Earlier this year, Australia and New Zealand faced an onslaught of natural disasters that put strain on the two nation’s top insurer: Suncorp. Several estimates have been made as to how much the disasters cost the company, but Suncorp had not released any official statement regarding the issue. Yesterday, however, their silence was broken as the company hopes to improve its relationship with several reinsurance company in an effort to increase its profits for the 2011-12 fiscal year. According to Suncorp, the two devastating earthquakes that rocked New Zealand –…
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2011 turning out to be one of the industry’s hardest hits
The frequency of calamitous events so far this year has insurance companies all over the nation and bracing themselves for massive losses. With destructive weather wreaking havoc throughout the Southeast and Central U.S., many insurers have already faced $10 billion in losses due to natural disasters. According to EQECAT Inc., a disaster and risk modeling firm, the national average in weather-related losses is $4 billion. Insurers can expect to see higher than average losses as an unusually active hurricane season begins soon. Disasters overseas are likely to have an effect…
Read MoreChecking the insurance market temperature
A recent survey shows that first quarter property and casualty (commercial) rates have fallen another three percent, on average, for most renewals and small to medium business renewals. Most experts believe that it’s still too early to tell if this is due to the disasters in Japan and other countries earlier this year, or if there is another market influence taking place. The slowdown in decreasing rates may be an indicator that prices will start to level off. There have been some slight increases, more noticeable in larger businesses, commercial…
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