The CEO spoke through the insurer’s This fall and full 12 months 2022 investor name.
“From my perspective, based on what I see, and I believe my colleagues’ perspective is that comp is likely going to continue to bump along the bottom throughout 2023 and we can look forward to 2024 and beyond hopefully for some considerable firming, which again is something to look-forward to,” he stated.
“But within the meantime, [it] clearly requires thought and self-discipline, and fairly frankly, from our perspective, it’s just a little bit unnerving that some score bureaus appear to not be appropriately making an allowance for or adjusting for the frequency profit that occurred throughout COVID.
“Additionally, we think one needs to be very thoughtful about severity trend as well, and what that could mean in the future, especially on the medical front.”
The enterprise noticed staff’ comp web written premiums enhance year-on-year, at $1.22 billion for 2022 versus $1.15 billion in 2021. Growth on paper was “really driven by payroll”, in accordance with the CEO.
“If you look at the number of accounts, that product line has really shrunk for us because of my colleagues’ discipline,” Berkley stated.
“I mean if you really want to get granular about workers’ compensation, the fact of the matter is the people that are doing the irresponsible things are the same people that did the irresponsible things the last time we were in a trough,” he informed analysts and traders.
“Sometimes they’re in the identical place, generally they’re in a brand new place, nevertheless it’s the identical those who – I don’t know in the event that they don’t perceive or they don’t care – however they’re creating mayhem available in the market.
“We’ve kind of seen some version of the movie before, and we’ll just wait it out.”
WR Berkley outcomes 2022 – full 12 months and This fall
The insurer reported web premiums written of $10 billion for the total 12 months 2022, up from $8.86 billion in 2021.
Net earnings for 2022 was a “record” $1.4 billion, a rise on $1 billion the prior 12 months. The insurer additionally noticed a file 12 months for pre-tax underwriting earnings, at $1 billion, it stated in a Press launch.
WR Berkley’s most up-to-date This fall web earnings was $383 million, up from This fall 2021’s $294 million. Pre-tax underwriting earnings for the quarter was $291.9 million.
In the decision with analysts, Berkley mirrored on a “splintered” business.
“What I mean by that is, once upon a time, most P&C product lines marched throughout the cycle, somewhat in lockstep, and what we are seeing more and more is major product lines still operating and behaving in a cyclical manner, but they are [at] very different points in the cycle,” he stated.
“And we’re just seeing that in a more and more pronounced way – and when people talk about where is the marketplace, I don’t think that there is one answer anymore.”