Being the best of the best is something every company wants toachieve. Ward's Group, a consulting group for insurance companiesrecently released its list of the best of the best property andcasualty insurers in its Ward's 50 list for 2012.

Ward's analyzed the financial performance of 3,000 P&Cinsurers domiciled in the United States and identified the top 50performers in terms of safety and consistency screens and achievedsuperior performance over the five years analyzed. The groupproduced statutory return on average equity for a five year periodending 2011 was more than five points better than the total P&Cinsurance industry during that period.

Comparisons are based on benchmarks set by the Ward's 50 groupof companies and areavailable for individual companies and the total industry.

Click on to see the list of Ward's 50 top performers (listedalphabetically) to see what makes these companies unique, includingthe three companies that have achieved this honor for 22-years in arow.

This is the 22nd year Ward Group has conducted its analysis. TheWard's 50 P&C group of insurance companies produced an 11.2percent statutory return on average equity from 2007 to 2011compared to 5.9 percent for the P&C industry overall.

Explains Jeff Rieder, partner and head of Ward Group, “Financialreturns for insurers declined in 2011 due to many factors includingsevere catastrophes, competitive pricing, low interest rates, highunemployment and sluggish economic growth.”

“Although results declined in nearly every sector of theindustry, policyholder surplus and overall financial stability forthe industry remains very strong. Companies are investing in newsystems, improving internal processes and focusing on developingnew capabilities to meet customer demands,” says Rieder.

“In selecting the Ward's 50, we identify companies that passfinancial stability requirements and measure their ability to growwhile maintaining strong capital positions and underwritingresults,” observes Rieder

Safety and Consistency

Insurance companies are evaluated and must pass minimumthresholds to be considered for the Ward's 50 designation. Eachcompany must pass primary safety and consistency tests,including:

• Surplus and premiums of at least $50 million for each of the 5years analyzed.

• Net income in at least 4 of the last 5 years.

• Compound annual growth in premiums between negative 10 percentand 40 percent.

Performance Measurements

Companies that pass the safety and consistency tests aremeasured and scored on the following elements:

• Five Year Avg. Return on Avg. Equity

• Five Year Avg. Return on Avg. Assets

• Five Year Avg. Return on Total Revenue.

• Five Year Growth in Revenue

• Five Year Improvement in Surplus to Written Premium

• Five Year Avg. Combined Ratio

Key Performance Benchmarks

An important objective of the Ward's 50 is to compare theirperformance as a group with the rest of the industry. In additionto achieving greater levels of income returns, the Ward's 50benchmarks also outperformed in other key performance benchmarks.[RLI is one of three recipients of the Ward's 50 honor for 22-yearsin row.]

The Ward's 50 property-casualty group compared 10 points lowerfor the five year combined ratio (92.8 compared to 102.8) and grewpolicyholder surplus by 26.4 percent compared to 8.6 percent forthe industry since 2007.

Net premiums written for the Ward's 50 property-casualty groupgrew 11.8 percent compared to the industry's 2.1 percentgrowth.

In addition to achieving higher financial returns, the Ward's 50benchmark continues to achieve lower expense ratios.

“The expense ratio has been declining slowly for insurers butstill remains higher than historical levels. Our research finds theWard's 50 benchmarks gain significant advantages by effectivelymanaging expenses,” says Mr. Rieder. [GEICO and USAA Group havereceived the Ward's 50 honor for 22-years in a row.]

In 2011, expenses relative to revenue were 7.3 percent lower forthe Ward's 50 P&C group of companies.