Liam McGee is chairman, president and CEO ofThe Hartford. He is also lucky to be alive.

After it was discovered during a routine checkup that McGee hada brain tumor and underwent surgery over the holidays to remove it,the Hartford's top executive has returned to work and is eager tocontinue the carrier's shift in focus to its P&Cbusiness.

“I feel very lucky and blessed,” he tells PC360-NU. “Itwas a miracle to discover this so early and small. I was back atwork a short time later and have been doing great.”

The outlook for his company's vital signs is similarly positive.Just one year ago, after some very public pressure from hedge-fundmanager and Hartford shareholder John Paulson, the insurerannounced it would forego its Life side in an effort to rejuvenateshareholder value. It stopped selling annuities and took a relatedafter-tax charge of between $15 and $20 million in Q2 2012. LastSeptember, Prudential Financial Inc. agreed to pay $615 million incash to acquire the carrier's life-insurance business.

With that sale complete, McGee enthuses, “we are focused on theProperty and Casualty sector and making investments to profitablygrow the business. We're pleased with the rapid progress we aremaking.”

With the Hartford's long-term goal of moving itsProperty premiums from about 10 percent of its middle-marketcommercial book to closer to 20 percent over time, hesays, the Property team has made strides to set the foundationfor this change. In 2012, new-business writings in Property were upnearly 28 percent, he notes, and the total combined ratio for thatline was down more than 14 points.

That progress, he adds, is due in no small part to the work ofDavid Carter, senior vice president and head of its commercialproperty practice, under whose direction the Hartford has refinedits Property underwriting approach—in part through enhancedProperty-underwriting tools and increased underwriting technicaland sales training, as well as establishing a centralized Propertyteam to provide technical expertise.

Which is not to say that the P&C business is a sure betthese days either, particularly when it comes to cat-exposedproperty. One could suggest that “100-year storms” can no longertruly be viewed that way, in terms of how underwriters mustapproach certain Property risks.

Still, even after a major-loss event like Superstorm Sandy,McGee says, “we continue to operate with a disciplined andconsistent underwriting approach to risk for cat perils, and havenot made any adjustments to our underwriting appetite and riskselection as a result of Sandy losses. In fact, the outcomesrealized from Sandy have reaffirmed that our underwriting andrisk-selection practices remain sound.”