Report Card: Insurance Rating

When you are shopping for insurance for your small business, one of your main concerns would be about differentiating a good insurance firm from a poor one. Firms that provide financial ratings for insurance companies can help you in your decision. There are five major agencies in the U.S that rate the financial stability of insurance companies.
These companies provide ratings that are objective, free, and easily accessible. The ratings are based on financial data that the insurers are required to report to the government as well as information the insurance companies provide directly to the rating agencies. You can find these ratings on the agencies’ website or in books that are available in libraries. The agencies will typically require you to register on their site to access the ratings.

Insurance ratings, essentially, are letter grades just like those in school, with A being the best, followed by B, and so on. The rating system is not uniform and varies from agency to agency. Here’s a list of the 5 agencies and their rating system:

• A.M. Best: A.M. Best is a full-service credit rating organization and rates the entire market of insurance companies. Top financial strength ratings fall in the categories of superior (A++, A+) and excellent (A, A-).

• Standard & Poor's: The ratings start from AAA for extremely strong, AA for very strong and so on. Standard & Poor's also chooses certain companies as Security Circle insurers. These companies must rank in the top four categories for financial strength, submit to a comprehensive initial review, and undergo ongoing monitoring. • Duff & Phelps: This agency specializes in rating small- to medium-sized insurers. Companies get a rating of AAA, AA+, AA, and AA-. In addition to its ratings, Duff & Phelps' Solvency Seal identifies companies that have been in operation five years or longer, and their long and short-term capacity to pay claims. • Moody's: Look for companies with financial strength ratings of Aaa (exceptional) or Aa (excellent).

• TheStreet.com: This Company rates in straight report-card-style system. Excellent financial strength ratings are A+, A, and A-. In addition to the ratings, you should also look at how a company ranks across its entire range of services to get a good idea of its overall financial stability. The ratings tell you only how financially able a company is to pay claims, not whether it will actually do so. While getting the scores from the ratings agencies is a good start, you should also talk to your insurance agent to get a feel of how quickly claims are settled. Another good source is the state insurance department, where information about complaints from consumers is recorded.

Car Insurance - What Is The Cost Of Being Uninsured.

Every year when the renewal documents for your car insurance come through, most people may begrudge having to pay out a lump sum especially those who have clean no claims histories. Most people will also resent the time having to search around for the best deal in the market place and the fact that premiums seem to always get bigger. But no matter how much a stress and a strain paying for car insurance is, very few people would never dare not to renew their policy. Miss Robinson from Derbyshire knows the true cost of failing to insure your vehicle when she was hit by an uninsured driver. Miss Robinson was turning into her driveway when another car drove straight into the back of her. She managed to get out of the car and stop the other driver long enough to take down his contact details. But when she later tried to call him about the accident she found the number she had been given was fake. Miss Robinson immediately phoned the police and was told that there was no record of the cars registration details. It was at this point it became clear that something was wrong.
Miss Robinson suffered from whiplash and psychological trauma, but there seem no chance of compensation. When the awful realisation dawned that the other driver was most likely un-insured Miss Robinson phoned the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and was given the contact details for the Motor Insurance Bureau. Unfortunately there were limits to what could be compensated for, in this situation and Miss Robinson was forced to pay for all repairs to her vehicle and use her vacation time to attend medical assessments for her whiplash injury.

It took a whole year for the claim to be settled and Miss Robinson was finally compensation for the accident. It was a horrendous drawn out experience that Miss Robinson is now trying to forget, and the money offered little consolation for the trauma she experienced. The payout is also of no consolation to the other 500,000 legally insured drives in Derbyshire whose premiums were forced up last year to pay for these incidents. The Motor insurance Bureau said that £15,477,000 was paid out in 2006 to 19,674 cases of traffic accidents with an uninsured driver.

The problem in catching uninsured drivers is that they are very difficult to detect. Derbyshire police did prosecute 5,000 uninsured drivers last year but admit that they are nowhere near to catching everyone who commits this crime. It is believed in Derbyshire alone there could be as many as 20,000 insured drivers on the roads, three quarters of whom are not being caught. Motorists who decide not to insure their cars know the risks they are taking and aware of the risk of getting caught and this is not enough to deter them. In addition the penalties for driving without insurance are low. In Derbyshire during 2007 the average fine awarded for driving uninsured was £367.00, which considering the average insurance premium for the same year was £629 you can see why some people may be tempted to take the risk.

Something needs to change in this system to prevent more people from not insuring their car so that repeat occurrences of Miss Robinson’s situation can finally be stopped.

Danielle is an author of several articles pertaining to Car Insurance. He is known for his expertise on the subject and on other Business and Finance related articles.

Report Predicts Good News For Insurers

Car insurers are set to make a profit for the first time in 14 years according to a report released this year. They will make a profit in 2009 because of rises in insurance premiums the report has said. This year the industry faces a loss but the market will make a profit of £30 million pounds next year because the cost of premiums will outstrip the cost of accident claims, the Market Analyst Datamonitor revealed.

According to research, the industry has not seen profit for 14 years due to an increase in claims, including personal injury and accident claims which have increased overall costs for insurance firms. Now though, insurance premiums have become so high that next year they will account for these losses and the market will see serious growth. Intense competition has thwarted any attempts to raise insurance premiums until now, but the researchers have said that since 2001 insurers have been more interested in expanding their market share than addressing the accidents claims bill which damages their profits.

An article in The Herald explored the issue and Andrew Haslip who was involved in writing the report, said: "2009 could be a historic year for the private motor insurance market, putting an end to a painful 14 consecutive years of losses. While insurers have needed to raise their prices, they've been unable to do so due to the level of competition between insurers and the fact that the vast majority of consumers buy on price."

He also told the paper that this profitability would not last as competition peaked again and insurers were forced to lower their premiums due to public demand, he predicted that a year later the companies would once again be trading at a loss. However, despite these revelatory research findings the AA have issued a statement that they believe these predictions to be inaccurate.

In fact, the CEO of the AA recently said that the cost of claims is actually showing no sign of stopping or lowering and that the cost of damage to vehicles is rising by approximately 5% each year. Additionally, he said that accident claims are increasing by 10% each year.” So even as premiums rise so will the costs insurers face. He described the situation in an article online: “It remains a very volatile and competitive market and we don’t see that changing in the immediate future.”

According to The Herald Tribune, “Royal Bank of Scotland , the country's biggest motor insurer, and others have indicated they see the tide turning, but rivals like Admiral warn the pace of change is still very slow, with competition from price comparison websites eating into insurers' profits.” So it’s clear to see that the only way for insurance companies to claw back profits is to raise prices and also that consumers will not let that happen.

For the large majority of customers the policy and insurance company they choose depends on the price of the premium, so to remain attractive to these customers’ insurance companies must strive to under-cut each other, essentially trading at a loss. The popularity of price comparison websites where customers can browse for the best insurance deal and the ease with which accident claims can presently be made against companies means that the industry is in trouble until litigation laws change or consumers have an incentive other than price on which to base their decisions.

Sarah Othman is an author of several articles pertaining to accident claims. She is known for her expertise on the subject and on other Business and Finance related articles. See http://www.accidentsdirect.com