One might say it's nice to be reminded of what the P&C insurance industry's Top 100 looks like in a world with fewer catastrophes.
With no major loss events in 2013, insurers had a comparatively easier time of making hay while the sun shone—and the favorable movement reflected both in combined ratio and overall net premiums written is significant, marking a positive turn for many carriers and groups.
In NU's annual rankings, based on data from SNL Financial, the average combined ratio among the top 100 insurance groups fell year-over-year to a respectable 96.64—a 6.37 improvement over last year's numbers. Among the biggest gainers in the top 10 companies: Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., whose combined ratio fell more than 18 points to 102.20; State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., which improved more than 14 points to 90.57; and Chubb-owned Federal Insurance Co., which boasted a combined ratio of 82.70 after a 12.88-point improvement year-over-year.
In group results, all boasted better combined ratios (at an average of 6.37 points among the top 100 and 5.59 among the top 10), but it was AIG—which some would argue had the biggest room for improvement among the most successful groups in the top 10—that displayed the best showing among the biggest players, shaving off 16.15 points to a more competitive 101.27.
Yet as insurers performed better in the past year in terms of results, there was little movement in the rankings of the top 10 companies or groups by net premiums written.
The top 100 groups showed average growth in NPW of 4.3%, to a total of $422.4 billion; that average growth drops to 3.7% among the top 5 groups (State Farm, Berkshire Hathaway, Allstate, Liberty Mutual and Travelers, respectively), which still represent a sizable portion (roughly 37%) of the NPW among the top 100 groups.
The top 10 groups were largely unchanged from 2012; USAA Insurance Group and Farmers Insurance Group of Companies switched spots at the bottom of the top 10, with USAA taking over No. 9 and Farmers dropping to No. 10. After the previously mentioned top 5 groups, AIG, Nationwide Mutual Group and Progressive Corp. took the No. 6 to No. 8 spots.
Click through to the next page to see the Top 100 lists, ranked by net premiums written.
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