Let's help make a deal; intermediaries feel the squeeze as mergers and acquisitions add up - more than 200 insurance deals last year alone
Article Abstract:
Acquisitions and mergers peaked in 1997, as more than 200 deals worth over $28 billion were concluded during the year. The surge in consolidation deals has highlighted the competition among intermediaries such as investment banks and financial advisers. New competitors have also emerged, including commercial banks that acquire brokerages to form their own broker-dealers. Intermediaries are also offering a growing number of services, such as financial due diligence and actuarial appraisals of a firm's economic value, insurance assistance and risk management.
Publication Name: Best's Review Life-Health Insurance Edition
Subject: Insurance
ISSN: 0275-0988
Year: 1998
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Weathering ups and downs of long-term stock investing
Article Abstract:
Insurance companies should carefully evaluate their investment strategies. Many financial advisers and the general public believes that stocks have outperformed bonds and other investments in the long-term. While equity investments have generally outperformed fixed-income investments, research by Stein Roe & Farnham Inc suggests that equities will underperform government bonds from Jun 1996 to Jun 2001. A variety of economic scenarios were tested. Insurers should strongly consider investing less in stocks.
Publication Name: Best's Review Life-Health Insurance Edition
Subject: Insurance
ISSN: 0275-0988
Year: 1996
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Commercial mortgage lending can be good for the bottom line
Article Abstract:
Life insurers can learn from the disastrous consequences of insurers' commercial real estate lending practices in 1980s. Survey results show that five major areas of distinction contributed to insurers' lending success or failure. Those areas are discussed. It appears that, in the mid-1990s, insurers are avoiding some of the lending mistakes that insurers made in the 1980s.
Publication Name: Best's Review Life-Health Insurance Edition
Subject: Insurance
ISSN: 0275-0988
Year: 1996
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: Mergers and acquisitions drove 1995 corporate changes. Rates, sleeker structures help to set record net. Persistency improves, ratios lowest in 20 years
- Abstracts: New market dynamics need integrated strategies. Data warehousing speeds decision-making process. Pursuing the affluent client
- Abstracts: The Internet may be wonderful - but....: giving the Internet what it lacks: security, reliability, manageability through extranet technology
- Abstracts: Home HIV tests create new problems: some may fraudulently purchase life insurance to fund medical care. Scandinavian highlights - insurers open to possibilities