Catastrophe losses were the driving force behind the 17 impairments of US property & casualty insurers in 2021, according to a new report by AM Best.
AM Best defined impairments as “situations in which a company has been placed, via court order, into conservation, rehabilitation or insolvent liquidation.”
Seven of the impairments that took place in 2021 were caused by hurricanes, mainly in Louisiana and Florida.
Furthermore, among the 17 insurance companies that became impaired during the year, 16 were placed into liquidation.
Along with five companies based in Louisiana and two in Florida, the impairments identified in 2021 included four commercial auto insurers and a pair of Vermont-based risk retention groups.
The report, titled “2021 US Property/Casualty Impairments Update,” also revealed that 413 P&C insurers became impaired from 2000 to 2021. Catastrophe losses were determined to be the leading cause of impairments during this period, accounting for 28. Fraud or alleged fraud was next in line at 25.
Out of the 413 impairments from 2000 to 2021, 171 (41%) were rated by AM Best at some point. However, the report found that the number of companies with an AM Best rating at any point during the three-year period before impairment did decline over the last 10 years.
As noted by AM Best, there were 141 companies that became impaired from 2012 through 2021 and only 41 (29%) received a rating at some point during the period.
Moreover, the report identified 348 insolvent liquidations and 64 rehabilitations during its 2000-2021 study period, with 22 of the rehabilitations being closed during the period and 42 remaining open as of the report's release.
There were also 57 conservatorships, 56 of which led directly to either rehabilitation or liquidation.
A follow-up report identifying P&C impairments for 2022 is expected to be released later this year, AM Best said in a press release.
The credit rating agency recently released another report revealing that the US P&C industry suffered a net underwriting loss of $26.5 billion in 2022.
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