|
The Top 10 P/C insurance companies for selected personal and commercial
lines are provided for both Ohio and the US, based on their 1999 direct
premiums written. The information also provides insurer market share based
on 1999 premium volume. Added this year is the total premium volume for
each product line. Direct premiums written and market shares have been
rounded.
Direct premiums written are the aggregate amount of recorded originated
premiums, other than reinsurance, written during 1999, whether collected
or not, at the close of the year (plus retrospective premium collections),
after deducting all return premiums.
Top 10 information was provided by the National Association of Insurance
Commissioners (NAIC) data bank and A.M. Best.
The top 10 P/C groups write 45% of the market premium,
up from 40% in 1998.
(A.M. Best)
Results from a fall, 2000 survey indicate that P/C insurers
expect to benefit from a higher volume of net written premiums in 2001.
Wall Street analysts anticipate a 7% increase in P/C premiums, the highest
increase since 1987. The survey also shows that analysts revised their 2000
forecasts for premium growth for 2000 from 2.9 % to 5.2%.
(Insurance Information Institute)
Merger and acquisition transactions in the insurance
industry dropped from 565 in 1998 to 471 in 1999, a decrease of more than
15%. Aggregate transaction value dropped even more sharply from $165 billion
in 1998 to under $42 billion in 1999.
(Conning & Company)
The vandalism in cyberspace that has shut down major
websites is spurring the sales of e-business liability insurance. Coverage
typically ranges for $1–25 million, with premiums ranging from $6,000–several
million. The Insurance Information Institute says that sales of these types
of policies could exceed the $2.5 billion now spent on directors and officers
liability insurance.
(Columbus Dispatch and USA Today, 2/11/00)
The National Highway Safety Administration estimates
that the following number of lives were saved by these various safety restraints:
• Seat belts 11,197
• Airbags 1,263
• Child restraints 307
(USA Today, 12/8–12/10/00)
Based on 1999 auto insurance premiums, Ohio ranks ninth
in the US in terms of total direct premiums for all auto lines. There are
611 companies writing auto insurance in the Buckeye state, according to
A.M. Best.
The median amount of compensatory damages awarded by
juries in personal injury cases rose 7% in 1998 to $50,000 from $46,695
in 1997. Contributing to the increase were a 135% jump in the median compensatory
award in product liability cases to $1.3 million and a 46% rise in the median
in medical malpractice cases to $755,530.
(Current Award Trends in Personal Injury—1999 Edition, Jury
Verdict Research)
About 19 out of every 20 (94%) of all medical malpractice
cases that go to jury are won by doctors. The 94% figure isn’t the
whole story since about half of all medical malpractice cases are settled
out of court.
(Boston Globe, 5/9/00) |
