Tornadoes and storms in Oklahoma create difficult insurance marketplace for consumers and companies alike

The National Tornado Preparedness Summit in Oklahoma City – an event sponsored by the Oklahoma Insurance Department, the National Weather Center, and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners – is expected to draw almost 800 representatives from the insurance industry. According to the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Insurance vice president of public affairs, John Wiscaver, the harsh reality for the state is that throughout the last five years, the marketplace has faced the highest historic loss levels among all organization histories. He stated that earthquakes, hailstorms, tornadoes, and wildfires have all…

Read More

Eqecat weighs in on the recent storm in Midwest and Southern U.S

Last week’s outbreak of devastating tornadoes in the South and Midwest of the U.S. are likely to cost the insurance industry quite a lot of money. Thus far, no insurer has been keen to release estimates regarding the total cost of the disasters, but risk modeling agency Eqecat is willing to hazard a guess. The acclaimed modeling firm says that this year’s storm season is already looking to be 30% more disastrous and costly than the average of previous years. The firm also notes that tornadoes may be one of…

Read More

Global insurance programs have significant challenges to overcome if they want to be viable

The global insurance industry is an ardently regulated entity. Most nations have strict laws and rules concerning insurance and have a great deal of interest in applying these regulations as a way to govern the actions of insurance companies. The problem, however, is that these regulations differing wildly from country to country, meaning that no two countries have the same regulations. As such, creation of global insurance programs has been a gargantuan challenge, and one that cannot be easily overcome through tenacity. As with other industries of business, insurance is…

Read More

State Farm maintains stability regardless of record breaking 2011 storms

State Farm has announced that although they faced a significant number of payments for catastrophe claims from some of the largest events in the quarter century history of the company, it has been able to maintain its financial strength. In 2011, State Farm’s combined net worth fell by $0.4 billion by the end of the year, bringing it to $60.8 billion. This includes the drop by $0.2 billion in the insurance company’s net worth in connection with the unaffiliated stock portfolios of the property and casualty companies. Moreover, those figures…

Read More

American insurance industry feeling the pinch of weak investments and catastrophes

A new report released by A.M. Best Co. Inc., has stated that the unprecedented number of natural disasters, poor returns from investments, and an economy that continued to struggle in 2011, has made it exceptionally difficult for the American property and casualty insurance industry’s commercial insurance and reinsurance sectors to grow and has caused notable hurt to their operating performances. It’s estimated by the rating agency, based in Oldwick, New Jersey, that last year’s underwriting losses from underwriters in the commercial property and casualty sector were approximately $15.2 billion. This…

Read More