One might say it's nice to be reminded of what the P&Cinsurance industry's Top 100 looks like in a world with fewercatastrophes.

With no major catastrophes in 2013, insurers had a comparativelyeasier time of making hay while the sun shone—and the favorablemovement reflected both in combined ratio and overall net premiumswritten is significant, marking a positive turn for many carriersand groups.

In NU's annual rankings, based on data from SNL Financial, theaverage combined ratio among the top 100 insurance groups fellyear-over-year to a respectable 96.64—a 6.37 improvement over lastyear's numbers. Among the biggest gainers in the top 10 companies:Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., whose combined ratio fell more than 18points to 102.20; State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., whichimproved more than 14 points to 90.57; and Chubb-owned FederalInsurance Co., which boasted a combined ratio of 82.70 after a12.88-point improvement year-over-year.

In group results, all boasted better combined ratios (at anaverage of 6.37 points of improvement among the top 100 and 5.59among the top 10), but it was AIG—which some would argue had thebiggest room for improvement among the most successful groups inthe top 10—that saw the greatest improvement among the biggestplayers, shaving off 16.15 points to a more competitive 101.27.

Yet, as insurers performed better in the past year in terms ofresults, there was little movement in the rankings of the top 10companies or groups by net premiums written.

The top 100 groups showed average growth in NPW of 4.3%, to atotal of $422.4 billion; that average growth drops to 3.7% amongthe top 5 groups (State Farm, Berkshire Hathaway, Allstate, LibertyMutual and Travelers, respectively), which still represent asizable portion (roughly 37%) of the NPW among the top 100insurance groups.

State Farm's $55.4 billion in NPW, which is up 4.6% compared to2012, still far outpaces the competition. Second-place BerkshireHathaway reports $28.4 billion, a 4.1% gain, while Allstate inthird grew NPW by 3.6% to $26.5 billion.

The top 10 groups were largely unchanged from 2012; USAAInsurance Group and Farmers Insurance Group of Companies switchedspots at the bottom of the top 10, with USAA taking over No. 9 andFarmers dropping to No. 10. After the previously mentioned top 5groups, AIG, Nationwide Mutual Group and Progressive Corp. filledin the 6-8 spots.

San Diego-based ICW Group ranks the highest in our list of netpremium growth Leaders, with 40.1% growth year over year among thetop 100 insurance groups and has moved up the list from No. 100 toNo. 97. Its gains are attributable to aggressive efforts inworkers' comp risk mitigation and leveraging its technologyinvestment via its underwriting management system and agent portal,Snap, which has allowed it greater speed and efficiency in viewing,quoting and binding policies.

Private mortgage insurance company Radian Group saw sometraction in the top 100 groups list, moving up from No. 78 to No.68 (a jump in the top 100 groups list mirrored only by California'sState Compensation Insurance Fund, which also moved up 10 spots toNo. 60). Radian wrote 27% more new mortgage insurance business in2013 versus 2012 ($47 billion vs $37 billion), expanding itscustomer base—particularly among small/midsized lenders, communitybanks and credit unions—and recapturing market share from theFederal Housing Administration, which offers government-backedmortgage insurance.

Another big gainer: Starr International Co., which exhibited 36%growth in NPW and moved up the list from No. 87 to No. 72 thanks toits broad and diverse product portfolio, continued recruitment ofindustry talent, and office expansion, both in the U.S. andinternationally.

For company rankings, State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins.continues to lead the pack at $35.2 billion in NPW, followed byAllstate Insurance Co. at $25.1 billion, State Farm Fire &Casualty Co. at $15.3 billion and Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.$14.6 billion. That top four is unchanged from 2012. Liberty MutualInsurance Co. placed No. 5, switching places with GovernmentEmployees Ins. Co., which dropped to No. 6.

Farmers Insurance Exchange moved from No. 8 in 2012 to No. 7 in2013. Chubb's Federal Insurance Co. also gained a spot to rank No.8, as did CNA Financial Corp.'s Continental Casualty company, whichimproved to No. 9.

USAA's United Services Automobile broke into the top 10, movingup a spot from No. 11 to No. 10. Berkshire Hathaway's NationalIndemnity was the only company to fall out of the top 10, droppingseven spots to place No. 14 in 2013.

The top movers on the company list include two Liberty Mutualsubsidiaries, Peerless Ins. Co. (which moved up the list from No.33 to No. 12), and Employers Ins. Co. of Wausau (Wisc.), whichmoved up to No. 38 from No. 75. This can be attributed to LibertyMutual's termination of the longstanding Peerless Insurance Pool,after which the pool's participants were added to the Liberty Pool,led by Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. Under the terms of the pooling agreement, effective Jan. 1. 2013, Peerless Ins. Co.and Employers Ins. Co. of Wausau (Wisc.) receive poolingpercentages of 20% and 8%, respectively, driving the companies'changes in rank year over year.

Berkley Insurance Co. moved up a no-less-impressive 32 slots toNo. 13 from No. 45, due in part to a large intercompany poolingarrangement introduced back on Jan. 1, 2013 in which previousinsurer groups including Berkley Insurance Group, Berkley RegionalGroup, Admiral Group and Nautilus Group were collapsed andessentially all of Berkley's U.S. subsidiaries were combined intoone large pool.

NEXT: Check out NU's Top 100 charts in full,starting here.

Note: The Top 100 groups areranked based on net premiums written only for U.S.-based parentcompanies and their U.S.-domiciled subsidiaries. Premiums writtenby subsidiaries based outside the U.S. are not included in the netpremiums written totals.