Financials
Insurance - Property & Casualty
$22.08B
8.3K
W.R. Berkley Corporation is an insurance holding company, operating in the commercial lines sector. It underwrites commercial insurance, including excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines, with a focus on niche markets and decentralized operations. The company has a global presence with operations in the United States, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Scandinavia, South America and the United Kingdom.
Key insights and themes extracted from this filing
The company reported net premiums written of $11.97 billion for 2024, a 9% increase compared to $10.95 billion in 2023. This indicates continued growth in the company's core insurance operations.
The GAAP combined ratio was 90.3% in 2024 compared to 89.7% in 2023. A combined ratio below 100 indicates an underwriting profit, so the slight increase suggests consistent underwriting profitability.
Net income to common stockholders was $1.76 billion in 2024 compared to $1.38 billion in 2023. This represents a substantial increase in profitability.
The company's strategy includes forming new businesses focused on sectors like healthcare, cyber security, energy, and agriculture, as well as growing international markets like Asia-Pacific, South America, and Mexico.
The company states that it maintains an interest in evaluating the startup of possible new ventures and the acquisition of complementary businesses on an ongoing basis.
The company reclassified a program management business from the Insurance segment to the Reinsurance & Monoline Excess segment, indicating a strategic realignment of operations.
The company's strategy of decentralized operations allows each business to identify and respond quickly to changing market conditions and specific customer needs.
The company believes its people are its greatest asset and that its corporate culture is the most important intangible driver of long-term value creation.
The Board of Directors diligently exercises its risk management oversight through regular interactions with employees beyond corporate senior management, and our directors have visibility into and receive timely feedback on cultural issues that may affect our business.
The company recognizes that changing climate conditions may alter the frequency and increase the severity of catastrophic events, which could adversely affect its financial condition and results.
The company acknowledges the risk of cyber security breaches of its information technology systems and those of its vendors, which could expose it to liability and harm its business.
The company recognizes the potential impact of new or emerging pandemics, whether related to COVID-19 or otherwise, which may materially and adversely affect its results of operations, financial position and liquidity in the future.
The company acknowledges intense competition from other specialty insurers, regional carriers, large national multi-line companies and reinsurers. The company competes directly with a large number of these companies.
The company recognizes that new entrants and capital providers may enter the property and casualty insurance and reinsurance industries, which may adversely impact our business and profitability.
The company acknowledges that technology companies or other third parties have created, and may in the future create technology-enabled business models, processes, platforms or alternate distribution channels that may adversely impact our competitive position in some parts of our business.
The expense ratio (policy acquisition and insurance operating expenses expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned) increased by 0.1 points to 28.5% in 2024 from 28.4% in 2023, indicating consistent operational efficiency.
The company seeks to effectively manage risk and limit losses in a variety of ways including through effective underwriting, tailoring policy terms, and the use of reinsurance.
The company's controls are designed to ensure compliance with guidelines, policies and legal and regulatory standards, but a control system can only provide reasonable assurance that the control system's objectives will be met.
The company has a documented information security program to manage potential cybersecurity threats and incidents. The Program seeks to adhere to applicable U.S. and international laws and regulations.
Products or services offered that develop or adopt artificial intelligence (“AI”) technologies, including generative AI and machine learning, offer potential benefits but likewise may raise technological, security, legal and other risks and challenges that may adversely affect our operations, business, or reputation.
The company's cybersecurity program seeks to adhere to applicable U.S. and international laws and regulations, including New York State's cybersecurity regulation applicable to financial services institutions authorized by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
The Board declared regular quarterly cash dividends of $0.07 per share in the first quarter and $0.08 per share in each of the remaining three quarters, as well as special dividends of $0.33 per share, $0.25 per share and $0.50 per share in the second, third, and fourth quarters, for a total of $532 million in aggregate dividends in 2024.
The Company repurchased 5,702,996 shares of its common stock in 2024 for $304 million.
The Company had commitments to invest up to $48 million in certain real estate investment projects as of December 31, 2024.
The Company offers employees a comprehensive benefits package, including health and wellness, financial, educational and life management benefits. In addition, we support employees in making an impact in their local communities and globally through environmental and social efforts that are meaningful to them.
Our Board of Directors engages with our senior leadership team, including our senior vice president - human resources, on a periodic basis across a range of human capital management issues, including succession planning and development, compensation, benefits, talent recruiting and retention, engagement, diversity and inclusion, and employee feedback.
The NYDFS also adopted an amendment to the regulation governing enterprise risk management, which applies to our insurance subsidiaries licensed in New York, that requires an insurance group's enterprise risk management function to address certain additional risks, including climate change risk.
The uncertainty of an insurer's ultimate loss costs, and fluctuating competitive conditions, result in alternating periods of "hard" markets (more profitable for insurers) and “soft” markets (less profitable for insurers).
Recently, insurance prices have generally increased for most lines of business, excluding workers' compensation and certain professional liability lines of business. However, loss costs have also increased and the duration and magnitude of the improved pricing environment remains uncertain.
Federal financial services modernization legislation and legislative and regulatory initiatives taken or which may be taken in response to conditions in the financial markets, global insurance supervision and other factors may lead to additional federal regulation of the insurance industry in the coming years.