Industry More Leveraged Than Thought - Conning

Despite substantial rate increases over the past three years, property-casualty (P-C) insurers will not see any dramatic improvement in their financial results by 2004, according to Conning Research & Consulting, Inc. "Property-Casualty Forecast and Analysis by Line of Insurance, First Quarter 2003" also finds that P-C insurance rates will continue to increase in 2003 and 2004 but at a more moderate pace. "Much of the benefit of the rate increases was offset by the industry's declining investment yields," said Michael Weinstein, Director of Research at Conning. "With lower in...