We see professionals, like doctors, lawyers, architects and engineers, as role models
I measure the success of our business and of the employees in our business by the professionalism they demonstrate in doing their jobs daily. Success in the insurance industry is a direct result of having the discipline to walk away from unprofitable business and to stick to underwriting criteria and adequate pricing even when competitors are willing to cut their rates. After you collected and invested all the premiums, suddenly, you realize you haven't made enough incremental investment income to pay for the claims as a result of poor underwriting. In our business, you can be bankrupt and not know it for three or four years, until all the claims have been reported. When you write business, you have to constantly focus on the probabilities of losses and profits from every piece of business. Top-line growth, premium growth, is not the answer. I don't think that is the way to go about seeking success. Too many companies are shortsighted, believing they will invest the big premium dollars wisely, and with the investment income and the underwriting, they will make huge profits. What is left over is what makes a company successful. After you collect the premium dollars, you must pay the claims and expenses.
I have seen too many companies get starry-eyed about premium, but premium is only one part of the puzzle. If you want to be successful in the insurance business, I believe you must follow three rules: Don't compromise actuarial pricing; Know your insured and the exposure you're insuring; Know the financial strength of your re-insurers. Concentrate on professionalism every day, and, one day, you will find more profit than you expected to have, in a business with great financial strength. The bottom line profit will come. I believe an insurance company is successful when it goes about its work as professionally as it possibly can, and I preach the same to the employees of my company. Financial measurements and the fact that we are a billion-dollar company are, of course, good measurements, but I think professionalism is a key element for realizing success.
That would result in prices actually going | The company might pay 80% while you pay | This is a new coverage, when compared to | This coverage increases your daily benefit | So what do you do to cover yourself? | The magazine also serves as a forum | In managing change, insurance companies | But even that would change the industry | Legislation to extend the Terrorism | But 9/11 has made us much more alert | Each player performs an independent but interconnecting | Re-insurers also provide capacity to | The type of insurance surplus lines | An A+ company's requirement would | Insurance is a business of risk, and | A disciplined operating procedure | The premium for this class of business is | At Philadelphia Insurance, we will | Another example would be a case where | We see professionals, like doctors, lawyers | That's certainly true today with investment | In these cases, workers' compensation insurance | We will see companies suffer from the
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