Impairments Mount in 2009 With More Revelations Expected Totals for 2009 may rise.

Regulators are increasingly using confi dential supervisions to protect the assets of these companies for the policyholders. When the companies are released, either because they’re bought or they’ve been put into liquidation, we fi nd out about them from the regulators and we add them to the list.

Carole Ann King, A.M. Best Company

In 2009, the U.S. property/casualty recorded 18 impairments, up from fi ve in the prior year. On the life/health side, the U.S. insurance recorded 12 impairments, up from six in 2008.

Heightened activity has continued into 2010, with four recorded on the property/casualty side and two on the life/health side in the fi rst fi ve months of the year. That’s also ahead of the systematic research conducted by A.M. Best’s team that compiles impairment statistics in preparation for the annual report on this topic.

The number of impairments recorded for each year rises in subsequent years as unreported and confi dential actions are made public, which can sometimes take several years before all actions are confi rmed.

The impairment report published in 2010 added the names of 20 companies that were determined to be impaired at various points in recent years. That list is maintained by monitoring news reports, surveying regulators and checking databases, report editor Carole Ann King said.

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