Industry gains unsustainable, S&P says. (Standard & Poor's analysts expect 25% drop in property/casualty insurers' net income in 1998)

National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, January, 1998 by Sclafane, Susanne

Now that the champagne corks have popped, the party may well be over for the property-casualty insurance industry, according to insurance rating analysts for Standard and Poor's who are projecting a 25 percent drop in industry net income in 1998. For 1997, operating gains for the industry overall are expected to come in nearly 65 percent higher than 1996, climbing to roughly $25 billion, according to estimates put together by the New York-based Insurance Information Institute.

In addition, the Institute is estimating that 1997 net income will rise 42 percent above 1996. But when New York-based S&P's projections for each of the 1998 components of income are set alongside the Institute's 1997 estimates, the forecasts reveal a projected 10 percent...

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