EIL 'black hole' manageable, Best says.(environmental and asbestos liability will not ruin the property-casualty insurance industry, according to A.M. Best)

National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, January, 1996 by Sclafane, Susanne

The "black hole" of environmental and asbestos liabilities for the property-casualty insurance industry is not as deep as once believed, A.M. Best analysts say. In a report which will be released later this month, Best's analysts have lowered their prior liability estimates by just over $200 billion, reducing the "black hole" to a "manageable problem," they say.

According to a special p-c industry reprt which appeared in BestWeek, Best's estimates of unfunded liabilities for environmental and asbestos claims total $57 billion in the new study - a reduction of 78 percent from the widely referenced, $260 billion "expected" estimate of the rating agency's March 1994 report. For more on pollution reserving, see page 3.) In the March 1994 report, entitled...

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