More claims-paying capacity will be needed as number of global catastrophes increases: expert

The number and cost of global natural catastrophes in 2010 was far above the long-term average over the past 30 years, according to slides for a presentation given by Insurance Information Institute president Robert P. Hartwig.Hartwig spoke at a personal lines seminar held by the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) in Chicago on Apr. 22, 2011. Year 2010 included 950 natural catastrophes, causing insured losses of $37 billion, Hartwig’s presentation noted. In contrast, the average annual number of global catastrophes over the period of 1980 to 2009 is 615. The average annual insured losses caused by natural catastrophes over the past 30 years is $23 billion.One of Hartwig’s slides shows the number of global catastrophes has steadily increased from just below 400 events in 1980 to just below 1,000 in 2010 (and more than 1,000 events in 2007).”Increased claims paying capacity will be required on a global scale if current trends continue (as is expected),” Hartwig’s slide notes.The number of catastrophes caused by severe storms is increasing not only globally, but in the United States as well, Hartwig noted.There were a record 247 natural disaster events in the United States in 2010, with a vast majority of them being the result of storms.”Hurricanes get all the headlines, but thunderstorms are consistent producers of large-scale loss,” Hartwig’s slide observes. Average insured thunderstorm losses in the United States have quintupled since the early 1980s. Insured thunderstorm losses in the United States in 2010 totaled $9.5 billion, the third-highest total ever.