BestWeek: Financial Impairment Study, Pre-Need Market Assessment.

OLDWICK, N.J. -- A.M. Best Co. has released a study of long-term impairment rates among property/casualty and life/health insurance companies domiciled in the United States. The study found that 668 of the 4,971 companies carrying a Best's Financial Strength Rating became financially impaired, an average of 24.7 companies per year. A summary of the results of that original research appears in the April 18 edition of BestWeek.

Additionally, A.M. Best has published a special report on the pre-need insurance segment, indicating that 16% of this business was issued as individual, single-pay life insurance and 9% as individual, multipay life insurance. The report is based on responses to A.M. Best's most recently completed industry Annual Life/Health Supplemental Rating Questionnaires.

BestWeek also provides an exclusive report on hearings hosted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that reviewed what lessons were learned from the first year of the public reporting overhaul tied to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The process wasn't cheap, said Jonathan Michael, president and chief executive officer of specialty insurer RLI Corp., which tallied costs of about $1.9 million related to compliance with 404, a requirement where companies' senior management attest to the adequacy of their internal controls and have their external auditors sign off on those reports.

"Post-Sarbanes-Oxley, independent directors are required to work harder and take on more liability," Michael said. "As a result of that, you have to pay them more and you have to have more of them--more directors and more meetings. It's not an enviable job anymore."

BestWeek is published by A.M. Best for insurance professionals, including home office executives, agents and brokers.

Other content found exclusively in BestWeek:

--Why insurance and reinsurance veteran Andy Barile's long-forgotten textbook on finite reinsurance is hot again--being bid upon in some circles for as much as $400.

--How fine art collections are becoming a favored investment among corporations and other institutions, and why that's good news for insurers such as Lloyd's underwriter Hiscox plc.

--What a veritable invasion of small-town insurance agents from across the United States hoped to accomplish when they visited the nation's capital last week.

To subscribe to BestWeek, please call A.M. Best's customer service department at [phone], ext. 5742, or e-mail your request to [e-mail].

A.M. Best Co., established in 1899, is the world's oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit A.M. Best's Web site at http://www.ambest.com.