Chubb posted record property/casualty underwriting income of about $1.6 billion, up 3.8% during the last quarter of 2024.
Fourth quarter net income was down 22% to about $2.6 billion compared to the same period a year ago, but the Whitehouse Station, New Jersey-based insurer finished the fourth quarter with a combined ratio of 85.7
Chubb said the drop in Q4 net income was due to a tax benefit last year of more than $1 billion from enactment of a tax law in Bermuda.
Pretax Q4 catastrophe losses were $607 million compared to $300 million a year ago. Hurricane Milton alone caused $309 million in Q4 catastrophe losses, Chubb said. Global P/C growth in net premiums was 6.7% for Q4 2024.
CEO Evan G. Greenberg in a statement acknowledged the California wildfires as a “terrible tragedy” and added that the insurer was on the ground, “endeavoring to assist our policyholders who have lost property, been displaced from their homes and businesses, and had their lives severely disrupted.”
He said the initial estimate of Chubb’s catastrophe losses from the fires, to be recorded in the first quarter 2025, is about $1.5 billion.
P/C underwriting income for all of 2024 was also a record, according to Chubb. Underwriting income came in up 7.1% compared to last year at about $5.9 billion, and the insurer posted a combined ratio for the year of 86.6.
Chubb said net income for 2024 was also a record at about $9.3 billion, up 2.7%. Pretax catastrophe losses were higher at about $2.4 billion compared to about $1.8 billion for 2023.
Chubb finished 2024 with global P/C net premiums written up 9.6%.
Greenberg in a statement said Chubb’s results for the full year were “the best in our company’s history,” adding, “Overall market conditions are quite favorable, and we see really good growth opportunity for over 80% of
our global P/C business, commercial and consumer, as well as our life business.”
