N22 | INSURANCE JOURNAL-NATIONAL REGION October 17, 2011 www.insurancejournal.com

Top Performing P/C Insurers

that resulted in billions of dollars of losses to insurers. This did not induce Mother Nature into taking a break from the storm activity, as additional losses are anticipated from the

defined the better part of the past decade as well as an increased number of cata-strophic events in the first half of 2011. In the United States, in the second quarter of 2011, there were more than 80 catastrophes

By Douglas A. Powell

Property/casualty insurance companies continued to serve their clients despite

the tough economic conditions that have

Top 25 P/C Insurers’ Direct Premium Growth Increases 11%, June 30, 2011 Versus June 30, 2010

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Top 25 Property/Casualty InsurersBased Upon Dollar Amount of Direct Premium Written (DPW) Growth Six Months Ending June 30, 2011 versus June 30, 2010 DPW Growth DPW DPW DPW $ DPW % Rank Company Name 6/30/2011 6/301/2010 Change Change

1 National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh 4,576,233,499 3,919,039,556 657,193,943 16.77%2 Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. 2,286,487,698 1,913,881,220 372,606,478 19.47%3 State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance Co. 15,260,030,311 14,973,967,978 286,062,333 1.91%4 Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance Co. 1,961,708,088 1,705,153,802 256,554,286 15.05%5 GEICO General Insurance Co. 3,073,772,459 2,833,955,400 239,817,059 8.46%6 Travelers Home & Marine Insurance Co. 1,333,345,371 1,116,640,122 216,705,249 19.41%7 Westchester Fire Insurance Co. 213,937,910 -51,315 213,989,225 N/A8 Fidelity & Guaranty Insurance Underwriters 196,615,433 2,245,539 194,369,894 8655.82%9 Starr Indemnity & Liability Co. 368,472,634 200,931,403 167,541,231 83.38%10 American Agri Business Insurance Co. 552,152,411 385,415,582 166,736,829 43.26%11 Commerce & Industry Insurance Co. 595,013,771 429,143,003 165,870,768 38.65%12 GEICO Indemnity Co. 2,061,074,963 1,904,316,820 156,758,143 8.23%13 Travelers Property Casualty Co. 1,967,881,387 1,815,437,362 152,444,025 8.40%14 NAU Country Insurance Co. 409,977,289 280,231,624 129,745,665 46.30%15 21st Century Centennial Insurance Co. 275,399,984 155,214,118 120,185,866 77.43%16 Garrison Property and Casualty Insurance Co. 341,918,669 231,224,604 110,694,065 47.87%17 Zurich American Insurance Co. of IL 131,718,638 25,393,920 106,324,718 418.70%18 Government Employees Insurance Co. 2,183,506,521 2,083,176,282 100,330,239 4.82%19 USAA General Indemnity Co. 500,876,551 401,259,991 99,616,560 24.83%20 Continental Casualty Co. 2,097,601,077 1,998,863,579 98,737,498 4.94%21 Producers Agriculture Insurance Co. 217,733,336 120,419,382 97,313,954 80.81%22 United Serv Automobile Association 2,954,026,958 2,857,864,629 96,162,329 3.36%23 Great American Insurance Co. 575,701,974 480,497,645 95,204,329 19.81%24 American Zurich Insurance Co. 502,792,615 410,051,759 92,740,856 22.62%25 Travelers Casualty Insurance Co. of America 391,757,649 299,419,031 92,338,618 30.84% Top 25 Companies Based on DPW Growth 45,029,737,196 40,543,693,036 4,486,044,160 11.06% All Other Companies 199,450,849,653 198,211,850,360 1,238,999,293 0.63% Total 244,480,586,849 238,755,543,396 5,725,043,453 2.40%

Data Source: The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., by permission. Information derived from a Highline Data Product. The NAIC and Highline Data do not endorse any analysis or conclusion based on the use of its data.

N24 | INSURANCE JOURNAL-NATIONAL REGION October 17, 2011 www.insurancejournal.com

Top Performing P/C Insurersters, the Top 25 have consistently written more than 20 percent of the industry’s direct premium written. In contrast, the more than 2,500 insurers that comprise the remainder of the indus-try did not fare as well, as their six month direct written premium increased a mere 0.6 percent, or $1.2 billion, over last year. In total, direct premium written for the P/C industry was up more than $5.7 billion. This should be seen as good news and could be a precursor of how 2011 will end. The last time the P/C industry increased direct premium written over the first half of the prior year was 2007. This was also the last year in which direct premium written increased year over year. It was noted during the first quarter that the growth in direct premium written period over period was not a result of rate increases due to disasters, since the disasters occurred after the financial results were reported. If companies increased their rates prior to these disasters, it was anticipated at that time that direct written premium would increase period over period for subse-quent reporting periods as a result of further rate increases relating to the catastrophic weather events. Any rate increases resulting from these catastrophic events should take effect in the coming reporting periods and increase the period over period results for direct pre-mium written. Moreover, as the June 30, 2011 results for direct premium written imply, the pric-ing cycle may have reached its bottom and firmer prices could become more evident in the following quarters. This might continue to assist all participants in the P/C insurance industry report period-to-period premium growth.

Powell is a senior financial analyst with Demotech Inc. Founded in 1985, Demotech is a Columbus, Ohio-based financial analysis firm that provides services to regional insurance companies, title underwriters and specialty insurance markets. Demotech has been assigning Financial Stability Ratings® (FSRs) to these markets since 1992. FSRs of A or better are accepted by the secondary mortgage marketplace, as well as virtually all mortgage lenders, an increasing number of umbrella insurance markets and some writers of insurance agents errors and omissions insurance. Web site: www.demotech.com.

more than 11 percent over the six months ending June 30, 2011, an increase of approxi-mately $4.5 billion in premium. This is an impressive display of growth, financial stability and leveraging of experi-ence by the Top 25 carriers. The Top 25 wrote over 18 percent of the P/C insurance industry’s direct written premium in the first half of 2011. However, in previous quar-

catastrophes that occurred during the third quarter of 2011. Despite these catastrophic occurrences and the overall economic uncertainty, for the six months ending June 30, 2011, P/C companies comprising the Top 25 writers of P/C insurance in terms of direct premium growth leveraged their experience and increased their direct premium written

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Top 25, continued from page N22

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