Sense on Cents

The world of insurance occupies almost every corner of our lives. Life, home, auto, disability, long term care, personal articles. Rather than addressing what is insured, an easier question may be to ask what isn’t insured.

Given the intricate web of products and accompanying risks, we clearly are not currently dealing with your grandfathers’ insurance companies.

All that said, insurance is a relatively simple business. A policy is underwritten, premiums are collected and invested, and on and on we go. In fact, with major policies incorporating outsized risks, insurers can “lay off” risk with reinsurers, such as Munich Reinsurance, Swiss Reinsurance, and General Reinsurance. One would think this should be a steady and stable, if not quiet, industry. It would be such if companies did not reach for outsized returns through ever greater risks, primarily in the products in which they invested. While The Quiet Company, Northwestern Mutual invests primarily in high quality corporate bonds, entities like AIG trafficked in esoteric CDS. Hartford Financial Services played in the lower credit sectors of the commercial mortgage space, sub-prime mortgages, and junk bonds.

While the government has already taken an 80% stake in AIG, how do the state insurance commissioners deal with entities like Hartford, Met Life, and others with outsized risks and resulting declining capital cushions? Let’s go visit Uncle Sam!! That’s right, if you thought “bailout nation” was already swamped by banks, automotive companies, and Freddie/Fannie, the fun continues: The Next Big Bailout Decision: Insurers.

While banks have played the political lobbying game from both sides, insurance companies have paid more into the Republican coffers over the years. Could that impact how this Democratic administration and Congress treat them? Perhaps. Who ultimately pays? That’s right, me and you!!

As individual consumers, each of us needs to be fully aware that as a policyholder we have credit exposure to our insurance company. While I do not expect to see any state commissioner allow an insurance company, especially the large ones, to fail, these commissioners may temporarily suspend withdrawals in order to allow the company to replenish its capital cushion. What does that mean? Most premiums throughout this industry are headed higher. Competitive shopping at this juncture is a must. In fact, make your broker or agent earn your business.

While the media has largely focused on the problems at AIG with passing commentary on the industry at large, Sense on Cents has been addressing this topic for the last few months. Please revisit my piece from early January, Got Insurance?

Perhaps your brokers and agents may want to review it as well!!

LD

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 6:30 PM and is filed under American Consumers, Banking Institutions, Credit Risk, Current Affairs, Economy, Education, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, General, Insurance Industry, Wall Street. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.