2006 Hurricane Risk Case Study Essay

1. How profitable are property and casualty insurance companies? Answer: Property and casualty insurance protects property (houses, cars, boats, and so on) against losses due to accidents, fire, disasters, and other calamities. Property and casualty policies tend to be short-term contracts and, that’s why the subject to frequent renewal is, and one more characteristic feature is the absence of savings component. Property and casualty premiums are based on the probability of sustaining the loss. To estimate the key determinant of the price of an insurance policy, i.e. risks, insurance companies take third-party proceedings that develop models of catastrophe loss probabilities. Based on the numbers form Exhibit 5 of the case we see that according to AIR Worldwide which provides information on the loss probability that Insured Loss if the listed Hurricanes Recurred in 2006 is 151.2% more than the case writer estimates of Actual Reported Damage in 2006. As you see from the table below differences in monetary terms and percentage change between these two different sources are huge except those figures with minus sign. So, we can say that prices are not fixed and depend on the third-party vendors’ probability calculations which are much higher than actual estimates suggested by casewiters. Consequently, the profits of property and casualty insurance companies can be high. [pic] * Casewriter estimate ** Source: AIR Worldwide Besides, Reinsurance may reduce their risk exposure by allocating a portion of the risk to another company in exchange for a portion of the premium. Reinsurance allows writing larger policies because a portion of the policy is actually held by another firm. Also, profits of these companies strongly depend on unforeseen risks due to unpredictable nature of accidents, fire, natural disasters like hurricane, tsunami, etc. However, from the Exhibit 7 of the case we see that Investment Income is vitally important to continue operations