Insurers see improved cash reserves

Several years of increased premiums and lower losses have left property-casualty insurers with a lot more cash to set aside for contingencies, according to a new report by Hartford-based Conning Research and Consulting. With that abundance of cash, known as a reserve, insurers as a whole are in a far better position to weather losses that they were a few years ago. Overall reserves grew from a 4.3 percent deficiency in 2004 to a 5.3 percent redundancy in 2006, and improved even more so this year, Conning said.