Major Insurers Don’t Make Ward Group’s Top 50 List

The companies, which are listed alphabetically, produce a 13.8 percent return on average equity from 2006 to 2010. By comparison, the P&C industry average is 8.7 percent.

"The property and casualty industry has demonstrated the ability to manage the business very well during slow economic growth," says a spokesperson from the Ward Group. "While various sectors within the industry have been affected differently, it is important for companies to continue to focus on the fundamentals of maintaining profitable operations and make wise decisions to meet customer needs.

"In selecting the Ward's 50, we identify companies that pass financial-stability requirements and measure their ability to grow while maintaining strong capital positions and underwriting results."

Other performance benchmarks Ward's 50 companies displayed:

• The group's combined ratio was 9.4 points lower than the industry average—90.2 for Ward's 50 compared to 99.6 for the industry.
• Policyholder surplus grew 28.6 percent for Ward's 50 companies compared to 16.2 percent for the industry since 2006.
• Net premiums written for the Ward's 50 companies grew 0.9 percent compared to the industry's 2.5 percent decline.
• Expense ratio for the Ward's 50 was 8.3 percent lower than the rest of industry in 2010.

When asked about why the top five companies did not make the list, Ward Group told NU Online News Service in an email that while the companies did reasonably well compared to the industry average, they did not meet the performance of the Ward Group's top 50.

For example, the five groups that did not make the list all had combined ratios well over 100, based on five year history, the best being Zurich at 100.15, far higher than the Ward's 50 combined ratio of 90.18.