Insurance Companies Chapter 2

1
Insurance Companies Chapter 2

• Financial Institutions Management, 3/e
• By Anthony Saunders

2
Insurance Companies

• Differences in services provided by
• Life Insurance Companies
• Property and Casualty Insurance
• Life Insurance Companies
• Size, Structure and Composition of the Industry.
• Trends in terms of size and number of firms.
• Demutualization
• Consolidation and competition from other FIs.

3
Life Insurance Companies

• Life Insurance Products
• Ordinary life
• Term life, Whole life, Endowment life.
• Variable life, Universal life, Variable universal
  life.
• Group life
• Industrial life
• Credit life

4
Other Life Insurer Activities

• Annuities
• Reverse of life insurance activities.
• Private pension funds
• Compete with other financial service companies.
• Accident and health insurance
• Morbidity insurance

5
Balance Sheet

• Long-term liabilities
• Net policy reserves to meet policyholders
  claims.
• Long-term assets
• Need to generate competitive returns on savings
  components of life insurance policies.
• Bonds, equities, government securities
• Policy loans

6
Regulation of Life Insurance Companies

• McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945
• Confirms primacy of state over federal
  regulation.
• State insurance commissions
• Coordinated examination system developed by the
  National Association of Insurance Commissioners
  (NAIC).
• States promote life insurance guaranty funds
• Not permanent funds (like FDIC)
• Required contributions from surviving
  within-state firms.

7
Property and Casualty Insurance

• Size and Structure
• Currently about 2,300 companies.
• Highly concentrated. Top 10 firms have 42 of
  market in terms of premiums written.
• Balance sheet
• Similar to life insurance companies.
• Major liabilities loss reserves, loss adjustment
  expense and unearned premiums.

8
Loss Risk

• Underwriting risk may result from
• Unexpected increases in loss rates
• Unexpected increases in expenses
• Unexpected decreases in investment yields or
  returns
• Property versus liability
• Losses from liability insurance less predictable.
  Example claims due to asbestos damage to
  workers health.

9
Loss Rates

• Severity versus frequency
• Loss rates are more predictable on low-severity,
  high-frequency lines (such as fire, auto, and
  homeowners peril) than on high-severity,
  low-frequency lines (such as earthquake,
  hurricane, financial guaranty).
• Claims in high-severity, low-frequency lines may
  not be independent.
• Higher uncertainty forces PC firms to invest in
  more short-term assets and hold larger capital
  and reserves than life insurance firms.

10
Long Tail Versus Short Tail

• Long-tail risk exposure
• Arises where peril occurs during coverage period
  but claim is made many years later.
• Examples Asbestos cases and Dalkon shield case.
• Product inflation versus social inflation
• Unexpected inflation may be systematic or
  line-specific.
• Social inflation unexpected changes in awards by
  juries.

11
Trends

• Loss ratios have generally increased.
• Expense ratios have generally decreased.
• Trend toward selling directly through their own
  brokers rather than independent brokers.
• Combined ratio
• Includes both loss and expense experience.
• If greater than 100, then premiums are
  insufficient to cover losses and expenses.

12
Investment Yield / Return Risk

• Operating ratio Combined ratio after dividends
  minus investment yield.
• Importance of investment income
• Causes PC managers to place importance on
  measuring and managing credit risk and interest
  rate risk.

13
Recent Trends

• PC industry was not very profitable during 1987 -
  96.
• Reasons
• Succession of catastrophes (Hurricane Hugo 1989,
  San Francisco Earthquake 1991, Oakland fires
  1991, Hurricane Andrew 1991) -- trough of
  underwriting cycle.

14
Regulation

• PC insurers are chartered and regulated by state
  commissions.
• State guaranty funds
• National Association of Insurance Commissioners
  (NAIC) provides various services to state
  regulatory commissions.
• Includes Insurance Regulatory Information System
  (IRIS).
• Some lines face rate regulation.