Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Insurance firms limit their risk in disasters
Sunday, April 09, 2006Full Article by Peter G. Gosselin
The companies that provide Americans with their homeowners' and auto insurance made a record $44.8 billion profit last year even after accounting for the claims of policyholders wiped out by Hurricane Katrina and the other big storms of 2005, according to the companies' filings with state regulators.
Top executives described the profit -- an 18.7 percent increase over the previous year -- as a fluke, product of gains in other lines of insurance besides homeowners and a very good year for their investments.
Insurance is ridiculous. If most people cancelled all their insurances and put the money in a savings account or stashed it safely away, they'd never need insurance.
