Since launching the first in a series of reports known as The Mutual Factor in 2018, NAMIC has continued to publish the report on an annual basis. The reports are developed by NAMIC in partnership with Aon and provide a yearly update on multiple performance metrics which show how the mutual insurance industry is doing in relation to other non-mutual insurance companies in the United States (US). From time to time, the reports also include an opinion survey of key stakeholders regarding their view of mutuals compared to non-mutuals.

In the new Mutual Factor Midyear Update, now in its second year of publication, NAMIC and Aon provide an opportunity to look back on the end of last year, the challenges that they believe remain for the US mutual industry, perspectives which are shared by the world’s leading reinsurers, and the future opportunities they believe lie ahead for mutual insurers. Specifically, the 2024 Midyear Report provides perspective on the impact of significant events on the US mutual industry that occurred between September 2023 and April 2024, US catastrophe and secondary peril losses, inflation, legal system abuse, and the state of the reinsurance market.

Key takeaways include:

• Highlighting another active year for weather in the US, in 2023, natural disasters resulted in economic losses estimated at USD 114 billion, slightly above the long-term mean (USD 105 billion) and notably above the median since 2000 (USD 84 billion). 2023 was the costliest year in US history for severe convective storms, which contributed a staggering USD 73 billion of the total economic loss and generated nearly USD 59 billion of total insured loss.
• With heightened wildfire activity in Texas and Oklahoma in February and March, Q1 2024 experienced the highest US insured loss total from wildfires on record. Nearly all of these losses came from the Smokehouse Creek Fire in Texas and western Oklahoma.
• Given the challenges that the homeowners line of business has presented NAMIC’s membership over recent years, the cooling of inflation is a helpful factor to foster broader market stabilisation.
• Through a combination of retained earnings, investment returns, and new capital funding, global reinsurance capital has quickly rebounded across both the traditional and alternative capital spaces. This has fundamentally helped stabilise the reinsurance marketplace in the early months of 2024.

NAMIC says work is already underway on the 2024 Mutual Factor Report and it is continuing to partner with Aon to deliver expanded insights into the overall performance of the mutual insurer segment in the US. The full 2024 Mutual Factor Report will be published in September to coincide with NAMIC’s annual convention.

Click this link to download the Mutual Factor Midyear Update.