Best Insurance

Best Insurance stock - Total insurance claims from hurricane sandy 2012, insurance claims in 2012,; A leading insurance company says natural disasters cost the industry $65 billion last year and that Superstorm Sandy accounted for nearly two-fifths of the total. However, Munich Re AG said Thursday total insured losses from natural catastrophes were down from a record $119 billion in 2011, when devastating earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand cost the industry dear.

The company said total economic costs in 2012 from natural disasters - including uninsured losses - amounted to $160 billion, compared with the previous year's $400 billion. Sandy was blamed for at least 120 deaths when it battered eastern coastline areas at the end of October. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were the hardest-hit states. Munich Re estimated insured losses from Sandy at $25 billion and total losses at $50 billion.

Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide estimated Tuesday evening that insured losses from Hurricane Sandy to onshore properties in the U.S. would be in the range of $7 billion to $15 billion. AIR’s insured loss estimate includes wind and storm surge damage to onshore residential, commercial and industrial properties and their contents, automobiles, and time element coverage (additional living expenses for residential properties and business interruption for commercial properties). Read More..

Two months after Hurricane Sandy caused severe flooding in many Chelsea galleries, the bill for the art world’s recovery is shaping up to be hefty. By mid-November, AXA Art Insurance, one of the largest art insurers, estimated that it would be paying out $40 million, and a Reuters report last week quoted industry estimates suggesting that insurance losses for flooded galleries and ruined art may come to as much as $500 million – or the rough equivalent of what the art insurance business takes in each year. That would amount to the largest loss the art world and its insurers have ever sustained.Read More..

Swiss Re Sees $900 Million Insured Hurricane Sandy Losses
Swiss Re Ltd. (SREN), the world’s second- biggest reinsurer, said it estimates its claims burden from Hurricane Sandy to be about $900 million. Total market losses could be as much as $25 billion, Swiss Re dropped as much as 0.8 percent in Zurich. It fell 0.6 percent to 66.30 francs at 9:31 a.m., valuing the company at 24.6 billion Swiss francs ($26.5 billion). Munich Re, the world’s biggest reinsurer, declined 0.2 percent to 129.6 euros. Hannover Re (HNR1) lost 0.3 percent to 56.98 euros. Read more..

Selective Insurance Group Announces Hurricane Sandy Storm Losses
Insurance Group, Inc. (SIGI) today announced a preliminary pre-tax gross Hurricane Sandy loss of between $100 to $120 million and a pre-tax net loss of approximately $52 million, including reinstatement premiums and reinsurance recoveries. About two-thirds of the claims are in personal lines with the remaining in commercial lines.  One area of uncertainty remains business interruption claims, which are included in the estimates but are still developing as some businesses are not back to full operation.

Selective is the sixth largest writer for the National Flood Insurance Program and expects record claim activity this quarter that will generate estimated, pre-tax, claim service revenue of $12 million, which will partially offset the $52 million loss.  Together, these items will impact the fourth quarter statutory combined ratio by approximately 10 points and add an anticipated 2 points to our previous 2012 full-year guidance for the statutory and GAAP combined ratios. Read More..

AIR increases hurricane Sandy insured loss estimate by over 70%
Risk modeller AIR Worldwide has published an update to their estimate of insured losses resulting from hurricane Sandy today and the numbers have jumped considerably. AIR’s first estimate was published on the 30th October and in that update they gave a range of $7 billion to $15 billion of losses but said they expected it to rise. In today’s update AIR have given a tighter, but much higher estimated range of between $16 billion and $22 billion of losses to the insurance industry from Sandy. That’s a pretty significant jump, with the low-end estimate increasing by 128% from $7B-$16B, the mid-point estimate increasing by 72% from $11B-$19B and the high-end estimate increasing by 46% from $15B to $22B. AIR puts the increase down to the following: Read More..

Hurricane Sandy claims may exceed insurance program funds: FEMA
The federal government's flood insurance program may not have access to enough funds to cover anticipated claims from Hurricane Sandy victims, a top official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency said on Thursday. Edward Connor, FEMA's deputy associate administrator for federal insurance, told an insurance advisory panel on Thursday that his agency is projecting a flurry of flood-related claims in the neighborhood of $6 billion to $12 billion. read more..