2019 Property-Casualty Loss Reserves - Little to No Change
Conning—Property-Casualty Industry Loss Reserve Position Largely Unchanged; 2019 Favorable Development Half That in 2018
--Most lines are healthy; other liability and commercial auto remain deficient
(Hartford, CT) August 13, 2020—Conning’s annual analysis of the property-casualty industry’s loss reserves finds that the overall reserve position at year-end 2019 is essentially unchanged from where it was at year-end 2018, although there were changes in reserve levels by line of business.
“The property-casualty insurance industry’s overall reserve position remained pretty much the same in 2019, but there was some movement by line of business” said Bill Burns, a Director, Insurance Research at Conning. “Reserves for workers’ compensation and miscellaneous lines are somewhat less redundant than they were a year ago, while reserves for other liability and commercial auto liability are less deficient. And although it is a 2020 event, it remains to be seen if the COVID-19 pandemic has any adverse effects on the year-end 2019 reserves.”
The Conning study, “2019 Property-Casualty Loss Reserves: Little to No Change” reviews the property-casualty industry’s loss reserve position at the end of 2019, by line of business and in total. In the study, Conning includes estimates of reserve adequacy levels for small, midsized and large insurance companies. Conning also discloses which companies contributed the largest amounts of favorable and adverse development for each line of business.
“The industry experienced favorable loss development of $5.7 billion in 2019, which was less than half the benefit of prior year development in 2018” said Steve Webersen, Head of Insurance Research at Conning. “This is the fourteenth consecutive year of favorable development from prior accident years. However, the other liability and commercial auto lines remain significantly deficient, suggesting future adverse development and continued rate pressure for these lines.”
“2019 Property-Casualty Loss Reserves: Little to No Change” is available for purchase from Conning by calling (888) 707-1177 or by visiting www.conningresearch.com.
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Conning (www.conning.com) is a leading investment management firm with a long history of serving the insurance industry. Conning supports institutional investors, including pension plans, with investment solutions and asset management offerings, risk modeling software, and industry research. Founded in 1912, Conning has investment centers in Asia, Europe and North America.
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