Property/casualty insurers started to broadcast the fact that they ranked on the list of Ward’s 50 top-performing insurance companies for 2022 last week, but only two were named for 32 straight years—RLI Corp. and GEICO.

Ward, a unit of Aon, which provides benchmarking and best practices studies for the insurance industry, annually analyzes financial performance property/casualty and life insurers by looking a five-year average measures of growth and profit, compiling the top 50 carriers in each segment since 1991.

According to Ward, the Ward’s 50 P/C insurance companies for 2022 produced a 10.2 percent statutory return on average equity from 2017 to 2021, compared to 7.0 percent for the P/C industry overall.

In addition, the Top 50 had a five-year average combined ratio of 94.6, 5.1 points better than the industry average of 99.7 percent.

“This distinction reflects our longstanding track record of financial strength and stability, disciplined underwriting and differentiated customer service model,” said RLI Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer Craig Kliethermes in a media statement. “It is a testament to the outstanding efforts of our talented employee owners and their commitment to our customers.”

While GEICO did not release a statement, a handful of P/C carriers including Assurant and Amerisafe, announced being named to the list for more than 10 years (16 years for Assurant and 14 for Amerisafe).

Comparing this year’s list available on the Ward’s website with two prior lists for 2021 and 2020 (which are also still available for viewing), Carrier Management spotted four P/C carriers that joined the Top 50 ranks in 2022 that were not on the 2021 and 2020 lists: New Jersey Manufacturers, Safety Insurance Group, The Hartford and Utica National Insurance Group.

While 88 percent of the 2022 Ward’s 50 P/C carriers (44 out of 50) have been on the list for at least three consecutive years, four 2021 honorees dropped off the list in 2022: Grinnell Mutual Group, HCC Insurance Holdings Group, Kentucky Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company, and Pioneer State Mutual Insurance Company.

The complete 50-member list, published alphabetically on Ward’s website, is derived by analyzing the financial results of nearly 2,900 P/C carriers using metrics such as:

• Five-Year Average Return on Average Equity
• Five-Year Average Return on Average Assets
• Five-Year Average Return on Total Revenue
• Five-Year Growth in Revenue
• Five-Year Growth in Surplus
• Five-Year Average Combined Ratio

In addition to their stellar combined ratios and ROE results, Ward reported that in comparing the Top 50 cohort to the industry, the benchmarking firm found:

• The Top 50 grew policyholder surplus by 54.3 percent compared to 37.7 percent for the industry for the five-year period since 2017.
• Net premiums written for the Ward’s 50 P/C group grew 40.5 percent compared to the industry’s 28.5 percent growth.
• In addition to achieving higher profits and growth, the Ward’s 50 benchmark has lower overall expense ratios. In 2021, expenses relative to revenue were 9.0 percent lower for the Ward’s 50 P/C group.

“Insurance companies have been challenged with increasing loss costs, inflation and meeting talent demands. In selecting the Ward’s 50, we identified companies that pass financial stability requirements and measure their ability to grow while maintaining strong capital positions and underwriting results,” said Jeff Rieder, partner and head of Ward benchmarking at Aon.

In order to be eligible for the list, before companies are even evaluated on the various financial metrics, carriers must pass minimum safety and consistency thresholds, including:

• Surplus and premiums of at least $50 million for each of the five years analyzed
• Net income in at least four of the last five years
• Compound annual growth in premiums between -10 percent and 40 percent

Carrier Management counted at least three organizations that have affiliated companies named to both the P/C and L/H Ward’s 50 lists in 2022: Allstate and Auto-Owners and Farm Bureau Financial Services.

According to a statement on the Farm Bureau website, this marks the 23rd time that Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company has been named to the Life-Health Ward’s 50 list and the eighth straight year for that Farm Bureau Property & Casualty Insurance Company has been recognized to the P/C Ward’s 50 list.