Eagle Eye Contents — Fall 2002

At the recent NCCI Annual Issues Symposium, the president of that organization stated that the preliminary results for the year 2001 are reflecting one of the worst years in the market’s history. The combined ratio (losses plus expenses) for 2001 was 121%, up 3 points from the 2000 combined of 118%. Of particular interest was that less than 2%or $500 million of the Calender Year 2001 combined ratio on a net basis was attributable to September 11th. This was primarily due to reinsurance. The residual market (assign risk pool) grew by 74%in 2001.

The expectations for 2002 and beyond are more consolidation of insurance companies, higher anticipated rates and continued scrutiny of the types of businesses and organizations insurance companies are willing to write and at what price.

The only silver lining was that for the 10th straight year, the frequency or number of lost-time claims has declined during 2001.