Tim Zawacki

After a significant change in statutory accounting at the start of 2025 served as the driver of a material increase in US life insurers' holdings in a key category of alternative assets during the first quarter, a more traditional catalyst returned to the fore in the second quarter.

The combination of below-average catastrophe losses and superb performance in the largest business line during the three-month period ended June 30 led the US property and casualty industry to post its lowest statutory combined ratio in a second quarter in 18 years.

A rapid turnaround in the private auto business led the US property and casualty industry back to underwriting profitability in 2024 and will help keep it there for the next several years, the newly released S&P Global Market Intelligence 2025 US Property and Casualty (P&C) Insurance Market Report projects.

The US insurance industry continues to play a prominent role in the extraordinary growth in growth of the private markets as what previously were classified as alternative investment strategies have become increasingly critical components of carriers' approaches to asset management.

The remarkable success of the annuity business in the first quarter of 2024 created an especially challenging comparison that the US life insurance industry could not match in the opening three months of 2025.

The group led by State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. cautioned that it would absorb internally a significant portion of the losses incurred due to the January wildfires in California, and S&P Global Market Intelligence's review of first-quarter statutory financial statements filed by individual group members confirms the significance of the red ink.

The rate of growth in the amount of reinsured US life and annuity business slowed in 2024 to a nine-year low even as primary carriers' reliance on reinsurance continued to serve as a catalyst for generationally strong business volume.

The investment portfolios of US property and casualty insurers currently stand to take a hit from the recent global sell-off in equities, but the magnitude of the impact on the vast majority of the companies in the sector is significantly inflated by one group's uniquely large allocation to common stocks.

Dramatically improved personal lines results in 2024 drove historically favorable underwriting profitability for the US property and casualty industry, an analysis of newly available statutory financial data reveals.

State Farm on Feb. 28 reported that its property and casualty (P&C) business generated a net underwriting loss of $6.1 billion in 2024, which compared favorably to a loss of $14.1 billion in 2023. Our analysis of the disclosures in the annual statements for State Farm Mutual Auto and 11 P&C subsidiaries and affiliates finds that a historically large net underwriting gain in the fourth quarter of 2024 accounted for a meaningful portion of the improvement.