Help pls - need info about property & casualty companies

[Pavan.gaddam]

Hi every one,
I am from UK. i am a novice to this insurance industry, but want to learn about it and become a pro with this stuff. I am trying to do analysis on the property & casualty insurance companies in UK. can any1 help me with this, by providing the necessary information, like where to start in this journey, where can i get details about names of the p&c companies in UK.

any information or guidance is of utmost help to me

thanks in advance guys

[bh1950]

Hi Pavan:
Welcome to the P&C Industry. As a 40 year veteran I have to say you picked an exciting industry to join and waht I cnsider a real interesting career.
What kind of Company Info you looking for? Markets, Financials, Ratings ??? all the above?
Let me know what kind of analysis you want to do and I will try to point you in the right direction.
Thanks
Bill

[Pavan.gaddam]

Hi Bill,
Thanks a lot for replying. I thought I am not going to get a reply as my post is too naive for people in this forum. glad that i got one reply.
Actually I am a student, trying to do financial analysis, analysing the policies of companies in p&c industry. I got a company in mind - Lancashire Holdings - LON:LRE, but need two more companies (relatively small), so that I can do a comparative analysis among them. My intention in doing so, is to learn the basics of investing in insurance industry, how it operates, what are the key metrics to consider before investing in them and so on. I really want to get started on this, and so far I felt this is an interesting and prospective industry.
Thanks
Pavan

[gregcw]

I'm not familiar with the U.K. and the Markets (companies) available. In the U.S. we have a number of distribution flows ranging from Captive (exclusive) agents, Encumbered (one primary co, requiring right of1st refusal) agents and Independant agents (representing multiple companies) and the right to select which company they offer. We also have a number of Agents Associations with the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers and the Professional Insurance Agents being two of the foremost associations.

I'd think that your first acitivity should be to contact an association for some assistance. There may also be marketing groups that offer you access to a number of markets through their affiliation. These are good for a 'start-up' agency. There are also General agents that offer access to specialty markets like Lloyd's @ London, that do not require a large commitment of policies.

I do think that another activity that you need to pursue is product education because you shouldn't be trying to sell something that you don't understand.

[Pavan.gaddam]

Thanks for the reply gregcw.

I did met few independent insurance brokers here expecting that they can help me with this with some ready data. But when I said P&C insurance, they looked bewildered. They said they have no idea on what P&C is. I contacted some on-line but it is the same case. I checked in my university database, but I could not find anything specific to P&C. I thought may be only US have this specific segment of Insurance. That is the reason I came to this public forums hoping that some can help me with this. I know UK do have this insurance but am trying to find the name under which the company sells their products like home insurance, car insurance, life insurance etc

I am still in my early stages of my journey. Thanks for suggesting me to learn about products. I will start looking at the products once I am familiar with all this terminology in this Insurance and will definitely PM you once I start with the product learning.

Thanks
Pavan

[bh1950]

Hello Pavan:
I think I understand a bit better what you are looking for. In the Us P&C refers to Property and Casualty Insurance which is a segment of insurance that is removed from Life and Health which is another segment. P and C is Property and Casualty. This encompasses Home, Auto, Personal property, Commercial Property and third party Liability exposures. This covers almost all segments excluding Life and Health and financial products.
P&C entitites here utilize Statutory Accounting principles to measure financial strength and not so much on GAAP accounting principles. (Generaly Accepted Accounting Principles). I think GAAP is used in the UK if Im not mistaken.
Under Statutory accounting principles the financial strength is determined much as any other enterprize once you have the numbers. The difference is getting to the numbers. In Statutory accounting certain items that would be deemed an Asset under GAAP are not treated as such under Statutory accounting. Simply put Statutory accounting gives you the strength in a "Worst Case" scenario. You may want to check some of the investment principles by looking at NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) here in the US. (Dont know if a conterpart exists in the UK). The NAIV here sets Statutory Accounting rules and regulations so this may help. You may also want to try the AAIS which is a trade organization here that focus on Insurance Accounting Principles. Im sure someone there could help you with some of your research for investments.
I hope this helps and if there is anything else I can assist you with give a shout.
Bill