Life is good for Canadian insurers.A strong economy, buoyant Buoyant The term used to describe a commodities market where the prices generally rise with ease when there are considerable signals of strength. Notes: These types of markets can be very volatile as the prices are rapid to rise and fall with investor sentiment. equity markets and scant scant adj. scant·er, scant·est 1. Barely sufficient: paid scant attention to the lecture. 2. Falling short of a specific measure: a scant cup of sugar. credit woes add up to a reassuring re·as·sure tr.v. re·as·sured, re·as·sur·ing, re·as·sures 1. To restore confidence to. 2. To assure again. 3. To reinsure. stability for Canada's life insurance market. Major life insurers enjoy solid balance sheets and, at times, double-digit growth in earnings. An ongoing focus on enterprise risk management reinforces these trends. Currently, all Canadian life insurers rated by A.M. Best are in the "Secure" category. A.M. Best expects the Canadian life insurance entities rated by A.M. Best to continue to report strong capitalization capitalization n. 1) the act of counting anticipated earnings and expenses as capital assets (property, equipment, fixtures) for accounting purposes. 2) the amount of anticipated net earnings which hypothetically can be used for conversion into capital assets. , post solid earnings and improve on their enterprise risk management (ERM (Enterprise Relationship Management) An umbrella term with many shades of meaning over the years. It may refer to the management of information from any or all of an organization's customers, suppliers, business partners and employees. ). The current volatility in global markets will prove to be a good test for the efficacy of improvements made in ERM programs in recent years, and it will offer opportunities for those companies to discover any weaknesses in assumptions and capitalize on Cap´i`tal`ize on` v. t. 1. To turn (an opportunity) to one's advantage; to take advantage of (a situation); to profit from; as, to capitalize on an opponent's mistakes s>. market opportunities that may develop. A.M. Best expects ratings to remain stable. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] 2006 Canadian Life Industry Investments Bonds & Debentures 63% Other Equity Investments Less than 1% Preferred Shares Less than 1% Other Loans and Invested Assets 2% Real Estate 4% Short Term Investments 5% Common Shares 8% Mortgage Loans 18% Source: A.M. Best consolidated data; excluding Canadian branches. Note: Table made from pie chart. |
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