E&S/Specialty

The Chubb Corp. says 2011 first quarter net income increased 10 percent over the prior year despite the impact of $270 million from global catastrophe claims.

It may have seemed like horrible timing when Susan Rivera was starting up a program business-focused MGA in late 2009, but there were several advantages to launching in the wake of a global financial crisis and about six years into a soft property and casualty insurance market, she says.

Frederick H. Eppinger, chief executive officer of The Hanover, says he certainly won’t apologize for good timing, but the recent bid to acquire Chaucer Holdings was not driven by the state of the Lloyd’s market.

First quarter renewals are no indicator of the direction the airline insurance market will take in 2011 due to the limited number of airlines renewing their insurance programs, an insurance broker’s report says.

In a move that spans the Atlantic, Hanover Insurance Group has made an offer to buy London-based Chaucer Holdings for $510 million.

Insurance-industry lawyers are calling a global-warming lawsuit based on nuisance laws “the most significant case for the property and casualty insurance industry before the U.S. Supreme Court this term.”

Though the credit crisis has waned, securities suits filed during first-quarter 2011 appear to point to another record year, says Advisen.

While private U.S. property and casualty insurers’ 2010 net income rose to $34.7 billion from $28.7 billion the year before, the industry’s net losses on underwriting for the year grew $7.4 billion compared to 2009.