Claims News Service, Dec. 15, 9:42 a.m. EST -- A study recently released by the Insurance Research Council finds that the public greatly overestimates the profitability of the homeowners' insurance market.

According to the study, most Americans believe that homeowners' insurers earn an average of $33 in profit for every $100 received in premiums. In reality, from 1995 through 2004, insurers averaged an underwriting loss of $9 per year for every $100 received in premiums.

Only recently has the market broken even or better. In 2003, insurers' profits equaled zero. In 2004, the homeowners' market moved into the black, with insurers earning between one and nine dollars in profit.

Recommended For You

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

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