Despite unsteady market, insurance companies hold their ground

Insurance companies have been taking action to solidify their cash reserves since the start of the economic crisis, and have been working to decrease the number of high-risk investments within their investment portfolios, for example collateralized debt obligations. According to life insurance analyst Steven Schwartz, from Raymond James & Associates Inc., if they are not capable of borrowing money, holding companies are keeping notably more cash in order to cover their debts. In fact, they are currently holding twice to three times the amount that had been held in past…

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S&P’s downgrade could impact the nation’s insurance industry

Recently, Standard & Poor’s (S&P), a major financial research and analysis company based in the U.S., downgraded the U.S. government debt. The firm now classifies the nation’s finances as having a “negative” outlook. S&P’s actions have spurred the nation’s insurance and finance companies to take another look at their practices and portfolios, keen to spot any compliance violations spawned from the downgrade. The search for such violations has been slow going so far, as the U.S.’ long-term ratings have never before been downgraded. The downgrade has left many major insurance…

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