Insurer takes over as workers comp market leader

A new insurer has taken over as market leader in the workers comp sector, according to NAIC data.

Workers Comp

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Liberty Mutual is no longer the largest provider of workers compensation insurance in the US. According to new data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Travelers Co.’s $4 billion in earned-premium revenue for workers comp was enough to secure it the largest US market share.

That’s compared to $3.87 billion in earned-premium revenue for Liberty Mutual, which held the top spot in 2012, and The Hartford’s $3.3 billion, which secured it third place for the second year running.

The statistics come from NAIC’s annual list of top insurers by business segment, released last week. Highlighting the top 25 carriers in the property/casualty space, NAIC also revealed the major players in each business segment.

State Farm came out on top when combining all business segments, with $55 billion in earned-premium revenue last year. That’s an increase on 2012’s $53 billion for the carrier, brought in by State Farm’s massive shares in the homeowners and personal auto segments.

Liberty Mutual, at $28.9 billion, came in second overall, followed by Allstate with $27.2 billion, Berkshire Hathaway—owner of GEICO—with $22.3 billion and Travelers with $22.8 billion.

In total, the property/casualty insurance industry accounted for $531.7 billion in 2013. Personal auto brought in the most revenue, at $179 billion, followed by $80.2 billion in homeowners’ coverage and $54.5 billion in general liability.

Workers comp brought in $50.4 billion, the NAIC data revealed. A report from Standard & Poor’s suggests the sector will suffer in 2014, however, thanks to continued high unemployment and uncertainty over congressional reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act.

“We remain pessimistic about the near-term profitability prospects for the US workers compensation market despite improved pricing in the past couple of years,” said S&P credit analyst Siddhartha Ghosh.

“We base our cautious view of the industry on such actors as continuing high unemployment levels and economic uncertainty, potential adverse reverse development, higher health care costs, and emerging risks like the expiration of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act in 2014 and significant uncertainty regarding the ACA.”

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