Only 40 per cent of top P&C underwriters made profit since 2011
Of the top 100 US P&C insurers, just 40 per cent reported an underwriting profit in the past five accident years due to a challenging operating environment according to a new report.
“US insurers are facing an increasingly complex set of issues and significant disruption that requires them to innovate across their business to achieve profitable growth,” said Tim Gardner, CEO of
Guy Carpenter’s US Operations.
Personal and commercial auto were among the worst performers while insurers found better opportunities for profit from general liability lines, special property and products liability.
Gardner says that the tight margins for many lines will be reflected in increased premiums as investments are not offsetting losses due to low yields.
The report also demonstrated that in 2014 and 2015, the gap in loss ratio performance between the best and worst underwriters widened.
Humania launches new platform
One of Canada’s oldest insurance firms has launched what it says is “the most advanced underwriting platform” in the country.
Humania Assurance’s HuGo enables insurance advisors to offer $1 million of high quality life term insurance in 15 minutes due to its use of predictive analytics to assess risk and make decisions instantaneously on around 65 per cent of applications.
"The insurance offering on its own, would have been interesting and competitive, with HuGO, it is exceptional,” said Richard Gagnon, President and CEO.
Humania says that the platform is able to deal with more complex cases as it assesses the individual’s risk profile rather than simply an age and amount chart.
Analyze Re acquired by Verisk
Analyze Re, which provides specialist analytics software to the insurance and reinsurance sectors, has been acquired by Verisk Inc. and will become part of AIR Worldwide.
“Clients are increasingly looking to track and reduce portfolio risk in real-time,” said Bill Churney, president of AIR Worldwide. “Analyze Re’s advanced analytics will complement our existing software solutions, enabling companies to manage their enterprise view of risk and perform multi-modeling and portfolio optimization, all within a single environment.”
Analyze is a relatively new business, founded in 2013. No details of the deal have been given.
