Zurich Financial Services Group has released its estimates regarding the Farmers Re and Zurich North America losses resulting from the $295 million in aggregate claims as a result of April and May’s severe weather events in the United States.
The data represents only the net of reassurance estimate before tax, but this will be included into the mid-year results which will be released on August 11.
The losses from April and May are related mainly to the American Southeast and Midwest regions where there were a large number of hail storms, tornadoes, and other severe and damaging weather.
Zurich Commercial and Global Corporate business have estimated that the amount of the losses within North America alone is $200 million. Zurich’s Farmers Re business losses was estimated to be about $95 million, which indicates the reinsurance cover for the Farmer’s Exchanges, which Farmers Group, Inc. does manages, though it does not own them. Farmers Group, Inc., itself, is a subsidiary of Zurich, and which is wholly owned by it.
It is estimated by the Exchanges that the losses from the extreme weather events will be approximately $400 million, net of tax and reinsurance, which is a notably lower loss than what has been seen in the overall insurance industry and is proportionate to their share of the market within the areas that was most significantly impacted by the April and May weather events.
Regardless of the losses Zurich has experienced, the Exchange still forecasts that the insurer will hold a solid surplus position.
