1st Quarter Cat Losses Total $1.38B

U.S. property-casualty insurers are expected to pay an estimated $1.38 billion in insured property losses from seven catastrophe events in the first three months of the year, according to a preliminary analysis by Property Claim Services.

PCS, a unit of Jersey City, N.J.-based Insurance Services Office, also estimated that the first-quarter catastrophes produced nearly 390,000 claims in 19 states.

Personal property lines claims accounted for 53 percent of the total, with 12 percent for commercial lines claims and 35 percent for personal and commercial auto claims. The large number of vehicle claims stemmed from hail and tornado damage.

The costliest event during the period was an outbreak of severe weather across six states from Kansas to Indiana. The insured damage, PCS said, was slightly more than $800 million, and the claims count is in excess of 222,000.

Among the states, Missouri accounted for the largest insured loss, estimated at $475 million, followed by Kansas at $113 million, Arkansas at $108 million, New York at $103 million and Illinois at $100 million.

Three winter storms and four wind and thunderstorm events constituted the quarter's seven catastrophes--slightly above the average of six events during the past decade.

Since 1997, 25 winter storm catastrophes in the first quarter have caused over $6 billion of insured property damage, PCS said. During the same period, severe weather outbreaks--wind, hail, tornadoes and flooding--produced 35 catastrophe events with $6.5 billion in estimated insured property damage.

The $1.38 billion figure represents the second largest first-quarter catastrophe insured loss total in 10 years, surpassed only by last year's comparable $2.14 billion figure.

Allstate Chairman Edward Liddy this week attributed his company's 34 percent decline in catastrophe losses compared to the same 2005 period as one of the top factors leading to the carrier's overall 26 percent increase in net income over the same periods.