The list of Ward Group’s 50 top-performing insurance companies was released recently by the company, which is a consulting firm that specializes in the insurance industry and is the leading provider of benchmarking and best-practices services.

Annually, Ward Group analyzes the financial performance of insurance companies domiciled in the United States and identifies the top performers in both the life-health and property-casualty segments. This group of top performers is called the Ward's 50 for the year. Each company on the list has passed all safety and consistency screens and achieved superior performance over the five years analyzed. More than 3,000 property/casualty insurance companies were included in the analysis.

Over the last decade, the insurance industry has changed dramatically with emerging technology, changing customer and employee demographics, and increasing competition in market conditions.

"It is important for companies to remain focused on meeting revenue goals while maintaining an efficient operating model that enables them to meet customer demands," explains Jeff Rieder, president of Ward Group. "The best companies excel at balancing expense management, technology deployment, and customer service."

The Ward's 50 property/casualty insurance companies produced an 18.7 percent return on average equity from 2003 to 2007, compared to 14.6 percent for the property/casualty industry overall.

The Ward's 50 benchmarks are available in Ward's Results, an insurance industry financial reference series. Click here for a complete list of the 2008 Ward's 50 companies.

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Source: Ward Group

© Copyright 2007, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC).