Mild-mannered report

If some politicians can be accused of engaging in “fuzzy” math, some property/casualty insurers might be said to practice “fuzzy” marketing. They call themselves Super Regionals but everyone has a different idea of what that means.

Insurance Journal wants to help clarify what Super Regional insurer means. With this Special Report on Super Regional Property Casualty Insurers™, we begin the search for the best objective measurement of Super Regional for the industry.

Insurance Journal has its Clark Kents but none with enough expertise in the financials of insurers to pull off this assignment alone. So we turned to our mild-mannered actuaries.

Our official research partner, the actuarial services firm Demotech Inc. of Columbus, Ohio, did a super job. They moved faster than a speeding bullet and leapt several tall buildings with a single bound, not only coming up with a definition for Super Regional but also creating a classification system for the entire universe of property/casualty insurers. The 11 categories in the Demotech Company Classification System are Nationals, Near Nationals, Super Regionals, Regionals, State Specialists, Coverage Specialists, Strategic Subsidiaries, Risk Retention Groups, Surplus Lines Carriers, Reinsurers and companies with less than $1 million in direct written premium.

This issue of Insurance Journal presents the first-ever listing of Super Regional Property Casualty Insurers™ (see page N19) based on Demotech’s classifications. The Special Report explains the specific objective criteria used to define the category.

This Super Regional Property Casualty Insurers™ list is based on objective analysis. The companies that made the list are not necessarily superior but they are super in the sense of having the resources to write multiple lines and reach across multiple states.

Bigger isn’t always better as many smaller insurers will be quick to remind their agents and customers. The identification of this year’s Super Regional Property Casualty Insurers™ is meant to bring attention to these companies and not meant to slight others that have their niches and success stories. Indeed, a company not on the Super Regional list will likely find itself featured in future issues in which Insurance Journal will salute State Specialists, Regionals, Coverage Specialists and others in the Demotech scheme.

Insurance Journal and Demotech hope this report sparks a discussion on the role of Super Regionals and on the criteria used. We invite suggestions on how the criteria might be adjusted and we fully expect that some companies could be dropped and new ones added in future listings as suggestions are weighed and the search continues.

Please send feedback on this Special Report to jpetrelli@demotech.com or asimpson@insurancejournal.com.