P-C Net Income Could Be Negative For 2001

Following the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, the property-casualty insurance industry is faced with responding to the largest insured catastrophic event in history. While underwriting results in 2001 were not previously showing signs of material improvement relative to the prior year, losses related to the attack will turn 2001 into one of the worst, if not ultimately the single worst underwriting period in industry annals.

Such horrific results, however, will likely set the stage for a sharp hardening of the commercial property/casualty market in 2002. This hard market will further differentiate the "winners" from the "losers" in an environment characterized by further flights to quality, which will dampen the ability of weaker insurers to respond to a very favorable pricing environment while grappling with higher reinsurance costs and sharp declines in reinsurance capacity.

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.