If every picture tells a story, as Rod Stewart once sang, can numbers likewise tell a tale?
The answer is yes, albeit a somewhat more complicated one. The farther you go down the rabbit hole of data, the more important it becomes to put those numbers in context; numbers themselves tell only half the story. The data is just the starting point.
Consider the fact that when a P&C insurer exits a line of business after re-evaluating its portfolio (and such decisions are never made lightly), the premiums paid by those clients — risks that are, after extensive analysis, deemed not worth insuring any longer — disappear. In most cases, this is a shrewd, sound move by a carrier to move away from clients or markets that are not part of its forward-looking vision; however, the loss of those premiums is still reflected on balance sheets. Or, in the case of the data found in our cover feature this month, NAIC statements.
|Providing context
Which is why I reach out to various companies when we compile this report, in order to provide the appropriate context around what readers are seeing. While I can always appreciate solid data, I know enough to realize that endless numbers are enough to bore the pants off many readers — with the possible exception of those on the actuarial side of the P&C business — without explaining some of the outliers.
When you examine these figures, things pop out at you. Wait, a 94.24% year-over-year increase in net premiums written for Allianz Global Risk U.S. Insurance Co.? Let's call and check that. And then you learn that's due to an intercompany pooling arrangement that included Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. in 2016 (previously, FFIC was not part of the pooling arrangement). That needs to be explained.
Another thing that also leaped out at me that bears further analysis: The amount of net premiums being garnered by a key player in writing standalone Cybersecurity — AIG. In last year's rankings, AIG hadn't cracked the top five; this time, it leads the pack. What's the story there? Earning that much market share in one specific line that quickly, capturing that much premium, takes some serious doing. But how?
Must investigate further, as Rorschach would say.
|Top 100 lists
It's interesting to note — at least to me, anyway — that last year, NU ran this feature without including the Top 100 groups and companies lists. Rather, we focused exclusively on the Heads of the Lines lists, in order to give top billing to the top writers in 11 product lines. That was a conscious decision on our part. I wanted to see whether people would miss the Top 100 lists if they didn't run and whether the top writers in those select lines would be interesting enough to carry top billing.
As it turns out, they were interesting enough. But when I started getting e-mails from readers asking for the Top 100 lists and wondering where they'd gone, I knew that sticking to a winning data set would be the smarter bet going forward.
I'd like to extend our very special thanks to S&P Global Market Intelligence, who supply us with the data for this annual feature. And we'll keep bringing you the full story.
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Shawn Moynihan
Shawn Moynihan is Editor-in-Chief of National Underwriter Property & Casualty. A St. John’s University alum, Moynihan has earned 11 Jesse H. Neal Awards, the Pulitzers of the business press; seven Azbee Awards, from the American Society of Business Press Editors; two Folio Awards; and a SABEW award, from the Society of American Business Editors & Writers. Prior to joining ALM, he served as Managing Editor/Online Editor of journalism institution Editor & Publisher, the trade bible of the newspaper industry. Moynihan also has held editorial positions with AOL, Metro New York, and Newhouse Newspapers. He can be reached at [email protected].
