US P&C insurance suffered $24.3 billion 9M underwriting loss: AM Best

The US property and casualty insurance business nearly quadrupled its 9M underwriting loss to $24.3 billion as personal lines suffered, analysts at  AM Best said in a report.

“The personal lines segment, specifically the auto lines of business, were primarily responsible for the decline in underwriting results,” analysts wrote.

The rise in premium earned only covered about 2/3 of the increase in loss and loss adjustment cost plus underwriting expenses.

That pushed the combined ratio up by 3.1 percentage points to a technical loss at 102.8% and included a 3.9 percentage point hike in the pure loss ratio.

By the numbers, mark net premiums earned up by $42.1 billion or 8.4% to $545.1 billion. Direct written premium for homeowner multi-peril was said to have risen 12.1% to $94.4 billion; commercial multi-peril by 11.4% to $41.2 billion.

Loss and loss adjustment costs rose by a faster 14.0% or $51.5 billion to already set technical result behind the prior year period take. Cat losses accounted for 7.0 percentage points of the loss ratio, down from 8.2 points in the prior year period.

The slower 6.5% annual increase in 9M underwriting costs could only trim 0.5 percentage points off the run-up in the combined ratio.

Some $51.8 billion in investment earnings, up from the prior year period's $39.9 billion take, helped mitigate the decline in underwriting profits. A $10.8 billion windfall to Columbia Insurance early in 2022 also continued to bolster the 2022 view.

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