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FEATURE: Insurers resisting temptation on the asset management side
22 March 2010
With underwriting income falling, the question for insurers’ investment departments is whether they are willing to take more risk on the asset side to boost returns.
Compared with other financial institutions, the insurance industry’s balance sheets were less damaged during the financial crisis and have since been able to recover quickly. The industry benefited from having short-duration and conservative risk investments.
Less than two years later, most firms have turned their balance sheets and profits around. Almost all insurers’ investment portfolios were hit by big writedowns and unrealised losses during the financial crisis.
The reaction in the industry was to shed the riskiest investments and turn an already comparatively conservative approach even more conservative. The problem is the property/casualty insurance and reinsurance industry is in a period of rate decline where underwriting returns are weak and the outlook for investment yields is unpromising.
Asset management specialists project an increase in inflation and continued weakness in the labour market. Towers Watson’s Global Survey of Investment and Economic Expectations survey predicts similar market returns in 2010...
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