I just stopped researching what is probably the tenth insurance company I have done at least cursory research on and I have come to a few conclusions after looking at insurance companies of all sizes. I stopped research on this company because of its massive underwriting losses again.

UNAM is the only company I have looked at that has had consistent consecutive underwriting profits for almost a decade now. The best companies besides UNAM have generally only had underwriting profits for 3 out of the past 10 years. Almost all of the other companies have had consistent underwriting losses over the past decade. Underwriting losses have generally gotten worse over the last few years.

Having noticed all of this I realized in my previous UNAM analysis write up that maybe I was making things too complex and wanted to ask your opinion on the matter.

How truly difficult is generating consistent underwriting profits over the almost past decade during a soft insurance market which is what UNAM has done? Are the other insurance companies managements complete morons or are UNAM’s management and discipline just exceptional? Should the consistent underwriting profit override the low ROE and low investment returns at UNAM?

Also just out of curiosity, does anyone else find researching insurance companies and other financials tedious with the amount of lawyer talk and useless crap that fills the pages of the annuals and quarterlies just to make sure they do not get sued?

Looking forward to some discussion on this topic.