Americans for Insurance Reform
Here are the latest stats on the state of the property and casualty industry as analyzed by Americans for Insurance Reform, a consumer group.
Some highlights:
* "The U.S. property/casualty industry's underwriting profit for the first half of 2006 was $15.1 billion - 31.8 percent higher than the first six months of 2005 which were already record-breaking."
* "[A]ccording to the third-quarter Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers survey of market conditions, commercial insurance rates are now dropping significantly across the country, irrespective of enactment of “'tort reform.'”
* “'It now appears clear that the industry’s record profits in 2004 and 2005, and the exceptional record profit about to be reported for 2006, are due in large part to the years of huge rate hikes in the earlier part of the decade, which were not caused by any accompanying increase in claims or payouts. In fact, inflation-adjusted payouts and claims never increased at all during this period. Rather, this is all part of a well-documented cyclical phenomenon for the property/casualty insurance industry.'”