Articles by Susanne Sclafane

Are Captives the Answer for Uninsured HOAs? Utah Opens Door

When actuary Greg Fears attended a Western Region Captive Insurance Conference in April, he expected to learn and share information about emerging uses of captives for commercial risks, including trucking captives—a recent focus of his attention. But during the last …

GEICO Tops Progressive With Higher J.D. Power Scores

Although Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett and Ajit Jain told investors last month that GEICO is playing catch-up with Progressive to improve technology and connect rate to risk, Berkshire’s personal auto insurer still surpasses Progressive on customer satisfaction. According to the …

Liability Reinsurance Crisis Could Be Looming, TransRe CEO Says

“There could be a liability crisis in reinsurance in a couple of years,” a reinsurance executive predicted this week. Ken Brandt, chair, president and chief executive officer of TransRe, offered the assessment during a 30-minute chat with S&P Global Ratings …

Social Inflation Fix: Insurers Can’t Be Out Front, Chubb’s Greenberg Says

Although insurers can help to stop the growth of social inflation, they can’t lead the effort, an industry executive said during an insurance conference this week. Evan Greenberg, chair and chief executive officer of Chubb Limited, explained that social attitudes …

Where the AI Risks Are: Swiss Re’s Top 10 Ranking by Industry

The insurance industry came in sixth in a ranking of 10 major industries based on current AI risk, and seventh based on future risk, with health care replacing IT as the most exposed sector in the next 10 years. The …

Berkshire’s ‘Most Important’ Biz Drives Q1 Results; GEICO Still Behind on Tech

Berkshire Hathaway continued to deliver eye-popping results for its insurance and reinsurance operations during the first quarter of 2024, with underwriting profits for personal auto insurer GEICO and reinsurance operations topping any prior first quarter in the last decade. Across …

Ready or Not, 80% of P/C Insurers Aim to Use AI for Biz Decisions This Year

Two-thirds of property/casualty insurers plan to start using AI in operational decisions this year, according to a survey, which also reveals that nearly all insurers already using AI have been tripped up by bias challenges. The Ethical AI in Insurance …

State Farm Sets Another Record With $14B Underwriting Loss in 2023

A year after recording the largest underwriting loss in the company’s 100-year history, State Farm eclipsed it in 2023. The underwriting loss figure climbed to $14 billion for 2023, with a nearly $5 billion underwriting loss for property lines outpacing …

GEICO’s ‘Eye-Popping’ 2023 Insurance Profits, Falling Employee Counts

Even though Berkshire Hathaway’s latest annual report featured Warren Buffett’s forecast that the days of “eye-popping performance” for the giant conglomerate are over, readers focused on property/casualty insurance saw numbers that jumped off the pages. Among them were: A 2023 …

Rate Hikes Not Bringing Profit to U.S. Auto Insurers: Fitch

Jumps in rates and written premiums did little to move the needle on underwriting profits for U.S. personal auto insurers, Fitch Ratings reported based on a recent review of midyear results of nine big market players. Profitability challenges in the …