Assets for P/C industry increased by $121 billion in 2005.

The property/casualty insurance industry registered a $121 billion increase in total admitted assets during 2005. This 9.4% increase equaled the percentage increase in 2004. While nonaffiliated bond investments rose 7.5%, nonaffiliated stock investments increased 10.5% in 2005. Nevertheless, there was no significant shift in asset allocations from 2004 to 2005.

Nonaffiliated bonds represented 56.8% of total admitted assets in 2005, while nonaffiliated stocks represented 10.8%. Affiliated stocks and bonds, as well as cash and short-term investments, decreased somewhat from the previous year; however, total invested assets as a percentage of total assets remained the same at 84%.

In terms of industry segments, property/casualty mutual companies continue to invest more heavily in unaffiliated stocks, with 18.4% in this asset class versus 8.4% for stock companies. On the other hand, stock companies held 8% of their assets in cash and short-term investments, clearly above the 2.8% held by mutuals. For the largest invested asset category, unaffiliated bonds, mutuals held 54.5% of their assets in these fixed-income securities, while stock companies held 56.9%. Each of these asset category allocations by industry segment is similar to the previous year.

Gross yield on invested assets for the total industry rebounded in 2005 after a slump in 2004. Overall gross yield rose to 5.1%, up from 4.5% the previous year. Stock companies recorded the biggest improvement in yields, from 4.5% in 2004 to 5.2% in 2005. This allowed them to reclaim the best yield of any industry segment, after trailing the mutual segment's gross yield for the previous two years. Mutual companies' improvement in yield was relatively weak, from 4.7% to 4.9%.

Asset Distribution, Top Property/Casualty Writers, United States--2005

Rank is based on total admitted assets for 2005.

($ Millions)

                                                Nonaffiliated
                                                       Common
Rank   Group Name                       AMB#           Stocks

   1   Berkshire Hathaway Ins           00811         $37,300
   2   State Farm Group                 00088          36,874
   3   Amer Intl Group, Inc             18540           3,989
   4   St. Paul Travelers Group         18647             193
   5   Allstate Ins Group               00008           4,759
   6   Liberty Mutual Ins Cos           00060           1,684
   7   CNA Ins Cos                      18313             282
   8   Nationwide Group                 05987           3,185
   9   Hartford Ins Group               00048             103
  10   Chubb Group of Ins Cos           00012           1,111
  11   Zurich Finl Svcs NA Group        18549             800
  12   GE Ins Solutions Group           18572             272
  13   Farmers Ins Group                00032             810
  14   State Comp Ins Fund CA           04028             324
  15   USAA Group                       04080             139
  16   Ace INA Group                    18498             531
  17   Amer Re Corp Group               18259             698
  18   Progressive Ins Group            00780           2,045
  19   State Ins Fund of Ny             04029           1,107
  20   Allianz of America, Inc          18429             864
  21   Fairfax Financial (USA) Group    03116           1,253
  22   Safeco Ins Cos                   00078           1,035
  23   Swiss Reins Group                03262               6
  24   W.R. Berkley Group               04655             506
  25   MBIA Group                       03166              36
       Total Top 25 P/C Writers                       $99,909
       Total U.S. P/C Industry                       $151,789

                Affiliated                  Cash &
         % of      Bonds &     % of     Short-Term     % of
Rank   Assets       Stocks   Assets    Investments   Assets

   1     32.8       $5,704      5.0        $37,888     33.3
   2     32.7        5,751      5.1          1,156      1.0
   3      3.9        6,531      6.4          1,096      1.1
   4      0.3        1,175      1.6          1,850      2.5
   5     10.0        4,143      8.7           -288     -0.6
   6      4.0          602      1.4          1,808      4.3
   7      0.7          877      2.2          2,489      6.3
   8      8.6        3,709     10.0          1,129      3.1
   9      0.3        5,039     13.7          1,228      3.3
  10      3.4        3,020      9.1            456      1.4
  11      2.7           70      0.2            654      2.2
  12      1.2        2,489     10.8          1,807      7.8
  13      3.5          350      1.5            106      0.5
  14      1.5            0      0.0          1,813      8.4
  15      0.7        2,979     15.5          4,849     25.2
  16      2.9          115      0.6          1,096      5.9
  17      4.0           26      0.1          1,828     10.4
  18     11.7          427      2.5            214      1.2
  19      7.9            0      0.0             57      0.4
  20      6.3          574      4.2            -89     -0.6
  21      9.4        1,027      7.7          2,236     16.8
  22      8.2            0      0.0             90      0.7
  23      0.0            3      0.0            259      2.1
  24      4.2          475      3.9            512      4.3
  25      0.3          297      2.7            810      7.3
         11.1      $45,383      5.1        $65,053      7.3
         10.8      $54,014      3.8        $93,073      6.6

                       Gross Yield on
             Total    Invested Assets
          Admitted
Rank        Assets   2005   2004   2003

   1      $113,869    7.2    3.6    4.6
   2       112,895    4.7    4.5    4.9
   3       101,802    4.9    4.4    5.0
   4        72,671    5.9    6.0    5.7
   5        47,652    5.9    5.7    5.5
   6        42,062    6.0    5.3    6.5
   7        39,326    6.9    4.4    6.3
   8        36,940    5.4    4.7    5.8
   9        36,807    6.4    6.9    8.3
  10        33,084    4.4    4.1    4.6
  11        29,901    4.9    4.0    4.5
  12        23,057    3.8    3.9    7.5
  13        23,037    4.4    4.4    4.4
  14        21,674    4.6    4.2    4.5
  15        19,253    4.3    3.8    5.4
  16        18,582    4.7    4.5    4.4
  17        17,586    4.3    3.9    4.6
  18        17,407    4.1    3.9    4.1
  19        14,087    4.3    3.8    4.0
  20        13,791    5.4    4.8    4.9
  21        13,307    3.9    3.9    3.5
  22        12,629    4.9    5.0    5.6
  23        12,379    4.0    2.9    3.4
  24        12,024    4.1    3.8    4.4
  25        11,039    4.6    4.6    4.6
          $896,861    5.4    4.6    5.3
        $1,405,831    5.1    4.5    5.0

Source: A.M. Best Co. data.