Former hedge fund manager, Warren Buffett, who is known for turning Berkshire Hathaway Inc. into a company worth $195 billion through the leveraging of insurance premiums, has announced that his staple new revenue source is rapidly shrinking. The insurance units for Berkshire, which are in sectors covering everything from healthcare for asbestos exposure to auto plans, has dried up to the degree that it is no longer providing adequate investment funds as either float or accumulated premiums. According to a letter released by Buffet, as of December 31, 2011, the…
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LPL Financial research identifies new opportunity for retail financial companies
The largest independent broker-dealer in the United States, LPL Financial LLC, which is an LPL Investment Holdings Inc. wholly owned subsidiary, has recently revealed a number of the main findings it has discovered through a co-sponsored study which looked into the role played by insurance and investment services customers among retail financial organizations. The study was entitled “The Value of an Investment and Insurance Customer to a Bank”. It was performed by Christine Kehrer, Kenneth Kehrer, and Peter Bielan, with the co-sponsorship of LPL Financial. Among the primary findings that…
Read MoreGlobal 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 MoreStates hardest hit by tornados in the U.S
The tornadoes that struck the South and Midwest American states this week, leaving 13 people dead and injuring many others, have drawn attention to the risk of twisters once again, following closely on the heels of 2011’s record breaking year for those and other severe weather events. Last year was the deadliest storm season in over three quarters of a century, and thunderstorms and tornadoes brought about approximately $25 billion in uninsured losses. Though the data regarding which states were struck most by tornadoes last year has yet to be…
Read MoreState 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…
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