Articles by Susanne Sclafane

Sclafane is Executive Editor of Carrier Management, a publication of Wells Media Group serving property/casualty insurance carrier executives. She is a media professional with deep background in the P/C insurance industry including 25 years as editor and reporter for trade magazines, online news services, digital journals. Her prior experience includes 14 years as a casualty actuary.

We Can Work It Out: Negotiations Likely on COVID-19 Reinsurance Losses

Catastrophe excess of loss reinsurance contracts “never anticipated an event like a pandemic,” but cedents can still expect compromises from their reinsurers, an industry executive said Thursday. While cedents and reinsurers may often disagree about how the reinsurance contracts apply, …

They’re Back! Actuarial Society, Under Pressure, Reinstates Ratemaking Rules

Less than a month ago, the prospect that long-held principles of actuarial ratemaking would survive an action by the Casualty Actuarial Society board of directors to rescind them seemed like a long shot. But facing continuing pressure from actuaries representing …

Carriers Struggle To Transform Innovation Efforts Into Results: AM Best

Although COVID-19 forced many insurers to seek out innovative solutions, most companies still have room for improvement, according to rating agency AM Best. In a recent analysis of innovation assessment scores, which the rating agency first introduced into the rating …

Small Insurance M&As Create More Value Than Large Deals: McKinsey

McKinsey analysts believe insurers focused on large one-off deals undertaken to scale their companies and those that stick to organic growth are both headed down unfruitful paths if outsized shareholder return is their success metric. In a report published in …

Small Insurance M&As Create More Value Than Large Deals: McKinsey

McKinsey analysts believe insurers focused on large one-off deals undertaken to scale their companies and those that stick to organic growth are both headed down unfruitful paths if outsized shareholder return is their success metric. In a report published in …

AM Best Plans to Assess MGAs, Other Delegated Authority Entities

With the volume of premium generated by managing general agents and other delegated underwriting authority enterprises (DUAEs) rocketing skyward in recent years, AM Best has decided it is time to deliver assessments of these entities. “What we’ve seen is really …

2020’s P/C Insurance Industry Results and What They Mean for 2021

The most recent tallies of financial results by rating agency analysts reveal that the property/casualty insurance industry weathered the storms of catastrophe losses and COVID, with one segment actually reporting better combined ratios and higher income than in 2019. A …

Regulators, Watchdog at Odds With Insurance Actuaries Over Withdrawn Documents

A task force of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners is asking the board of directors of the Casualty Actuarial Society to reverse a decision rescinding a “statement of principles” of the profession, Carrier Management recently reported. The CAS action …

Insurtech Root Hit With Shareholder Lawsuit Alleging Negligence, Omissions in IPO Filing

With shares of Root Inc. trading at less than 50 percent of the late October 2020 IPO price of $27 per share, the insurtech carrier has been named in a shareholders class action complaint, Carrier Management has reported. At least …

Industry Loss Reserves Redundant by $28 Billion: Assured Research

Analysts at Assured Research delivered some surprises in a report on property/casualty insurance industry loss reserves Monday, finding that reserves are $28 billion redundant and predicting that some hard market pricing will stabilize or diminish this year. That industry loss …