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The diversified insurance industry will experience weak prospects through at least 1999 as liability for environmental and toxic pollution remains undetermined. Cleanup costs for all hazardous waste sites covered by the Superfund legislation range from $100 billion to $2 trillion. Litigation for these pollution cases also contribute to added costs for insurers. Investors should probably avoid this industry because of this potential liability.

The insurance industry has been affected by the drop in the bond market, the adoption of a new Federal Accounting Standards Board regulation and other factors. Also natural disasters, such as the California earthquake, have taxed many property and casualty companies' resources. On the other hand, the life and health insurance sectors did better than expected by analysts who thought that health plan demand would slow as people waited for national healthcare reform. Investment in the insurance industry is not advisable, however, even though there are some positive signs. It may take up to five years for earnings to be high enough to offer substantial returns.

Forecasts for the insurance industry are mixed, due to the uncertainty caused by the proposed national health care reform, the possibility of continued catastrophe losses and increased asbestos and environmental coverage exposures. The conservative investor will find many strong investment choices because asset quality and other risks have decreased. There is a trend towards investment-grade bonds, which carry low interest rates.

Willis shows that there's still money being made on Wall Street IT SOUNDS implausible. But here is a mainstream American company--a financial one, to boot--whose share price has been hitting [...]

Growth by acquisition continues to be the name of the game so far in 1998 for the world's largest publicly held brokers. Despite the continued soft insurance pricing environment and [...]

The top 10 insurance brokers reported improved financial results for 1993, with all but two reporting net profits for the year. In addition, eight of the brokers reported an increase in profits from 1992, and nine of the ten reported increases in total revenue. Marsh & McLennan led the brokers with profits of $332.4 million on total revenue of $3,163.4 million in 1993, up from a profit of $263.7 million on revenues of $2,937.0 million in 1992. Statistics for the other brokers are included., For the first time in several years, optimism prevailed among leading brokerage executives who discussed 1993 financial results with the National Underwriter. In fact, if the numbers are any indication, [...]