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Publications

Gen Re Research publications are another way we deliver underwriting expertise to clients. Gen Re's wealth of knowledge on various matters related to insurance and reinsurance issues is available to our clients on a global basis in several languages. Our aim is to deliver timely insights prepared by our specialists on topics that are most important to you. From mining risks to uninsured motorists to building contractors, we stay current with developments affecting the risks you write. Through our publications, we add to the ways we share that information with you.

Our research is prepared for and shared with the Gen Re client community. Some articles are generally available to all visitors while most research publications are for "clients only." Gen Re's clients can access our full research library and search capabilities through Gen Re Online, our Extranet. Clients can also obtain electronic and print copies of any individual publications by contacting us at . Our Publication Index provides a listing and summary of all research material, and is available on our home page. You can obtain more information about Gen Re Online and our publication library through your Gen Re account executive, or by emailing us at .

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Abaza-Uhrberg, Nabila

Abdo, Carla

Adermann, Karl-Heinz

Agatstein, Richard

Agin, Charles

Ainslie, Ross

Alda, Karin

Alexander, Steve

Alfermann, Barbara

Allison, Laura

Anton, Karl-Heinz

Ashley, Thomas

Atamaniuk, Joe

Bachman, Jim

General ReView - "Other Than Temporary" Unintended Consequences (size: 0.06MB)
	Issue: July, 2003 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Newly proposed accounting rules regarding "Other than Temporary Impairments" are subject to some degree of interpretation. These might lead to unintended consequences for many companies.

General ReView - 2002 Credit Quality Migration - Mixed Results for P&C Insurers (size: 0.07MB)
	Issue: August, 2003 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Credit quality of insurers corporate bond holdings worsened in 2002. Downgrades to below investment grade spiked sharply and there is scant evidence to indicate opportunistic 4th quarter buying. Yet, wide differences among individual company results suggests that managing exposure to credit risk is very achievable.

General ReView - 2003 Property/Casualty Investment Results: Evolving Return/Risk Profiles (size: 0.28MB)
	Issue: August, 2004 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: This article introduces the notion of risk-adjusted income returns for insurers' fixed income security holdings and portfolios. Also displayed are many of the standard prior categorizations of insurers' holdings and investment results.

General ReView - 2004 Life Insurer Investment Results: A Few Surprises (size: 0.49MB)
	Issue: December, 2005 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: This article discusses the investment portfolio composition of annuity writers and ordinary life insurers. There is also a comparison of the risk-adjusted returns of the P&C insurers versus life insurers.

General ReView - 2004 Property/Casualty Investment Results: Some New Looks (size: 0.36MB)

Issue: November, 2005 Language: English
Author: Jim Bachman
Summary: This article addresses property/casualty insurers' 2004 investment results. The first section comments upon fixed income portfolio duration management and risk-adjusted returns. The second and third sections update many of the prior year's charts and tables for fixed income and equity holdings, respectively. The fourth section provides a quick summary.

General ReView - Capital in the Property/Casualty Industry (size: 0.22MB)
Issue: September, 2001 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Available as PDF only. Hard copies no longer available. September 2001 Issue No. 11 - This issue provides a fifty year review examining long(er) term trends in the industry's profit margins and leverage.

General ReView - Codification - A "Big Event" or just a "Whimper?" (size: 0.11MB)
Issue: November, 2000 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Available as PDF only. Hard copies no longer available. Codification - A Big Event or just a Whimper?

General ReView - Enterprise Based Investment Benchmarks: An Industry Standard? (size: 0.14MB)

Issue: January, 2005 Language: English
Author: Jim Bachman
Summary: GR-NEAM has collaborated with Merrill Lynch & Company, Inc. to develop a new series of fixed income performance indices. Their purpose is to create greater clarity of insurers¿ investment objectives, improve alignment of investment manager and insurer goals and thereby enhance long-term after-tax risk adjusted total return investment performance.

General ReView - Enterprise Based Investment Benchmarks: Measuring Performance Right (size: 0.19MB)
	Issue: May, 2005 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Enterprise Based Investment Benchmarks(sm) (EBIB) leverages Merrill Lynch's BookMark(sm) capabilities to provide pre-tax and after-tax total returns and book income returns reflecting portfolio contributions and withdrawals and gain/loss constraints.

General ReView - Enterprise-Based Investment Benchmarks - An Unbiased Solution (size: 0.09MB)

Issue: January, 2004 Language: English
Author: Jim Bachman
Summary: Increasingly, investment professionals recognize the pitfalls of traditional investment management benchmarks conventionally applied to insurance company asset management. In this article, we introduce EBIB Enterprise Based Investment Benchmarks™, which reflect individual insurer's business dynamics and multiple success drivers in conjunction with the entire spectrum of insurer eligible capital market opportunities.

General ReView - Insurers' Equity Investments: Part 1 - Special Report (size: 0.08MB)

Issue: February, 2004 Language: English
Author: Jim Bachman
Summary: This is the first of four articles addressing equity investments by property/casualty insurance companies as of 2002. This article profiles equity ownership and the attributes of the holdings. General ReView, published by General Re-New England Asset Management,Inc., (GR-NEAM) provides review and comment on current investment and capital management subjects impacting the insurance industry.

General ReView - Insurers' Equity Investments: Part 2 - Special Report (size: 0.16MB)

Issue: May, 2004 Language: English
Author: Jim Bachman
Summary: This is the second of four articles addressing equity investments by property/casualty insurance companies as of 2003. This article presents an enterprise risk framework as a means to determine an appropriate range of equity allocation. General ReView, published by General Re-New England Asset Management,Inc., (GR-NEAM) provides review and comment on current investment and capital management subjects impacting the insurance industry.

General ReView - Investment Results in 2001: Managing the Challenges Ahead (size: 0.09MB)
Issue: November, 2002 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Available as PDF only. Hard copies no longer available. Managing the Challenges Ahead - Last year was a difficult year for insurers' investment results. This article addresses the challenges of achieving investment objectives in an increasingly difficult environment.

General ReView - Life/Health Fixed Income Investments - 2002 (size: 0.08MB)
Issue: June, 2003 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: This issue examines results and trends in recent fixed-income performance of the life/health industry. It finds an overall decrease in yields and a decline in portfolio credit quality. It also reviews industry diversification levels and highlights the key factors of portfolio diversification.

General ReView - Life/Health Fixed-Income Investments - 2001 (size: 0.06MB)

Issue: October, 2002 Language: English
Author: Jim Bachman
Summary: **Available as PDF only. Hard copies no longer available.** This issue examines results and trends in recent fixed-income performance of the life/health industry. It notes an overall decrease in yields and a decline in portfolio credit quality. It also highlights the tension between the drive for portfolio yield and the risk consequences involved.

General ReView - Medical Specialty Providers' 2001 Investment Comparative (size: 0.07MB)
Issue: November, 2002 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Available as PDF only. Hard copies no longer available. This article is an update focusing upon investment results for 2001 of Medical Specialty Providers and the entirety of the Property/Casualty industry.

General ReView - Operating Margins, Leverage and Return on Equity: A Framework for Evaluation (size: 0.09MB)
Issue: October, 2001 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Available as PDF only. Hard copies no longer available. October 2001 Issue No. 12 - A basic framework to enable companies to examine alternative strategies to improve after-tax returns and their impact upon leverage and financial solidity.

General ReView - P&C Industry Fixed Income Benchmark Management: An Expensive Proposition (size: 0.08MB)

Issue: March, 2003 Language: English
Author: Jim Bachman
Summary: Conventional fixed income performance benchmarking relies upon measures and standards which are most often not relevant to insurance companies, and in fact, might lead to behavior which lessens insurers' income and surplus accumulation over the long-term. Awareness of this circumstance is the first step to developing benchmarks which more accurately reflect the unique needs of insurers.

General ReView - Partitioning Investment Portfolios: Unintended Consequences of Ignoring Correlated Results (size: 0.50MB)
	Issue: November, 2004 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: The notion of partitioning property/casualty portfolios into three components: liquidity, reserve and capital is quite old. However, partitioning has the implicit underlying assumption that the correlation among the funds¿ assets and between the insurer¿s underwriting margins and asset class returns is nil.

General ReView - Property/Casualty Fixed Income Duration Targets: Another Myth? (size: 0.08MB)
	Issue: May, 2003 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Selecting duration targets can be as complicated as it is important and we believe material opportunities do exist to improve performance by revising duration targets.

General ReView - Property/Casualty Investment Results in 2002 (size: 0.09MB)
	Issue: October, 2003 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: This issue addresses domestic property/casualty companies' recent investment results through 2002. As before, the intention is that this review might be useful to insurers to gauge their results and plan ongoing investment strategies in an increasingly difficult investment environment.

General ReView - Reinsurance: A Capital Management Opportunity to Improve Financial Performance (size: 0.13MB)

Issue: October, 2001 Language: English
Author: Jim Bachman
Summary: **Available as PDF only. Hard copies no longer available.** General ReView, published by General Re-New England Asset Management,Inc., (GR-NEAM) provides review and comment on current investment and capital management subjects impacting the insurance industry. This issue highlights reinsurance as a means to improve individual company after-tax return on equity while at the same time enhancing financial solidity.

General ReView - Total Return Myth (size: 0.11MB)
Issue: July, 1999 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Available as PDF only. Hard copies no longer available. Total Return Myth - This newsletter focuses upon the value of realized capital gains.

General ReView - Total Return Myth - An Additional Consideration (size: 0.07MB)
Issue: October, 2000 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Available as PDF only. Hard copies no longer available. This article provides two updates to prior editions. First we summarize the realized fixed income gains of the property/casualty industry in 1999; and second, we identify the yield pick-up required to recapture surplus lost to realized bond gains.

General ReView - Total Return Myth - Revisited (size: 0.13MB)
Issue: July, 1999 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Available as PDF only. Hard copies no longer available. Total Return Myth-Revisited - This newsletter highlights 1998 realized capital gains.

General ReView - Total Return Myth: 2000 Update (size: 0.05MB)
Issue: September, 2001 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Available as PDF only. Hard copies no longer available. This issue provides an update to the financial consequences of realizing capital gains within the property/casualty industry by asset class.

General ReView - Turnover and Taxes (size: 0.53MB)
Issue: September, 1999 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Available as PDF only. Hard copies no longer available. Turnover and Taxes - This newsletter focuses upon turnover due only to investment considerations.

General ReView - Variations in Statutory Taxes: An Opportunity? (size: 0.03MB)
Issue: March, 2000 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Available as PDF only. Hard copies no longer available. This issue covers the causes of variations in statutory taxes.

General ReView -- 2006 Investment Results: Comparisons and Holdings (size: 0.62MB)

Issue: November, 2007 Language: English
Author: Jim Bachman
Summary: Individual company asset allocations, investment yields and their associated risks continue to show wide deviations from industry averages. These differences often reflect operational needs and might be the consequence of affiliation with multi-line/global operations rather than domestic property/casualty company risk capacity.

General ReView -- 2006 Life Investment Results: Allocations, Returns and Risk (size: 0.55MB)
	Issue: December, 2007 Language: English Author: Jim Bachman Summary: Our focus for this publication is on recent fixed-income portfolio yields and risk metrics of Life insurers. We examine these in the context of Life insurers product emphasis.