Oh, I just outed myself, didn't I? Oh well, makes me an expert (;
Actually, I'm not sure what 'industry claims that auto insurers stand-alone' means. If you mean that most companies don't solely write auto insurance, so it's not generally simple to evaluate the profitability of auto insurance in specific, then yes I agree it's at least a bit disingenuous.
As for costs, I think it's pretty regional -- in some provinces, the big cost drivers are some large court awards lately that may have set precedents... but since cases affecting 2003 won't be settled until later, they'll show up as prior-year adjustments reducing future profits, due to accounting convention. Insurance profits in general are a bit of a joke, really, since the actual costs of coverage in a given year aren't known until many years later.
Incidentally, auto premiums were effectively decreased in BC for 2004 (though a gov't premium tax increase more than compensated), and they still made a profit (for a change) in 2003. But they say it's largely due to the good weather, which is not something that an insurance company can anticipate in their rates, eh? |
