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Private U.S. property/casualty insurers’ net income after taxes declined to $7.8 billion in the first quarter of 2011 from $8.9 billion in Q1 2010, with insurers’ annualized rate of return on average policyholders’ surplus decreasing to 5.6% from 6.8%, according to ISO.  Reflecting insurers’ $7.8 billion in net income after taxes, policyholders’ surplus rose $7.8 billion, or 1.4%, to a record $564.7 billion at March 31, 2011, from $556.9 at December 31, 2010.

Although net income dropped 3% for the P&C insurance industry as a whole in the third quarter, it has spiked very nicely -- by 62% -- in the past nine months. So says a recent report produced jointly by the Property and Casualty Insurers Association of America, Insurance Information Institute, and Insurance Services Office (ISO).

"It is now all but certain that the P&C insurance industry will record positive growth in 2010 -- the first (time) since 2006,” says Robert P. Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute, which is based in New York City. “While underwriting losses deteriorated marginally, the industry is still operating on a ‘break-even’ basis with a combined ratio of 99.7, after excluding mortgage and financial guaranty insurers.”