Up to $3.5 Billion in Insured Losses from New Zealand Quake: AIR

Catastrophe modeler AIR Worldwide said insured losses will be between $762 million and $3.5 billion from the powerful South Island, New Zealand earthquake on November 14.

The estimated cost translates locally to between NZD 1.15 billion and 5.3 billion.

“More than 80,000 landslides and 2,600 aftershocks have been recorded following the massive earthquake that struck New Zealand’s South Island,” said Bingming Shen-tu, assistant vice president at AIR Worldwide, in a statement. He said recovery efforts in the region were troubled by gale-force winds, heavy rainfall, and flooded roads.

Read more at http://www.advisenltd.com/2016/12/01/%243.5billion-insured-losses-new-zealand-quake/

Chad Hemenway, Up to $3.5 billion in insured losses from New Zealand quake: AIR (December 1, 2016), available with subscription at Advisen Professional Front Page News.

P&C Insurers Log First Half Underwriting Loss But Maintain Strong Position to Pay Claims

The US P&C insurance industry saw a streak of net underwriting profitability come to an end when it recorded a loss of $1.5 billion in the first half of 2016, compared with a $3.5 billion underwriting profit in the first half 2015.

The loss marked the industry’s first year-to-date net underwriting loss in more than three years, according to a report from Verisk’s ISO, the Insurance Information Institute and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.

First-half net income fell to $21.7 billion from $31 billion during the same time a year ago.

Read more at http://www.advisenltd.com/2016/10/17/pc-insurers-log-first-half-underwriting-loss-but-maintain-strong-position-to-pay-claims/

Chad Hemenway, P&C insurers log first half underwriting loss but maintain strong position to pay claims (October 17, 2016), available with subscription at Advisen Professional Front Page News.

TigerRisk’s Rod Fox: Benign Catastrophe Losses Won’t Last Forever

NEW YORK—Something, according to Rod Fox, “is going on here.”

Wildfires in unusual locations; the hottest months on record in more than a century; early storms in the Atlantic Ocean; flooding in areas without a history of flooding; and earthquake faults overdue for a temblor point to a troubling realization: “We won’t have benign [catastrophe] activity forever,” said Fox, managing partner and CEO of TigerRisk Partners.

“There’s a fire in the hole,” he said during his keynote address at Advisen’s Property Insights Conference.

Read more at http://www.advisenltd.com/2016/06/28/tigerrisks-rod-fox-benign-catastrophe-losses-wont-last-forever/

Chad Hemenway, TigerRisk’s Rod Fox: Benign catastrophe losses won’t last forever (June 28, 2016), available with subscription at Advisen Professional Front Page News.

Catastrophe Losses in 2015 Estimated at $30.5B, Guy Carpenter Reports

Despite being a relatively “quiet” year with the lowest global insured catastrophe losses since 2009 at approximately $30.5 billion, 2015 featured some of the highest-profile disasters in recent memory, including the Paris terrorist attacks, the Nepal earthquake, explosions at the Chinese port of Tianjin, aviation accidents, and the strongest El Niño period in recorded history, according to Guy Carpenter’s GC Analytics annual catastrophe review.

The Tianjin explosions last August caused estimated insured losses ranging from $1.6 billion up to $3.3 billion, in an event that caused a significant loss of life and the effects of which are still being measured.

Read more at http://www.advisenltd.com/2016/03/28/catastrophe-losses-in-2015-estimated-at-30-5b-guy-carpenter-reports/

Erin Ayers, Catastrophe losses in 2015 estimated at $30.5B, Guy Carpenter reports (March 28, 2016), available with subscription at Advisen Professional Front Page News.