A new note from Fitch Ratings says that the US specialty insurers it examines have produced mixed results in terms of profitability for this month.
The firm said it had looked at Factory Mutual Insurance Company (FM Global), Associated Electric & Gas Insurance Service (AEGIS), Attorney’s Liability Assurance Society, The Doctors Company, and ProAssurance. I
t rated FM Global as highest by financial performance earnings, giving it a score of AA/Stable for its financial strength and outlook. Worst ranked was ProAssurance, which was rated A-/Stable.
Fitch noted that this peer group focuses on policyholders and generates modest profits as a result. It also made notes on the limited catastrophe risk between the firms.
The rating agency wrote: “With the exception of FM Global, the remaining peers have limited to no property risk, and, thus, catastrophe risk is minimal. However, FM Global does have significant property risk, but manages this risk at prudent levels compared with capital.”
The firm said the companies had modest investment and asset risk.
It said: “With the exception of ProAssurance, all of the companies are mutually owned or reciprocal in nature. Mutual and reciprocals tend to have higher concentrations in equities than publicly traded peers. This equity concentration limits the subscore for investments as the potential volatility of capital is increased.”
