Over the last year, the financial media has focused primarily on the major banks and their solvency issues. We have heard relatively little about the major insurance companies, which were not eligible to participate in federal bailout programs such as the TARP. As I will detail in the following pages, most of the major insurance companies are in financial trouble due to the recession and the credit crisis; some major insurers are large players in derivative instruments such as Credit Default Swaps and Collateralized Debt Obligations which have gone bad. In addition, many property and casualty insurers were dealt a blow by the natural disasters (hurricanes) that occurred last year. Some in the industry predict that if we have another bad hurricane season this year, a number of the nation's largest insurers will go out of business entirely.
The publicly-traded insurers will be releasing their required 10-Q financial statements for the 1Q in the next few weeks, along with their 10-Ks for all of 2008. I am told that these reports are going to look very negative on balance, and this could be quite disturbing to the financial markets including stocks. As we go along, I will tell you specifically what to look for in these financial reports to judge the credit worthiness of your particular insurer. This may be one of the most important and timely E-Letters I have published....