(Reuters)—The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. warned on Monday that its third-quarter catastrophe losses would be substantially higher than a year earlier, mostly as a result of last month's Hurricane Irene.
The Hartford, Conn.-based insurer, in a slide presentation for a Barclays Capital conference, said it expects pretax catastrophe losses for July and August of $150 million to $250 million, of which $75 million to $175 million comes from Irene.
A Hartford spokesman said Chief Executive Liam McGee told the Barclays conference the company was "well positioned" to handle the losses, which were within the scenarios it looked at for catastrophes.
In the third quarter of 2010, in which no hurricanes made landfall in the United States, Hartford's catastrophe losses were $13 million.
For most insurers, though, disaster losses this year have far exceeded expectations and historical comparison. Between Irene, devastating tornadoes in April and May, drought and a severe winter, many U.S. insurers have already lost well more in 2011 than they lost in 2010.
Worldwide, insurers lost more than $70 billion just in the first six months of the year due to natural disasters, reinsurer Swiss Reinsurance Co. Ltd. has said.
As those disasters work their way through the insurance industry, insurers have had some success raising rates on their customers after years of price weakness.
At the same Barclays conference on Monday, Travelers Cos. Inc said it was having success raising rates in the third quarter on business and personal lines. In business insurance in particular, the company saw a sharp increase through the end of August in premiums for policies that were being renewed.
Hartford shares fell sharply at the open before rebounding and were flat in late-morning trade. Shares of Travelers fell 0.7%. The sector was broadly lower, with 20 of the 22 companies in the S&P insurance index declining.