Property-casualty insurers reported an awesome year for 2006, with the industry-wide combined ratio coming in at a stellar 92.4 (the best result since at least 1959), fueling a 44 percent jump in net income to $63.7 billion. Normally, that would be good news, but carriers are doomed to take a hammering from critics for making too much money! Are insurers price-gouging the public? That's the question industry leaders will face.

(To read Managing Editor Susanne Sclafane's news story about industry-wide results, click here.)

In an interview with Su, she recorded some interesting comments from Michael R. Murray, assistant vice president for financial analysis at the Insurance Services Office, who challenged the conventional wisdom that a lack of catastrophes compared to the record losses of 2004 and 2005 was the factor driving profits higher. Indeed, he said, 2006 was mischaracterized as a mild year for cat losses, when in fact it was average.