National Report

With the economy’s gaining momentum during the second half of 2003, the number of failed insurance companies declined 21.4 percent, according to Weiss Ratings. Overall, last year saw 22 insurer insolvencies, compared to 28 in 2002. Four life and health insurers and 18 property and casualty insurers failed in 2003, compared to three and 25 respective failures in 2002. “Now that the property and casualty industry has arguably reached the peak of a hard market, premium increases are expected to slow, driving underwriting earnings down and, potentially, the number of insolvencies up,” said Melissa Gannon, vice president of Weiss. “However, the upswing in the securities market should reduce the impact of the soft market.”