BestWeek: Katrina Haunts Reinsurance Renewals in Hurricane-Prone Areas.OLDWICK, N.J. -- With premium increases far outpacing rises in insured values, the July 1 reinsurance The contract made between an insurance company and a third party to protect the insurance company from losses. The contract provides for the third party to pay for the loss sustained by the insurance company when the company makes a payment on the original contract. renewals have not been kind to buyers with exposures in the hurricane-prone areas of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , according to a story in the July 24 BestWeek. Oliver Schofield, leader of broker Aon's global property practice, estimated that values in this region have risen by about 11%, while premiums have gone up by 57%. This effectively translates into a "fairly dramatic" rate increase of about 36%, Schofield said. Meanwhile, insurers, regulators, climatologists, catastrophe management personnel and others pondered how bad it will be when a strong hurricane strikes the Northeast -- emphasizing that "It's not a question of if, but when." The occasion was the Insurance Information Institute's inaugural Northeast Hurricane Conference on July 19 in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . BestWeek features a report on the gathering. Also featured in BestWeek is Best's Insurance Composite Index Composite Index A grouping of equities, indexes or other factors combined in a standardized way, providing a useful statistical measure of overall market or sector performance over time. Also known simply as a "composite". , which finished the week ending July 20, 2006 at 1,103.14, up 5.5% from a year ago. The composite index reflects the performance of 133 insurance stocks. The week's top performers were Meadowbrook Insurance Group Inc.; EMC (1) (EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA, www.emc.com) The leading supplier of storage products for midrange computers and mainframes. Founded in 1979 by Richard J. Egan and Roger Marino, EMC has developed advanced storage and retrieval technologies for the world's largest companies. Insurance Group Inc.; Kansas City Life Insurance Co.; Baldwin & Lyons Inc.; and United Fire & Casualty Co. The week's bottom performers were Citizens Financial Corp.; Kentucky Investors Inc.; First American Corp.; Republic Companies Group Inc.; and RTW (Release/Released To Web) A version of software that is ready to be sent, or has been sent, to a Web server for downloading by the public. See RTM. Inc. BestWeek is published by A.M. Best Co. for insurance professionals. To subscribe to BestWeek, please call A.M. Best's customer service department at (908) 439-2200, ext. 5742, or e-mail your request to customer_service@ambest.com. 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 www.ambest.com. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion