When you’re sitting at home worrying about the mounting pile of bills to pay, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. Fact is, just as you’re in a new world of hurt, there are other people hurting as well. In this case, the people are the inventors in the insurance industry. They all bought shares in these big corporations when the prices were high, never thinking that the world could suddenly turn sour. Although it’s a mutual insurance company, let’s take State Farm as an example of what’s happening across the industry. This is one of the biggest insurance companies in the US and it’s just turned in an operating loss of $542 million for 2008. Its net worth just dropped a whole 16%. Now, you have to understand this company did not get caught up in mortgages of any prime. There were no securitised thises or derivative thats. This company has just been caught in the general collapse of stock exchange values.
To understand, we need to look at how insurance companies work. They charge most policy holders with a vehicle or a home a monthly premium. This brings in a small mountain of cash every month. That money is invested until it’s needed to pay out on claims. Some goes into fixed-income products. The rest goes into shares. As you may have noticed, the Dow and other stock exchange indexes have been in free-fall. The result is that State Farm has lost the capital value of the investments and, in many cases, no longer receives any income as interest or dividends. This might have been manageable except for this little thing called global warming that no-one believes causes hurricanes and other weather catastrophes. The last two years have seen an big increase in weather-damage claims. Put the loss of investment income and the unexpected rise in claims together and you turn a $5.46 billion profit in 2007 into a loss in 2008.
Should this make you worry? Well, look at it this way. The insurance industry is suddenly making a loss. Shareholders in general and the policy holders in State Farm are not happy. Senior officers of the companies want their bonuses. The for-profit companies are tempted to raise the premiums across the board to get their earnings back into profit. Except with a recession threatening to turn into a depression, that’s not going to work. Make the policies unaffordable and people stop buying. That’s why State Farms just dropped its auto insurance rates in Georgia by an average of 1.5%. For the record, this means the current premiums are 12% lower than five years ago. Since State Farms insures around one quarter of all vehicles on Georgia’s roads, this is a good deal. So the next time you’re shopping round for a cheap car insurance policy, you may be pleasantly surprised that the premium rates from an increasing number of insurers have fallen in other states. The next bill may not be quite as painful as you fear.
Listed below are more articles related to the above article from the "Insurance" article category.
People interested in the above article "What's The Recession Doing To The Insurance Industry?" are also interested in the related articles listed below:
Accidents at work cannot be avoided no matter how much effort is made to avoid them. Companies that take the proper safety precautions to protect workers reduce the risk of potential problems. When accidents happen, accident claims can be submitted by workers looking for a way to get compensation for an injury. This article will discuss the potential accidents that may happen at work and how companies should properly prepare.
Payment Protection Insurance, commonly abbreviated as PPI, is an insurance coverage package, meant to cover outstanding loans, overdrafts and other forms of debt. This insurance cover is usually an add-on product that is included in the final computation of overdrafts and loans. The primary purpose of this product is to protect the borrower, from circumstances that are beyond their control, which may prevent them from servicing their debt. Such circumstances include loss of employment, ailments, accidents, or death.
Personal injury claims are usually made by people that have been injured in an accident. Accidents can happen in many places but the common one that people suffer from are usually at work or when driving. Potential problems are always waiting to happen, especially when we drive. There are a number of possible crash situations that we should always be aware of. This article will discuss the different causes of road accidents.
Insurance is a threat management technique. Auto insurance also called as vehicle insurance. The main purpose is to protect against financial protection against physical damage or bodily injuries which results from collisions. A personal accident insurance policy is an insurance contract that covers risk arising from accidents, be it at home, or outside. By investing in Accident Insurance, you can protect your family and yourself from the financial concerns such as loss of income and medical expenses that unforeseen accidents lead to. It is contracts that arise from accidents at home or at road. When investing in this plan anyone can protect his or family from the losses or medical expenses.
Landlords have to cope with a lot more than other property owners. Since they are responsible for the upkeep of their property, they share the fears of something going wrong that their own tenants do. But a specially designed insurance policy provides better cover. This article looks at the let property insurance policy and how it offers landlords the protection that they need.
The bereavement of one of the main participants in a wedding can cause a serious problem and even enforced cancellation. However unthinkable this may seem, you would be well advised to take out some form of wedding insurance to cover this eventuality.
Wedding insurance can protect you financially in case your wedding photos cannot be printed. Wedding photos are perhaps the most important memory you will have from your wedding day, so it is essential that your wedding photographs are protected by wedding insurance. Your wedding photographer may not be able to print your wedding photographs if the film, negatives or digital media used becomes damaged or lost. Whilst any reputable photographer should make back up copies of the photographs he or she takes at your wedding, you may find that you're unlucky enough to lose your precious wedding photographs.
