Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, led by the group's auto-insurance subsidiary Geico, leapt over Allstate in 2012 to become the second-largest P&C insurance group based on net premiums written, according to data from SNL Financial.

Lists of the Top 100 insurance groups and insurance companies, based on total net premiums written, will be published in the July edition of PropertyCasualty360-National Underwriter magazine.

The Berkshire group saw a 2012 increase in NPW of 12.1 percent—the largest such growth in the Top 20 P&C insurance groups. Berkshire's NPW was about $27.25 billion.

Allstate slipped to No. 3, with NPW of about $25.58 billion, which is still a 1.4 percent increase over 2011.

State Farm by leaps and bounds retained its title as the largest P&C group in 2012, with nearly $53 billion in NPW.

Of the Berkshire companies contributing to the rise in the ranking is Geico, which maintained its position as the fifth-largest individual P&C insurance company while increasing NPW 4.6 percent. Meanwhile, Berkshire's National Indemnity Co. increased NPW more than 38 percent to jump four spots to No. 7 among ranked insurance companies.

Geico Casualty Co. receives the award for the biggest jump among individual insurance companies. The Berkshire subsidiary was off the list at 114 in 2011 but appears in the 60th spot in 2012 after more than doubling NPW to about $1.38 billion.

It can only be assumed that Berkshire's share of the marketplace among insurance groups will grow with the formation of Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, headed by a group of well-known executives formerly of AIG. Days ago Buffett officially announced the launch of new commercial E&S unit BHSI, which will write property, casualty, professional and executive liability insurance and programs in the U.S.

Peter Eastwood will lead the new unit as its president. Eastwood recently defected from AIG with fellow executives David Bresnahan, Sanjay Godhwani and David Fields to join Buffett's Berkshire.

Policies will be underwritten on the non-admitted paper of Berkshire's National Fire & Marine Insurance Co. BHSI also has access to National Indemnity, an admitted Berkshire subsidiary, when needed.

Special Reports /

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Jumps Over Allstate as No. 2 Insurer

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