Industry Conservatism Shines Through Second-Qtr. Results

Bottom-line results and underwriting profit margins havent yet reached levels of improvement entirely consistent with the price hikes working their way through the books of property-casualty insurance companies. But the fact that results are lagging expectations of some discerning analysts is good news for the industry overall, two experts contend.

To the untrained eye, a look at National Underwriters quarterly chart of net written premium and combined ratio changes tells an overwhelmingly positive story without digging too deeply behind the numbers. The chart, for example, reveals that net written premium growth for the quarter hovered around or soared above 30 percent for more than a dozen of the 30 companies tracked by NU, while second-quarter combined ratios improved for all but a handful.