Lower catastrophe losses helped send The Travelers Companies, Inc.'s 2013 fourth-quarter net income soaring 225% to $988 million, compared to 2012 fourth-quarter net income of $304 million.
Catastrophe losses, net of reinsurance, were $53 million in the quarter, compared to $1.05 billion in 2012's fourth quarter. The sharp drop drove a reversal in underwriting results for Travelers—a gain of $689 million in 2013's fourth quarter compared to an underwriting loss of $338 million for the same period the year before. The combined ratio dropped in the quarter to 87.7 compared to 105.4 in 2012's fourth quarter.
Travelers' fourth-quarter results also benefitted from a $37 million gain in favorable prior-year reserve development—$259 million in 2013's fourth quarter compared to $222 million the year before. For the year, though, favorable reserve development was down to $840 million compared to $940 million in 2012.
Fourth-quarter net-written premiums increased 5% to $5.6 billion. Travelers says the increase is due to a 29% increase in net-written premiums (to over $1 billion) in its financial, professional and international insurance segment, which occurred as business from The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company—acquired on Nov. 1, 2013—was included in the segment.
Travelers also saw a 3% gain in its business-insurance segment net-written premiums to $2.9 billion. Net-written premiums in the company's personal-insurance segment, though, were down 4% in the quarter to $1.7 billion.
For the full-year 2013, Travelers reports net income of $3.7 billion, up 49% from 2012. Travelers says it achieved a $2.2 billion underwriting gain for the year compared to a gain of $507 million in 2012.
Catastrophes for the year—consisting primarily of wind and hail storms in the Midwest and Storm Xaver in the UK—cost $591 million compared to $1.9 billion in 2012.
In a conference call, Jay Fishman, Travelers chairman and CEO, said, “I don't think we could be more pleased than we are with these results,” which he added were achieved in the face of challenges such as historically low interest rates and volatile weather.
He says the favorable results should “not be viewed in isolation,” but rather as part of a strategy that began in 2010 to increase the profitability of the insurer's products by improving price, terms and conditions while not disrupting relationships with insureds and agents.
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