By
Theyre B-A-A-A-A-C-K!!!
Were referring, of course, to the industry rankings in our Life & Health Statistical Report.
Last year, for reasons we wont even go into now, we did not publish the rankings for the first time in decades. We quickly found out how important some of the time-honored traditions here at National Underwriter are to our readership. In some perverse way, the indignation and anger that readers expressed over our not publishing these figures was very gratifying–we came to realize just how much the industry looks forward to and depends on them.
Well, here they are. And to make up for what we did not produce last year, this report includes results not only from 2002 but from 2001 as well.
This year the report is being co-sponsored by Fitch Ratings. Julie Burke, a managing director at Fitch, has written a most informative article (see page 16) that provides an insightful overview of the industry as it starts to recover from the stresses of 2002, which by all accounts was a very tough year for the business.
In the following pages youll find rankings in several categories–admitted assets, premium income, investment income, individual life premiums, individual annuity premiums, group life premiums, net gain, total in-force, group in-force, individual in-force, all health insurers, group health premiums, individual leaders, non-cancellable premiums and guaranteed renewable premiums.
Metropolitan Life sits atop the rankings in many of the categories. In terms of admitted assets, Met is the industry leader with over $200.5 billion, up 8.6% from 2001s total of $184.7 billion.
Another healthy increase in assets among the top 10 companies was at Teachers Insurance & Annuity, which rose 9.7% to a little over $142 billion from $129.7 billion the year before.
A little further down the list, two companies in the AIG family–Sunamerica Life and AIG Annuity Co.–flexed their muscles and showed asset increases of 32% and 36%, respectively.
Overall, 63 companies have admitted assets of $10 billion or more. As impressive as that is, it is down from 65 companies in 2001. Many companies on the list suffered a hit to their asset totals due to the tough economic environment.
Other categories in which Metropolitan Life was the leader are premium income, where with $22.4 billion it is more than $6 billion ahead of second-place Prudential; net gain after dividends, where its total was more than twice second-place Travelers; group life premiums; and total in-force, where it extended its lead over Prudential, which ranks second.
