CNA's CFO To Step Down; Insurer Q1 Profit Down

In a statement, he explained that his job, and his commute to work, has been taking a toll on his family life. "My family life has suffered under the demands of my job, especially since I commute between my home in Hartford, Conn., and my office in Chicago," Mr. Deutsch commented. CNA said it has already begun searching for Mr. Deutsch's replacement.

The insurer also announced its first-quarter results this week, posting a net loss of $125 million, compared with net income of $83 million during the corresponding period in 2003. The company said its quarterly net earnings result was hurt by impairment loss of $406 million related to the pending sale of CNA's individual life insurance business to Swiss Re Life & Health America.

The company's underwriting results, however, in property-casualty operations?and income before net realized investment losses?did show improvements. CNA reported its p-c operations' net written premiums for the quarter rose to $1.846 billion, from $1.749 billion one year earlier. In the overall net written premiums for the quarter, standard lines contributed $1.265 billion, while specialty lines added $581 million. CNA's income before net realized investment losses came in at $208 million for the quarter, up from $132 million one year earlier.

CNA's standard lines include standard p-c coverage sold to small and middle-market commercial businesses, through an independent agency distribution system, and excess and surplus lines, as well as insurance and risk management products sold to large corporations.

The company's specialty lines provide various professional, financial and specialty p-c products and services.

Total p-c operations' combined ratio also improved for the quarter, to 96.8 from 104.0 one year ago. Both standard lines and specialty lines saw their combined ratios take a turn for the better. Standard lines' combined ratio for the quarter was 99.7, down from 107.2 one year earlier, while the specialty lines combined ratio was reported at 89.9, compared with 95.0 one year ago.

Commenting on the results, Steve Lilienthal, chief executive officer of the CNA insurance companies, said he was pleased with the underlying performance of CNA's core p-c operations.

"The net loss for the quarter is associated with the accounting for the sale of our life business," Mr. Lilienthal commented. "The impact of the sale was previously disclosed–a GAAP impairment loss, additional statutory capital, and a sharpening of CNA's focus on our core property and casualty businesses."