This A.M Best article shows the huge amount of life insurance and property and casualty insurance that is purchased in the U.S. It is a huge business.

It just goes to show that when everybody was saying that Hurricane Katrina was going to bankrupt the property and casualty insurance companies, in reality, it would only put a dent in their revenues.

According to this article the property and casualty insurance companies brought in $481 billion in revenu in 2005. Hurricane Katrina reportedly will cost $60 billion. While this is quite a bit of money, it's not going to totally sap the insurance industry by any means.

BestWeek: A.M. Best Data Show Hurricanes' Effect on P/C Profit; Life Insurers Post Gain
OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 31, 2006--The property/casualty industry failed to sustain an underwriting profit in 2005, according to A.M. Best Co.'s Advance Financial Results studies in the April 3 issue of BestWeek. However, life insurers increased their total admitted assets at year end by nearly 6%.

Property/casualty insurers realized an underwriting profit in 2004 for the first time in 25 years, but 2005's record hurricanes blocked a repeat performance. Still, they realized 2.2% growth in direct premiums written to $481.8 billion. The property/casualty industry's admitted assets grew 8.3% to $1.3 trillion, and policyholder surplus was $428 billion at year end.

The life insurance industry grew admitted assets by 5.8% last year, bringing the total to $4.5 trillion. The 25 largest life insurers led the way with a 6.8% growth rate. Those insurers account for 76% of the industry's admitted asset base with $3.5 trillion of the total, according to A.M. Best. MetLife regained its position as the largest life insurer. In 2004, AIG Life Group overtook MetLife in that position on 17.7% growth in admitted assets

Articles from April 2006
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