RJ and Makay

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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.

Under the Dodd-Frank Act, the call to establish the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) is one of the few provisions that may impact insurers, although it is unclear just how it will affect the industry. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Casualty Actuarial Society, Steve Broadie, VP for financial policy of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) said the industry was sailing into uncharted waters in terms of the insurance regulation, but the sense was that the impact of Dodd-Frank on most insurers was to be limited.

FIO functions cover data collection and analysis, monitoring system risk as well as the affordability and availability of insurance in under-served areas, advising on the Terrorism Risk and Insurance Act (TRIA), and on insurance policy issues, and helping develop federal policy on international prudential insurance issues.