Underwriting: Getting Tough

Today the underwriter is king. And if the insurance industry is to be believed, nobody is going to usurp that position any time soon. "The depressed investment market and scary legal environment has convinced insurance and reinsurance companies that maintaining a strict underwriting discipline is the only way to make a profit," says Ellen Thrower, executive director of the School of Risk Management at New York‘s St. John‘s University. A discussion of "back to basics" underwriting may sound clich&eacut;--after all, the insurance industry is several years into a hard market, and the wild, price swings are beginning to stabilize.