With the economy flat-lining, interest rates stuck at zero and no dramatic turnaround in sight, property and casualty insurers are between a rock and a hard place. How can they keep their bottom lines in the black with their top lines so starved for revenue? Are there enough premium dollars to go around, or will some fall by the wayside via mergers and acquisitions?

Those were the conundrums cited most often during private chats I had at the industry's annual family reunion earlier this month, with insurer CEOs and outside analysts at a loss to find much opportunity for organic growth.

Both panels at the annual P&C Insurance Joint Industry Forum in New York were dominated by gloomy prognostications about the industry's financial prospects, and not just for this year. Indeed, “it will be a pretty stagnant market for the foreseeable future,” according to one panelist–Joe Guastella, a principal and global insurance leader at Deloitte, echoing many others at the Forum. “Even in 2011, you can expect very moderate growth,” he warned.

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