Weekly News Roundup, December 6

In this week’s news will talk about Zurich Resilience Solutions launches tool to build weather resilience, Personal lines lead P/C insurance turnaround, and much more…

Zurich Resilience Solutions, a unit of Zurich Insurance Group, has introduced Climate Spotlight, an interactive digital platform designed to assist businesses, municipalities, and public entities in identifying, mitigating, and managing risks associated with extreme weather and climate change.

The tool provides insights using proprietary data to model 10 climate-related perils under best- to worst-case scenarios through the year 2100.

“In the face of worsening weather and climate conditions, Zurich Resilience Solutions is helping customers be proactive and take steps to build their extreme weather and climate resilience,” said Aroo Sivasubramaniam, head of Zurich Resilience Solutions for North America.

“The spotlight uses our proprietary weather and climate data to generate insights that can help businesses identify and quantify risks to their operations, assets, and people, so they can best allocate capital and build a competitive advantage.”

The American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) responded to the California Department of Insurance’s recent workshop addressing the inclusion of Net Cost of Reinsurance in ratemaking.

The workshop is part of broader efforts by Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to advance his Sustainable Insurance Strategy.

In a statement attributed to Laura Curtis, APCIA’s assistant vice president of state government relations, the association underscored the importance of reinsurance in stabilizing California’s insurance market.

The US property/casualty (P/C) insurance industry recorded a $4.1 billion net underwriting gain in the first nine months of 2024, a notable improvement from the $32.1 billion loss reported during the same period in 2023, according to a report from AM Best.

The report offers an early look into the financial performance of the industry based on interim statutory statements received as of Nov. 25, 2024, representing approximately 98% of total industry net premiums written and 96% of policyholder surplus.

The underwriting gain was driven by a 9.5% increase in net earned premiums, which helped offset a 1.3% rise in incurred losses and loss adjustment expenses (LAE) and a 9.2% increase in other underwriting expenses. AM Best highlighted the continued improvement in the personal lines segment as a key factor in the better underwriting results.

The industry’s combined ratio improved to 97.9 during the nine-month period, down from 100 in the prior year. According to the report, catastrophe losses accounted for 8.8 points of the combined ratio, a decrease from 10.0 points in 2023. When excluding $8.5 billion in favorable reserve development, the accident-year combined ratio stood at 99.2.

GEICO has opened 500 new jobs in North Texas as part of an ongoing expansion of its commercial insurance operations.

At a ceremony marking the development, the company detailed that 300 of the new roles will be based in its Richardson office. This location has been established as a central hub for serving GEICO’s small business customers, complementing other facilities in Katy, Texas, and Fredericksburg, Virginia. The remaining 200 positions will support sales, service, and claims across the insurer’s broader business lines.

The expansion is tied to recent growth in GEICO’s commercial insurance sector, which has seen increa