneficiary of my hard earned money.
America needs to wake up and realize that we need to stop all this spending, cut taxes and programs, and balance the budget. Taxpayer money isn’t currently paying for all this crap because there isn’t any money! We already had an 8 billion, or whatever it is, deficit before Obama took office, and he seems content to just ignore that and carry doing what he wants to do in terms of spending. Right now the Gov’t is printing money in record amounts and borrowing from wherever it can. At some point they will have to raise taxes because we can’t keep printing money and borrowing without some show of good faith to repay some of the money. The spending won’t stop, so taxes will have to go up.
We tried this during the depression, which ultimately led to a great depression the U.S. while the rest of the world recovered. Other countries that have tried this have failed. Obama and company believe we can try it again and succeed because the failure of anyone else who tried it was that they didn’t spend enough.
The dirty of secret of all this spending that Obama wants to do is that regardless of whether it can or can’t fix economy, he’s taken the opportunity to slip into his stimulus package various aspects of a socialist agenda, such as nationalized healthcare.
Just for some perspective, Obama’s “stimulus” is larger than all U.S. wars combined.
I don’t car if you are a Democrat or a Republican. I don’t want to ever hear anybody else saying George W Bush couldn’t speak or sounded like a West Texas hick. OMG! Obama sounded so bad last night. Watch the stock market crater today as more people break the spell of the Lib messiah and wake up.
didn’t you hear me last night??? Uhhhh, Government needs to ACT NOW!! I know that, uhhhhhh, the stimulus bill isn’t perfect and has more pork in it than uhhhhhhh, a Weight Watchers Convention, but don’t you know that uhhhhhh, you need to spend more money in order to stop spending money? That’s it! Just for that uhhhhhh, you’re not invited to my next 6 inaugurations!
You’ll have to uhhhhhhh excuse me, I have to answer uhhhhhhh a very important phone call from my new buddy, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
State Farm. Mutual company owned by PROUD POLICYHOLDERS. No government bailout needed, thank you. Our portfolio took a small hit but kept on ticking. Maybe somebody should point that out to Charlie Crist. Sound fiduciary policy used to be the hallmark of our proud industry. Not anymore.
And who was the DUMBA55 who decided us honorable insurers needed to roll around in the mud with bankers? My old manager used to chide me for my refusal to do banking. Who looks smart now?
‘A government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.’ – Thomas Jefferson
The stimulus will do nothing but further harm the economy. I also agree with Gil Finn. What about the companies that have done well. Were now rewarding failure!