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 loss events 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 SNLFinancial, the average combined ratio among the top 100 insurancegroups fell year-over-year to a respectable 96.64—a 6.37improvement over last year's numbers. Among the biggest gainers inthe top 10 companies: Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., whose combined ratiofell more than 18 points to 102.20; State Farm Fire & CasualtyCo., which improved more than 14 points to 90.57; and Chubb-ownedFederal Insurance Co., which boasted a combined ratio of 82.70after a 12.88-point improvement year-over-year.

In group results, all boasted better combined ratios (at anaverage of 6.37 points among the top 100 and 5.59 among the top10), but it was AIG—which some would argue had the biggest room forimprovement among the most successful groups in the top 10—thatdisplayed the best showing among the biggest players, shaving off16.15 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 100groups.

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. took theNo. 6 to No. 8 spots.

Click through to the next page to see the Top 100 lists, rankedby net premiums written.